Brown: Fall & Decline Variant 6, Rebecca Myers, Sarah Moyer, Elisa Sutherland, Steven Bradshaw, James Reese, Daniel Schwar

With Gregory Brown’s FALL AND DECLINE on Navona Records, the composer chronicles the heights to which humanity can soar—but also the depths to which it may come crashing down. Scored for the solo voices of virtuosic vocal sextet Variant 6 and electronics, the sounds range from typical choral textures (though peppered with microtones) to angular and aggressive electronic soundscapes. The lyrics may span two-and-a-half millennia, but their spirit and subjects are abiding: humankind’s struggle against the limitations of time, conflict, inevitable decay. Persian rulers of the fifth century BCE, Baroque historians, poets of the Victorian age, contemporary wordsmiths, they are all caught in a grander, timeless labor—as is every one of us. FALL AND DECLINE is a stern reminder of Humanity’s ephemerality, but even more, it’s a harbinger of hope, a celebration of creative endeavors despite perpetual adversity.