The Source by Ted Hearne
From composer, singer, and bandleader Ted Hearne, The Source is a data-obsessed, modern day oratorio written for 7 instrumentalists and 5 singers including Hearne himself. The Source explores the life and story of U.S. Army Private Chelsea Manning, and the content and implications of the hundreds of thousands of classified military documents she infamously leaked to WikiLeaks. Like Hearne's previous release for New Amsterdam, the widely hailed Katrina Ballads, The Source draws on a litany of primary source texts (stitched together by librettist Mark Doten) – including Twitter feeds, cable news interviews, chat transcripts and declassified military reports. It’s “creatively ambitious, genre-smashing music distinctive not only for its attention to topical issues, but also for its uncommon way of dealing with them” (Los Angeles Review of Books).
The piece premiered as a multimedia production (directed by Daniel Fish) at the BAM Next Wave Festival in 2014, and received rave reviews in The Wall Street Journal, Opera News, among others.
"The music, like the text, draws from diverse sources," Hearne says of the piece. "Auto-tuned recitatives, neo-soul ballads, icy string trios and moments of cracked-out musical theater are peppered with (and sometimes structured around) samples that bridge sonic worlds." Referential shards ranging from Big Boi's interpolation of Soul II Soul to Clay Aiken's revisitation of The Threepenny Opera cut through and against texts from military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to create new ways of experiencing the polyphony of our globally interconnected world. "As a whole, the album is a pleasantly uncomfortable listen—challenging us to confront ideas of gender, war and music itself through dazzling fireworks of sound. This isn’t easy territory, but it was never meant to be” (New York Times).
Tracklist
| 1. | [EXPLOSIVE HAZARD] | 7:49 |
| 2. | Oh The Shark | 3:21 |
| 3. | [Trust Logs] | 3:35 |
| 4. | s/as boy/as a boy | 3:57 |
| 5. | [A young boy released several pigeons] | 3:41 |
| 6. | Julian in a Nutshell | 7:44 |
| 7. | [CRIMINAL EVENT] | 2:32 |
| 8. | Interlude: Don't want to be a part | 1:52 |
| 9. | Complex Keys | 4:23 |
| 10. | [Smoke When Bird Nears] | 6:10 |
| 11. | [The marine that engaged] | 3:28 |
| 12. | [We called for illumination at 1630] | 5:35 |
| 13. | I encrypt as much as I can | 7:50 |
Credits
vocalists:
Ted Hearne
Mellissa Hughes
Samia Mounts
Isaiah Robinson
Jonathan Woody
Courtney Orlando, violin
Anne Lanzilotti, viola
Leah Coloff, cello
Taylor Levine, electric guitar
Greg Chudzik, electric bass
Ron Wiltrout, drums
Nathan Koci, music director/keyboards
Produced by Nick Tipp, with Jesse Lewis and Ted Hearne
Jesse Lewis, editing, recording engineer
Kyle Pyke, recording engineer
Philip White, live vocal processing engineer
Tom Kennedy, engineering assistant
Nick Tipp, mixing
Ryder Bach, mix assistant
Carl Saff, mastering
Seth Gadsden, art
Laura Grey, graphic design
The interactive use of autotune in The Source was developed by Ted Hearne and Philip White in their work as the vocal/electronics duo R WE WHO R WE.
This album was made possible by the generous commissioning support of Raulee Marcus and Stephen A. Block.
License
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. See the Creative Commons website for details.
Ted Hearne is a composer, singer and bandleader.
The New York Times has praised. Hearne for his "tough edge and wildness of spirit," and "topical, politically sharp-edged works." Pitchfork called Hearne's work "some of the most expressive socially engaged music in recent memory -- from any genre."