Designation & Expulsion

Designation & Expulsion (2018) for mezzo-soprano, bass and percussion.

Performed by mezzo-soprano Lucy Goddard, bass Jimmy Holliday and percussionist Philipp Lamprecht at the Royaumont Abbey, France on the 8th of September 2018.

Designation & Expulsion (2018) uses the text of pagan Lithuanian charms from the book Lithuanian Verbal Healing Charms (2008) compiled by Daiva Vaitkevičienė. The author apply a classification of charms, two of them being Designation and Expulsion. 

Composition explores a relationship between the sounding of a word and its emotional impact of meaning. The stretching of words is used until the loss of their concept and the gain of a different effect is achieved exploring the sounding of Lithuanian diphthongs. Harmonically percussion and voices are interlinked and only few intervals dominate the composition while the rich Lithuanian consonants are orchestrated with the non pitched percussion.

Composition draws inspiration from repetitive and austere manner of saying charm formulas.

Designation & Expulsion appears on the album Between Music and Ritual (2021) recorded in Lithuania.

Designation & Expulsion was performed by:

2018.09.08: Lucy Goddard (Mzs), Jimmy Holliday (B) & Philipp Lamprecht (perc) at the Royaumont Abbey, France.

2020.09.17: Justina Gringytė (Mzs), Nerijus Masevičius (B) & Andrius Rekašius (perc) at Mama studios  Vilnius, Lithuania.

Reviews of Designation & Expulsion

Jeunes compositeurs à l’Académie Voix Nouvelles de Royaumont

Notre coup de cœur, dans ce premier concert, est pour la Lituanienne Justina Repečkaité. Designation & Expulsion pour mezzo, basse et percussion est un travail aussi fin qu’efficace sur la sonorité des mots et leur pouvoir émotionnel, dans un caractère ritualisant, rejoignant d’une certaine façon les joutes verbales des Inuits.

Michèle Tosi

Les jeunes compositeurs de l’académie Voix nouvelles

Avec Designation & Expulsion, Justina Repečkaitė investit les fréquences les plus basses du spectre acoustique, confiées naturellement à la tessiture vocale la plus grave, secondée par un mezzo-soprano. Les chants païens lituaniens, qui forment la matière textuelle, élaborent un magma de diphtongues et de borborygmes sur un caressant lit percussif, favorisant une décantation incantatoire habilement extraite de la fonction rituelle primitive de la source comme de la documentation ethnographique.

Gilles Charlassier

Album

Designation & Expulsion (2018) was recorded by mezzo-soprano Justina Gringytė, bass Nerijus Masevičius and percussionist Andrius Rekašius for the album Between Music and Ritual published by Music Information Center.

Between Music and Ritual album’s curator Vítězslav Mikeš chose works that demonstrate “the ritual quality of music” to a certain extent:

“I endeavoured to make an album that would feature composers across the age spectrum and works across a variety of genres including instrumental and vocal, orchestral and chamber, acoustic and electronic, improvised and folk music combined with contemporary writing. In other words, my intention was to show Lithuanian contemporary music as a diverse, vibrant and stimulating scene, which is truly is.”

Read the curator’s interview in Lithuanian on Music Information Center‘s website.

Listen to the radioshow Sound expedition where Rasa Murauskaitė holds an interview with the curator Vítězslav Mikeš and project manager from Music Information Center Radvilė Buivydienė presenting the album. Singers Justina Gringytė and Nerijus Masevičius speak about recording of Designation & Expulsion.

Buy the album from www.musiclithuania.com and follow Music Information Center on Instagram #sounds.like.lithuania.

Beautifully shot presentation of Designation & Expulsion where performers Justina Gringytė (mezzo-soprano), Nerijus Masevičius (bass), and Andrius Rekašius (percussion) talk about their experience while rehearsing.