Arcade Fire Member, Nico Muhly Write Orchestral Piece

10/20/09 11:42am

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry and composer Nico Muhly have written an orchestral composition titled "For Heart And Breath And Orchestra."

Perry and Muhly will perform the piece with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony at Toronto's Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory Of Music as part of Muhly's "Nico's Choice" event.

According to performance notes on the Royal Conservatory Of Music's website, the composition is the third in a series which uses the body's "automatic/involuntary muscles" like the lungs and heart to perform.

"All of the notes are read from a score, but the tempos at which they are played are all governed by either the heart rate or breathing rate of the individual players, or the conductor," the notes read.

"During the performance, many of the performers wear stethoscopes which enable them to play in synch with their own heartbeats. At other times the performers play directly in synch with their own individual breathing, or are cued by the conductor who uses his/her own breath rate to determine the tempo."

Reed isn't the first member of the already somewhat symphonic Arcade Fire to write an orchestral composition. Earlier this year, it was revealed Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler, Butler's wife and multi-instrumentalist Regine Chassagne and Owen "Final Fantasy" Pallett will score the film The Box. You can hear a track from the score on the film's website.

Arcade Fire are working on their third album, but it's not clear when it will be released.