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Re-cycle, Re-view, Sing New

Michael Zwiebach on June 9, 2009
San Francisco Choral Artists

Artists, along with dung beetles and leafcutter ants, are among the most efficient recyclers in the world. They’re always creating new works out of old, so much so that we have literally dozens of words to describe the process — remix, cover, troping, parody, and so on.

In their upcoming concerts, Re-Cycle, Re-Sing, Sing New the San Francisco Choral Artists perform new works that give you some insight into the artistic process as well as being entertaining on their own. Lluvia/ Primavera takes a poem by California poet Lucha Corpi, and sets it to music taken from a 19th-century Spanish folksong.

Funeral Sentences is a choral remix of a piece by Henry Purcell, the 17th-century English composer. And then there’s my favorite, based on the title, Missa L’Homme on the Range, which gives “Home on the Range” the 16th-century polyphony treatment, a la Palestrina. Dress retro and enjoy.