MICHAEL ZEV GORDON (b. 1963)Into the Dark (2014)

This chapter looks at Michael Zev Gordon’s Into the Dark (2014). Michael Zev Gordon is a composer of consistency, rigour, and broad sympathies, now rightfully gaining wide recognition for his exceptional gifts. This unique and important work is packed with invention and sustains its length admirably. It typifies the polish, clarity, and fastidiousness of his writing. The piece celebrates a groundbreaking collaboration between the worlds of science, medicine, and music, in the form of a research study into consciousness under anaesthesia. There is no avoiding the fact that an exceptional singer is needed, but the challenge is surely a rewarding one. The flexible mezzo/contralto is frequently called upon to display security at both extremes of the range. The deepest notes, well below the stave, are used to especially telling effect. The higher tessitura, too, has to be well focused through some blazing high points, especially during the piece’s latter stages, where the singer can give rein to vocal opulence, once liberated from the tight controls and microscopic details that predominate earlier.