On this week’s episode of In Unison, we focus our discussion on a specific composition and its premiere performance:  the remarkable “Mass Observation” by composer Tarik O’Regan, premiered in 2017 by the University of Michigan Chamber Choir and Percussion Ensemble, under the direction of Jerry Blackstone.

Episode transcript

Music Excerpts

• Mass Observation, by Tarik O’Regan, performed by the University of Michigan Chamber Choir and Percussion Ensemble under the direction of Jerry Blackstone.

Episode references

• Tarik O’Regan
• “Oresteian Trilogy,” by Darius Milhaud  
• British Mass Observation Program
• Poet Kathleen Raine, “Threshold of Night”
• Panopticon
• “Ecstasies Above,” by Tarik O’Regan
• We Are the Music Makers
• Yale Club of D.C. Events
• Philharmonia Baroque & Richard Egarr
• Choral Singing in America (documentary)
• Slapslap
• Tanner Tanyeri

Theme Song: Mr. Puffy by Avi Bortnik, arr. by Paul Kim. Performed by Dynamic