Tarik O'Regan's "Mass Observation" Premiered by U-M Chamber Choir and Percussion Ensemble

Note from the conductor, Jerry Blackstone:

Several years ago, when the possibility of commissioning a major new work for the Chamber Choir was raised, I knew right away that Tarik O’Regan was the composer with whom I wanted to work on this project. With generous support from the William K. and Delores S. Brehm Choral Commissioning Fund and the Barbara Abramoff Levy Fund, Tarik and I began the process of choosing performing forces and determining the focus of the textual subject matter. Tarik was particularly interested in the ideas of watching and listening, subjects that are even more timely now than when we first started dreaming about the piece.

It is always a privilege to bring a new work to life. We interacted with the composer in rehearsal, we heard the music out loud for the very first time, and the students grew immeasurably in their understanding and communication of the piece. To do this with one of the leading composers of our generation is deeply inspiring. We are all grateful for the opportunity to add a magnificent new work to the choral repertoire, and for the joy and inspiration we have had in the process.

Note from the composer, Tarik O'Regan:

Mass Observation is a meditation on the histories of our varied, ambivalent relationships with surveillance in its myriad guises. The use of technologies that sate our desires to be watched and heard (safety, tracking, empowerment, and pride) has, in some sense, always been weighed against our anxieties around invasions of privacy (physical and psychological harm, hacking, subjugation, and embarrassment).

The work takes its title from the British social research organization Mass-Observation, which aimed to record everyday life in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1937, Mass-Observation controversially paid investigators to anonymously record people’s conversation and behavior at work, on the street, and at various public occasions, including public meetings, sporting, and religious events.

Scored for chorus and percussion sextet, Mass Observation ebbs and flows between various polarities (human voices and percussion instruments, pitched and unpitched sounds, clear and opaque tonalities) over the course of its thirteen movements. There is a ritualistic nature to the overall pacing of the work, reminiscent of a liturgical mass setting. The two groups of musicians are rarely aligned: for much of the piece they watch and listen to one another in silence.

(The piece begins at 3:40.)