For the next two weeks, the Getty will will preview a work-in-progress draft of our hymns. These in-development videos are being presented as a part of the Getty’s Theater Lab.
The completed album is now available for streaming and purchase via bandcamp.
An album of new music and accompanying videos; seven chapters from Four Larks‘ live production Hymns, adapted for at-home audiences. The music was recorded in individual artists’ homes during the COVID19 lockdowns and the accompanying videos were created over five days in an empty Getty Villa.
The Homeric Hymns, among the oldest extant poems from the ancient mediterranean, tell the stories of Demeter & Persephone, of Semele & the lightning storm, of Dionysus & the wine-dark sea, and the cycles of the sun and moon. Our adaptations, sounded through a prism of devotional music traditions spanning centuries and continents, draw on these primordial texts to navigate our collective responsibility to the earth and one another, to dream of what we can do together, and to cope with being apart. Join us as we seek out new modes of congregation and resound these ancient praise songs to the gods we need today.
After a long season of hibernation and loss, we’re pleased to share this music and preview these videos with you. Working in this new medium, alongside so many incredible collaborative artists, has presented an auspicious opportunity to develop this project, which we hope to premiere as both a live performance and completed film in 2022/23.