Funky like a monkey

There are few sounds in the nature that are more beautiful than song of a gibbon. Swedish composer Jan Sandström obviously agrees as his piece from 1991 called The Singing Apes of Khao Yai is based on gibbon songs. The piece had it's UK premier last month by the The London Gay Men's Chorus.

The piece is constructed around a male gibbon's song in the jungles of Thailand. Legend tells of a princess who deceived her husband and, in punishment, was transformed into a gibbon who had to sing his lament in the forest every morning. The work must be sung with the testosterone supply fully open; wildly but rhythmically precise. The breathing of the choir should be planned ahead of time, with the voices ideally in choral pairs, and the tenor solo part should be sung wearing an ape-mask, and should be placed in the midst of the other tenors, not on the outside of the choir.

They played a piece of it yesterday morning in the radio and it sounded lovely. Maybe not quite like gibbons, but the inspiration could definetly be heard.

From GayLinkNews.com.

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