"Brekekekéx koáx koáx!"
YEAR: 2021
MEDIUM: Song for vocalist and harpist, video, vinyl score
FUNDING: More Than Ponies, Page Not found
“Brekekekéx koáx koáx!” is a song that acts as a futile, ritualistic attempt to resurrect an extinct (in the British wild) species.
The last known colony of the Common Tree Frog (Hyla arborea) in the British wild lived in Hilltop Pond, Dorset. In 1988, the last male was found far away from the pond calling a lonely “Brekekekéx koáx koáx!” for a non-existent female. Using astrological predictions for 1988 as an attempt to retroactively foresee the extinction, this new, ritual song rewrites the lyrics of the oldest surviving secular love song in the English language, ‘Bryd one Brere’.
The piece borrows its name from the Ancient Greek comedy ‘The Frogs’. During a choral interlude, the onomatopoeic cry of “Brekekekéx koáx koáx!” marks the only time that the titular frogs are heard. They exist only to annoy the protagonist, who tries his best to eliminate their sound. He eventually manages to silence them with a monstrous fart.
Credits
Singer: Elisenda Pujals.
Harpist: Louise Ubbels
Commissioned by: More than Ponies, New Forest (UK) for ‘Art and the Rural Imagination’.
Re-commissioned by: Page Not Found, Den Haag (NL) as a vinyl window display and live performance as part of the ‘Open Letters’ series.
The score for “Brekekekéx koáx koáx!”.
Stills of video that accompanies “Brekekekéx koáx koáx!” performance. Filmed at Hilltop Pond, the last known colony of the Common Tree Frog (Hyla arborea) in the British wild.
The score for “Brekekekéx koáx koáx!” as a vinyl window display at Page Not Found, The Hague.
