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At the gates of hell, the stones instruct Orpheus not to sing there “unless you sing in a dead language” — so Hopkins and Orlinski duly start intoning Latin, in a parody of medieval plainchant.

The vocal settings are plain as well, with qualities again of Glass and Satie, along with hints of Robert Ashley, Broadway, elemental pop song and plainchant.

There’s been a plainchant from women for the last 30 years that our roles are tedious to play.

“Partita for 8 Voices” is a pattern book of vocal styles: its movements are stitched together from plainchant, percussive breathing, Early American hymnody, and half a dozen other techniques.

He took a daringly slow tempo in this opening passage, a solemn, low theme in chords that hints at modal plainchant.