Via Vitae - (a way of life)
Repleti Sumus and Sound of Silenced
Quarr Abbey, Quay Arts & Re-Box galleries 2024 - The Ryde Art Collective
The passage of time from moments to millennia was explored in two below works for the Via Vitae exhibition in 2024 developed as part of a site specific exhibition for the Benedictine Quarr Abbey. Monks spend much time in silent contemplation and prayer, which to an outsider is rather unique and hard to imagine. The only place for music in their lives is sacred worship, normally unaccompanied male voice chant. A sketchbook film was shown.
Repleti Sumus Film stills
Sound of Silenced Organ pipe installation with sound (sensor activated)
Repleti Sumus is a film comprising an original recording of the Repleti sumus chant by the Quarr Abbey monks mixed with a new piano accompaniment and with a visual animation of old neumes and later notation of neumes in the Vatican Graduale Romanum. Early music was passed on as an oral tradition with repetition and use before simple notation in the form of neumes, a series of gestural marks meant to give wider expression to God’s word but without rhythmic overlay or complexity. The French Solesmes founding order of Quarr were responsible for transcribing the accepted version of all chants in use today
Sound of Silenced comprises an installation of obsolete wooden organ pipes which can be heard sounding the ‘Alleluia’ section of the monophonic Repleti sumus chant by sensor activation. Quarr Abbey’s French organ is believed to be one of the finest in Europe and is in restored condition, yet this contrasts with the demise of so many local church organs throughout the UK. The obsolete pipes have come from two such overlooked organs where they were beyond any economic hope of restoration
An Artist’s Life in 2020 Sketchbook film
The Sketchbook film documents artistic thinking relating to the Via Vitae Quarr Abbey project including an unrealised but hoped for dream to play the glorious Toccata pour Orgue (Widor) on the Abbey’s French instrument. It begins with a maquette of the Abbey at night with a thunderous crescendo of the Toccata by expert organist Frederick Hohman.
The remaining film is dedicated to the twinning of two organs – The Abbey’s and a soon to be dismantled smaller organ situated locally in Ryde. Some of the pipes were eventually used to make the ‘Sound of silenced’ artwork and the keyboard was salvaged to become an escape room game component with in-built hidden technology. The film sound overlay is a rehearsal and chance recording of Widor’s Toccata before covid lockdown as played on the organ just prior to its sad dismantling.
