Two Songs for Unaccompanied Voice

Notes

Very little is known about the Two Songs for Unaccompanied Voice beyond what is discernible from the score itself.

There is a loose stylistic link to the vocal writing in the first half of Keenan’s chamber cantata The Ruin, which was started in the same year that these songs were composed (1976).

Given the use of the countertenor here and in The Ruin, we can reasonably assess that Keenan was either very drawn to the particular qualities and sonorities produced by the countertenor voice, or that there was a countertenor at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) for whom he especially composed.

There is no record of a performance, though it seems likely that the composer will have heard this in some form: every other work from this period at RNCM was performed in concert and recorded. Given the songs’ portability, being both unaccompanied solo and relatively compact (particularly the first of the two), it feels unlikely that Keenan would not have either worked with a countertenor directly or had them workshopped.

Performance Materials

A new edition of the Two Songs for Unaccompanied Voice is forthcoming.