Ipsa Vita (2018)

treble a cappella choir (SSSSAA)

The Fredonia Camerata
Vernon Huff, conductor

Recorded live. April 22, 2018 | King Concert Hall
Rockefeller Arts Center | State University of New York at Fredonia
Fredonia, New York

Program Note

Written for Vernon Huff and the Fredonia Camerata between semesters of the 2017–2018 academic year, Ipsa Vita is an a cappella setting of a Latin quote attributed to mime-writer Publilius Syrus, a contemporary of Marcus Tullius Cicero. The quote, “Brevis ipsa vita est sed malis fit longior,” has an unsettling resonance when uttered in this second decade of the 21st century. After a seemingly interminable year of political and social instability—with crisis both real and imagined...exaggerated and suppressed...hidden and revealed—the idea that our perceived temporal existence can be modulated with such ease—by strategic sound bites and misinformation—gives rise to many questions regarding our media-saturated consumer culture...and the future of social interaction in the digital age.