Institutions of the Flesh
Institutions of the Flesh was commissioned by, and co-created with, Trondheim-based Alpaca Ensemble. It is a music-theatre piece for piano, cello and vocalist that explores relationships between the human voice, our bodies and the social structures in which we live. It is about how each and every breath we take connects us to the institutions of love, labour, devotion and dissent that have shaped human history.
Imagine that in every song we sing, the first human utterance can be heard. Feel the sensation of muscles contracting, a gasp of air being expelled and imagine the thread that connects us right back to the first ever sounds we made – those primaeval howls of pain, pleasure, anger, protestation and maybe even love. Then slowly, slowly, slowly these howls, yelps, screams and moans evolved into songs that shape the way we live.
The kinetic forces that made these songs – this music – happen, are as old as those that brought fish from the oceans. Older, perhaps. The forces that connect a mournful melody to the drawing of horsehair across the gut string of a cello are also present in the soft descent of rainfall, the violent eruption of volcanoes and the fragile beating of a bird’s wing. It is present in each and every angel we depict, in our love and fear of gods and demons and even drives our abuse of power and exploitation of the earth.
Everything is motion, everything is connected and everything is collated and organised in the body. The first breath is everything.
Voice - Alwynne Pritchard, piano - Else Bø, cello - Marianne Baudouin Lie. Additional sound design - Thorolf Thuestad, lights - Stephen Lunn. Venice lockdown audio recorded by Michele Braga.
With texts by Alwynne Pritchard, William Blake and Heine Müller.
As I feel the air vibrating, I listen with my hand.
I feel the song I sing with both my heart and my hand.
And my hand, my heart, in turn, drive me to song.
Institutions of the Flesh was developed in collaboration with Neither Nor with funds from Bergen kommune. It has been presented by Avgarde at Cornerteateret, Bergen and by nyMusikk Trondheim at Trykkeriet for ONLY CONNECT festival, 2023.
Photos: Thor Egil Leirtrø and Laimonas Puisys.