2010 History of Events

Preview announced for Steampunk Operetta

We are proud to announce that our second "creative residency" undertaken by Inventing Earth has found a sponsor. Read more.

Hildegard's antiphon "O felix anima" transcribed

One of the Hildegard chants used without alteration (but sung over a drone with text from the libretto) is posted below, as rendered from the sampled instruments (software). No recording with voice yet. The transcription was made by Mary Lin and Ben Sargent from a facsimile of the Wiesbaden codex, a late 12th Century manuscript, also known as the Riesencodex.

O Felix anima1Alphorn by InventingEarth

The Greenest Branch Moves Ahead

Work on the score for The Greenest Branch is now 75% complete. Every scene is at least in rough, and approximately 30 numbers are now finished. One of the numbers is posted below (click through to SoundCloud for a description).

15 Winding the Bread (fever dream) by InventingEarth  

Labyrinth of Stars given on Winter Solstice 2010

We offered an evening of walking meditation on the Inventing Earth Labyrinth of Stars, hosted at Prescott College Chapel in Prescott, Arizona on Tuesday, 23 December, 2010.

Mary Lin Article on Integral Art

Art is science, with one eye open? Read more.

A Lan Ting in Honor of Kate Rinzler

The Flying Body Choir participated in a special event in honor of the life work of Kate Rinzler, singing five songs including "O frondens virga" by Hildegard von Bingen, a round from The Greenest Branch, and Captain Kidd, the shape-note American hymn, no. 50 in The Sacred Harp. The group also participated in a "Puppet Uprising" of Bread & Puppet style large puppets created by Kate that will also play a role in the The Greenest Branch, an opera under collaborative development as the first creative residency sponsored by Inventing Earth. Here is Kate singing with the choir in Captain Kidd, or "Through All the World Below:"

LanTing Through-All-the-World-Below by The Flying Body Choir

The Flying Body Choir Helps to Open Festival

The Flying Body Choir performed at the historic kickoff for the 2010 Thumb Butte Festival at Courthouse Square in Prescott, Arizona on September 24, 2010. The event officially launched the run-up to the Arizona Centennial. The experimental vocal ensemble joined Rita Cantu and Jonathan Best on stage for music written by those composer-songwriters, both of whom are also members of the choir. On Sunday, September 26, 2010 The Flying Body Choir also performed a full set at the Prescott Public Library as part of the Mad Linguist event schedule during the Festival.

The Greenest Branch

We've received "first ink" on the opera -- an article in the Daily Courier in Prescott, Arizona, where a staged reading of the opera's libretto takes place on September 17, 2010 at 7:30pm at the Wild Iris Coffeehouse.

The Flying Body Choir

The Flying Body Choir has been invited to perform at both private and public events in Prescott during September 2010. Our open weekly sings have been suspended for the next month as we ready our performance repertoire. We will be singing music from the Medieval and Renaissance periods as well as contemporary music, including Hildegard's O frondens virga and the shape-note classic "Through all the world below" (Southern Harmony no.50).

Spring Workshop Series

Visit the Forum page to hear clips from the "Singing Hildegard" workshop in Prescott, AZ on May 4, 2010.

Inventing Earth Spring Singing Workshops were held in April and May 2010. Stay tuned for fall 2010 series and more for the spring of 2011.

First opera-based collaboration completed

In March 2010, Inventing Earth composers Mary Lin and Ben Sargent created a commissioned work on a topic suggested by a sponsor based in the U.K. "The Milk Maid's Lament" is a recitative and aria in late 19th Century style based in part on the style of Puccini but also drawing on Celtic and British pastoral elements fitting to the subject matter. The libretto and music were developed collaboratively under the Inventing Earth "IP Framework" by Mary Lin and Ben Sargent.

Labyrinth Walk

Held at Prescott College Sanctuary, Solstice, Dec. 21, 2009, with music performed by Peter Dorsey and Mary Lin. Labyrinth painted by Mary Lin.