In this film, “Sarah Davachi: Timbre, Texture, and Tone at The Cathedral,” artist and composer Sarah Davachi invites listeners to feel a sounds’ texture and touch to understand the relationship between the acoustics and constructions within a space. In following her journey of discovery with the organ and synthesizer, the film creates a dialogue for the overlooked overtones and harmonics within compositions that only these precise instruments can bring to the front and sustain over time. With a recorded performance at The Cathedral acting as the film arc’s thread, Sarah discusses with delicate precision the organ’s working parts, illustrating how it functions as a breathing object that changes with each user it interacts with. By allowing a sound to be extended and lingered, new experiences are created for the listeners and the environment that the tone inhabits. In this film, Sarah challenges the use of minimalism, a codeword for simplicity, by producing a friction between harmony and acoustic instability.
The Cathedral (First Congregational Church of Los Angeles) was founded in 1867, completed in 1932, and is the oldest Protestant church in continuous service in Los Angeles. It was designed by Los Angeles architects James E. and David C. Allison in the gothic revival style and built of reinforced concrete and is reminiscent of the tower of Oxford University’s Magdalen College. The Great Organs at The Cathedral, with over 18,000 speaking pipes, is one of the largest pipe organs in the world and is an instrument appreciated by organ aficionados for its complexity, grandeur, and remarkable sound. The Cathedral’s music program aims to focus on influential secular artists whose message aligns with The Cathedral’s focus on justice, equity, inclusion and love as a core to spirituality.
Sarah Davachi is a composer and performer whose work is concerned with the close intricacies of timbral and temporal space, utilizing extended durations and considered harmonic structures that emphasize gradual variations in texture, overtone complexity, psychoacoustic phenomena, and tuning and intonation. Her compositions span solo, chamber ensemble, and acousmatic formats, incorporating a wide range of acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Similarly informed by minimalist and longform tenets, early music concepts of form and harmony, as well as experimental production practices of the studio environment, in her sound is an intimate and patient experience that lessens perceptions of the familiar and the distant. Davachi is currently a doctoral candidate in musicology at UCLA, focusing on timbre, phenomenology, and critical organology, and is based in Los Angeles, California.
Crew Credits –
Production:
SCI-Arc Channel Creator and Executive Producer – Hernán Díaz Alonso
SCI-Arc Channel Executive Producer – Reza Monahan
SCI-Arc Channel Creative Director – William Virgil
Segment Producer – Tim Leanse
Director – Reza Monahan
Director of Photography – Walker Sayen
B Camera – Evan Yee
C Camera – Victor Davey
Swing Tech – Alina Arustamyan
Production Sound Engineer – Chris Trueman
Post-Production:
Story Producer – Chandler Kilgore-Parshall
Editors – Walker Sayen/Reza Monahan
Additional Images Provided by Sarah Davachi
Special thanks to Reneice Edwards and The Cathedral (First Congregational Church of Los Angeles)
©2024 SCI-Arc Channel
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