Chamber choir Voces Novae performs concert using instruments fashioned from recyclables

Bloomington-based group Voces Novae not only focuses on recycling materials, but also focuses on recycling and transforming music in new ways.\nThe group of 20 singers and five instrumentalists and an additional two percussionists performed Sunday night in a storage shelter at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore Center, 300 W. 11th St. \nHowever, their performance didn’t consist of typical musical instruments, as the instruments were fashioned from recycled materials. \nThe group formed more than a decade ago to enrich audiences’ daily experiences with music and the arts, said conductor and artistic director Susan Swaney.\n For this performance, the chamber choir used the theme of recycling to illustrate the transformative properties of music.\nPercussion consisted of wooden blocks, empty coffee cans and two “bottlephones,” made from blue, clear, green and brown empty bottles that hung on tweed from metal hangars.\nThe conductor stand was made from black metal pedestal pulled from the street, held up by a crooked metal pipe. For decoration, a rusty gold chandelier hung from the pedestal, decorated with orange, green and red candles with black wicks and dried melted wax.\n“I was going to light them, but I was afraid of starting a fire,” Swaney joked to the crowd. The audience of more than 50 members laughed as they sat in mismatched chairs.\nShe did have reason to be concerned, as the singers’ sheet holders were made out of cardboard, the binding held together by rubber bands. The stage was also made out of old wooden panels stacked on top of one another.\nSwaney said the idea of the concert was to not only bring attention to the issue of recycling materials, but to also show how music is recyclable as well.\n“Music and art is transformative,” she said. “It’s a way of looking at the world. Hopefully, that’s what art does.”\nSwaney said the idea of the recycling and transformation concert came from her mother-in-law, Nancy Sewell Woollen. Swaney wrote a note in the brochure about Woollen and how her life was full of acts of recycling. Swaney writes about how her mother-in-law would have transformed five wild berries found by the roadside into a turnover. She also writes how Woollen transformed two sons into men, Swaney’s husband being one of them.\n“Mothers are great alchemists in seeing the possibilities in everything,” Swaney said.\nAudience members were encouraged to recycle their program brochures when they left.\nThe choir performed songs such as “Hear my Prayer, O Lord,” “The Farmer’s Boy,” “The Cries of London” and “Songs my Mother Taught Me,” showing their own musical transformations in each song, recycling other composers’ works.\nSoprano Maria Walker has been with Voces Novae for two years. She said she has gone through musical recycling, reusing and transforming herself while in the group, as she explained the evolution of \nher singing.\n“The human voice is always changing,” she said.\nAudience member William Reliford said he enjoyed the concert and gained a new perspective as he listened to Voces Novae.\n“I loved the magic of it,” he said. “There was a raw but sensual feel to the music.”\nSwaney asked percussionists and IU music doctoral students John Astaire and Chris Martin to perform with the group that night. The students put on a percussion improvisation using the “bottlephones,” a toilet paper dispenser, newspapers and coffee cans. They kicked an old vent, adding a gong to their interesting arrangement of instruments. They also crushed the coffee cans with their feet as they fell from the table.\nAt the end of their performance, one of the clear bottles fell and shattered on the concrete ground. Neither Astaire nor Martin would comment as to whether the break was \nintentional.\n“We’ll take that one to the grave,” Astaire said.\nSwaney said the group plans to perform for the opening of “The Grand Tour” exhibit Sept. 19 at the IU Art Museum to continue its mission.\n“The context in which you hear the music is very important,” Swaney said. “We hope to show the transformative possibilities of everything.”