music, science, and technology

This Sunday I will be performing Stravinsky's "L'histoire du soldat" (A Soldier's Tale) at Haverford. I've been rehearsing this piece for months, and since the beginning, I've known that our concert was shared with another group performing a different piece, called "A Lyric's Tale." I thought nothing of it, assuming from my experience that there's not a lot of music much 'stranger' than Stravinsky's. But at my dress rehearsal tonight, as they were setting up for both groups, I was surprised to see that there was a massive projector set up on stage with a projected video. At first I thought it was for another type of show, but I learned that it was actually meant for the performance of "A Lyric's Tale." I asked around and also read online later, but this is a very new piece (the composer calls it an "entertainment") that features baritone voice, a dancer, chamber orchestra, and this projected video. From my understanding, there is also a synthesizer in the instrumentation. Not only does this "entertainment" include the technology of projected video and the information of a musical score, but it tells a story of science and existentialism. Through the projected video and the baritone, the piece shares texts from the Bible and also secular writing from the 14th through 20th centuries. It references the works of figures such as Martin Luther, Sigmund Freud, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Teresa. From learning about this piece, it seems like a really interesting intersection between science, information, and technology. I look forward to seeing the performance on Sunday, and I hope to learn more about this intersection.