Bethlehem SA19 6YH

Scored for Choir S,A,T,B

Duration: 1' 40"

Bethlehem is a tiny village in Carmarthenshire (near where I live) which (of course) gains a large amount of media coverage during the Christmas period. This is a piece of site-specific, quasi-spiritual, choral music. The libretto chants the word "Bethlehem" repeatedly, whereas, the notes employed are derived from the latitude and longitude of the location, as follows;

The terms easting and northing are geographic Cartesian coordinates for a specific point. Easting refers to the eastward-measured distance (or the x-coordinate), while northing refers to the northward-measured distance (or the y-coordinate).

SA19 6YH = Easting: 268488, Northing: 225235
Using these measurements as intervallic distances, starting from middle C (where C = 0), the following tone row/cluster is produced;

Eastings: (2) d, (6) f#, (8) g#, (4) e, (8) g#, (8) g#
Northings: (2) d, (2) e, (5) a, (2) b, (3) d, (5) g

Available notes/scale: d, e, f#, g, g#, a, b,

Composition Details

Date: 2014

Composer: Nik Bizzell-Browning

Tags: Choral Music, SATB

Sheet Music (PDF) Download:
bethlehem_sa19_6yh.pdf

Copyright © 2014 Nik Bizzell-Browning