Caroline Shaw: Partita for 8 Voices

American composer Caroline Shaw’s *Partita for 8 Voices* arose from her work as a vocalist with the Roomful of Teeth ensemble and their experiments with unconventional styles of singing. For structure, Shaw uses four dance forms from the Baroque period, filling them with the most modern sounds imaginable. Sighs, grunts, whispers, murmurs, and shards of melody and harmony all combine with a fragmented spoken narrative in a teeming, 25-minute tapestry of unaccompanied vocal sound. It takes extraordinary virtuosity to perform it, and Roomful of Teeth succeeds exhilaratingly, with Shaw herself singing alto. *Partita for 8 Voices* won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013, not long after this recording was made, confirming it as an instant modern classic.