7. COMPOSITIONAL APPLICATIONS
After the theoretical analysis of the tools-concepts I have found through the examination of prelinguistic stage and aphasic disorders, I will analyze six pieces, composed between 2017-2024, in relation to the tools mentioned in the previous chapter. I will demonstrate, with specific audio and score examples, which and how these tools were applied. It is possible to click on a term in order to open a separate window with the term's analysis from chapter 6.
The pieces are arranged from the newest to the oldest. The reason I did this is because the more recent the piece, the more solid the application of the tools will be. I also considered the option of analyzing the tools not per piece, but per chapter (first prelinguistic language-related terms, then aphasia-related terms and so on), but the interconnection of many concepts in the same piece would be a serious obstacle to this kind of systematization. Also, the way the material is organized now, assists in a more effective contextulization of each of the tools mentioned.
Complementary information on the context of each work is supplied, in order to show the kind of dialogue these terms have with the context of the pieces. I do not however go through all the terms used in each piece, since this would create an endless list. For example, the influence of Byzantine music or ornamentation concepts frequently occur in all of the pieces, even though I do not mention them. The cases I mention are those that are the most prominent for each piece, those that give it its special colour and character.
The order of appearance of the terms in each piece relates to their importance for the piece.
Τhere are occasions in which more terms apply to a given example.
It also happens that a term is mentioned more than once, if it happens to apply, along with other terms, to a given example.
When a score is accompanied with audio or video examples, the audio/video usually starts where the score starts, but then continues further.
It is possible to listen to every individual piece by clicking under every title.
Finally, it is important to remember that the connection of the terms to the pieces “Embracement and “Grey earth, serpent” has happened after they were composed.
The pieces
“Morfé Δemoníon, disquietness” (on Euripides´Bacchae)
for 2 organs and 2 sopranos
Premiere 29.03.2024 – Orgelpark, Amsterdam
Organ 1 – Anne Spink
Organ 2 – Ere Lievonen
Voice 1 – Kristia Michael
Voice 2 – Vanessa Guinadi
This piece is based on fragments from Euripides’ ancient tragedy “Bacchae”. In order to give an idea of the piece’s context, this is the translation of some of the fragments used:
“...Gods appear in many forms, carrying with them unwelcome things. What people thought would happen never did. What they did not expect, the gods made happen...
...Then a great silence filled the air. A silence which bound all the trees of the valley, all the shrubs and one could not hear the voices of the beasts....
...The Bacchae surrounded the tree and with a thousand hands tore the fir from its roots. Down came Pentheus, the fear cutting his breath...
...She was frothing at the mouth and her eyes rolled wildly in their sockets. Dionysos’ spirit had made her crazy. She then grabbed her son’s arm, stepped on his shoulder blade and ripped his arm clean off his body....he was groaning with pain while he was still alive. The Maenads began a war cry and each carried some part of Pentheus’ body. One carried a hand, another a foot, others tore his ribs showing them bare and others with bloody hands tossed parts of his flesh to each other. Bits of his flesh were strewn about everywhere. Some up against the rough rocks others so deep in the shrubs of the forest that it was impossible to find them all...
...Snakes rose up to their cheeks and with their tongues washed away the blood until their skin once again became bright white....”
This is the most recent of the pieces that will be examined. Most of the tools I used for its composition will be analysed in the context of the following (chronologically previous) pieces. The most important new tool, in relation to this paper, is the use of the concept of secret language.
Terms used
i. secret language, shadow language, glossolalia, heterophony (c.1, b.2.3, c.3, b.1.2)
Τhe idea to use secret language is based on the ecstatic state in which the Bacchae are entering when executing their rituals. The fact that they are entering a “higher” state of consciousness opened up a window in which, at a certain moment of the piece, they would get far from the way their sound was until that point. In comparison to the motivic and sharp way of reciting the text, the two singers’ sound becomes plastic, floaty and light. The way I dealt with the text is also related to the idea of the “shadow language”. Ι chose text fragments in which Bacchae are in trance, while slaughtering Penthefs. In most of the cases I kept the first syllable of a word, stretching it, in order to enhance the plasticity of the sound, in comparison to the “sharpness” of ancient Greek, especially in such a speed. In parallel, the organs imitate this plastic movement using half stops creating a heterophonic plastic texture.
This event also conceptually resembles to the glossolalic phenomenon, since it shares the common element of the ecstatic state in which the Bacchae were driven, acquiring “super powers”, unable to communicate with the common people.
As an example, at bar 90 the 1st voice’s original text is:
Ek Vakkhiou katikheto (=she was possessed by Vakkhos)
Ou dh’epithe nin (=not listening to anyone)
What remains in the score are the bold syllables, as a relic, or shadow of their origin.
Even if it is a string quartet, this piece serves greatly as an example for a “vocal-influenced approach” to instrumental music.
Terms used
i. symbols, whistling language (b.5.3, b.5.2)
The starting point of this piece was a collection of symbols related to astronomy and alchemy, out of which I created a collage:
These last symbols are a collection found in the book “The dictionary of symbols, Norton and Company, 1995, pages 196-207”. In the book, this collection of symbols is described as “a-symmetric, soft and straight-lined, open signs with crossing lines”. What drew my attention is that, in my arbitrary sound translation, some of these symbols can be approached in relation to their polyphonic density and to how many “shapes” co-exist in one symbol.
Example of a 2-part symbol and example of a 4-part symbol
To my eyes, these symbols are polyphonic entities and were the starting point of gestures / “directions” I composed. The piece was eventually based on a set of gestures-directions, though not completely identifying with the shape of the symbols of the collage.
Example of such composed entities, in relation to their “direction”:
An important element of these shapes is their range. The possibility for wide-interval gestures was there, because of the nature of the instruments. Nevertheless, I choose to narrow down the pitch opening, expanding the pitch parameter mainly by using octaves as colorization of the gestures. This resembles to the narrow bandwidth of the whistling language gestures, whose pitches are concentrated at the area where human hearing is more selective.
ii. redundant sound information (e.1)
In addition, when I first printed out this collage, some small shadows-granulation of each symbol appeared around them, by mistake. At first I was irritated, but, then I saw the opportunity of translating those shadows as well. As mentioned before, Jakobson's, Meyer's and Pluck's observations (see number “5.6. Classes of sound perception”) are a comment on the totality of the sound phenomenon. The idea that speech does not only consist of its “clean qualities”, but also of the relics coming with it, led me to approach the “noise” of the collage, as being the symbols´ granulation, belonging to the same entity. This resulted in a more open, organic view towards the visual elements I worked with. Eventually, around most of the gestures, monophonic or not, that I composed, I created a small background of soft “clouds”, reminiscent of this granulation. This element also ended up being a separate texture. Also, the piece was named “Shadows for a while”, inspired by this “shadow-y” granulation.
The composed “shadows” are always performed much softer than the main gestures, col legno tratto:
The last shape, which is visually and sonic related to the second composed shape demonstrated, has a steps-like downward movement. This created the thought that the whole piece deals with a force which had the tendency to drag the sound to its lowest level. I then decided to gradually move the whole range of the piece to its lower limits and create an opposite high range coda, as counter balance.
iii. prosody (b.2.1)
At about 3/5 of the piece, a speech texture starts in the cello, which slowly spreads to all the strings. This is a 4-voice example:
This texture was the result of my own way of reciting texts from the book “Iατροσόφιον” (Spells), written by Ioannis Stafidas, published at 1384. The book is a crossover of paramedical spells and medicines, with roots at pagan and religious traditions of Byzantine period. The language used is also a crossover of various idioms of the time, with special care for the way it “sounds”. This extra texture, added to the piece an additional “breath”, in a way contrasting to the relatively “square” character of the motives.
iv. homonymy (d.5.7)
The “expansion of homonymy” in the case of certain aphasic disorders brought the idea of a gesture which slightly varies and transforms, but still semantically attempts makes the same statement. Technically, this was translated as varying instrumentation of the same motive, which occurs again and again.
What follows are examples of different approaches to the 1st motive demonstrated earlier, in terms of timbre, instrumentation and use of intervals.
Eve’s Lament is based on John Milton’s Paradise Lost and uses fragments from the whole text. In the centre of it, Eve is lamenting for her expulsion from paradise.
Terms used
i. stuttering, symbols, lexiplasia, Byzantine music quality characters (d.2, b.5.3, b.2.2, b.5.1)
One of the first ideas I had when dealing with the event of Eve’s lamenting losing Paradise, was to create a quasi-stuttering texture, which would dramaturgically coincide with an imaginary way in which such a text could be recited. What I did was to take the relevant text (Paradise Lost, book XI, verses 268-285), make the words collide against each other and combine them in different ways, creating new words. Also, above the relevant text, I created my own symbols-directions which represent the contour of each gesture:
The way I worked out this part reminds us of the way I treated the symbols as shapes and directions in “Shadows for a while”. The symbols above the words are a direct reference to the idea of the Byzantine “quality characters”.
The creation of new words through the idea of the colliding words and seeing them with a fresh eye (and ear), is connected to the idea of lexiplasia.
ii. clouds of sound, prosody, apophenia, specificatio (b.2.4, b.2.1, d.3, b.3.1)
The cloud is one of the most prominent components of this composition. The singers, in different pairings, “spit out” phrases, words or phonemes, creating characteristic blocks of sound.
This is a first sketch from my personal notes on how I visualized these sound events. I took special care of their contour, register and prosody. The aim was to create gestures with clearly audible components.
Eventually this approach resulted in events like:
Context-wise these phrases are not related. Through the way they intertwine, the individual lines create an abstract new semantic meaning, which results from the acoustic impression.
The character of this impression is enhanced by the way the accents of the intertwined phrases are treated. Looking at the previous examples, there are cases where I synchronize the stress of the words which belong to the different intertwined phrases. This results in a smoother interlocking. There are other cases where the stress of a word which belongs to different lines affects the predictable pulse-flow and creates tension:
Example of synchronized stresses:
Wherein were laid Numbers of all diseased
Laid the fiery surge
Example of non-synchronized stresses:
Gastly spasm
Racking torture
Also, the fact that words are very quickly popping up, reminds us of an apophenia case, where independent elements suddenly become connected under a new red thread, resulting in a new meaningful connection.
This process also relates to the term “eidopoia” (specificatio) taken from the field of law, since a new original entity is established. This new entity is of different “value” (in the broad sense) compared to its components.
iii. babbling language, heterophony, biophony (a.1, b.1.2, b.4.2)
Another prominent texture of the piece is the long drones, consisting of phonemes or relics of the text used. This results in forceful events, since, most of the times, the 4 singers perform them simultaneously, heterophonically (in the first example) or with a harmonic-vertical approach.
The result resembles to a cloudy-babbly sound, with reference to the babbling language.
In the case of the first example, the heterophonic glottal tremolo resembles to a goat herds’ texture which relates to the idea of biophony.
iv. inner speech, redundant sound information (a.5, e.1)
The pieces uses 5 different textures (clouds of sound, drones, a stuttering texture, relics of sound and a classical choral) which interact in different counterpoint models with each other.
One of these textures are some almost indistinctive (semantically-wise) repetitive motives – relics of the text. During most of the piece, this material is the foreground sound. In the final seconds, it takes up the role of a soft disturbing background, reminding of an inner speech texture.
This is the moment where the motives are called for taking up the role of inner speech (with the use of verbal directions), while a choral-like block is evolving:
This texture also functions as redundant sound information, since the most prominent (choral-like) block exists within a soundspace of relics.
v. classes of sound perception, whistling language (e.2, b.5.2)
In many parts of the piece a special staff is used – the one with 3 lines, corresponding to c4, e4 and g4. This sets the ground for the main female speaking range. It also puts a limit between the speaking and the singing approach, related of course to the more classical Sprechgesang and Sprechstimme terms:
summer 2023 - Athens-Epidaurus festival
director – Io Voulgaraki
The production of “Hecuba” took place in summer 2023, with a tour around Greece, and two performances in the ancient theatre of Epidaurus.
Contrary to the piece “Morfé Δemoníon, disquetness" on which I worked from the original ancient Greek text, this performance used a translation made specifically for this production.
The story of Hecuba
According to the partly mythological, partly historical events, the Greeks defeated the Trojans and were ready to sail back to Greece. At that point the ghost of Achilles showed up demanding a sacrifice so that the wind would blow and the ships would be able to sail. Hecuba was the wife of Priamos, king of the fallen Troy. Odysseus and the crowd decide that Polyxeni, Hecuba’s daughter is the person to sacrifice. This is the first important event.
During the war of Troy, Hecuba and Priamos sent their son Polydoros to their friend Polymistor, together with their gold, so that both the child and the gold would be safe. At some point, Polydoros' dead body appears at the shores of Troy. It travelled through the Greek sea, killed by Polymistor, so that he could keep the gold.
The “lamenting” Hecuba becomes an animal looking for revenge. She invites Polymistor in Troy, and together with the women of Troy (the chorus) they blind him and slaughter his two infants.
The performance plan
I based my sound analysis of “Hecuba” on four different pillars:
function moments. I tried to give the chorus a certain '' FUNCTION / way'' in which they express themselves, a certain sound character. Each time they demonstrated themselves in sound, they would sound this way. In some cases they create a “veil” around the main roles with clear interactions between them, aiming at creating a sense that the chorus is a psychic extension of the main role.
This chorus’ function consisted of “weaving” syllables, ornamentation (since I was asked by the director to contemplate on the idea of Greek lamentation) and shadow language.
resurrection. An interesting dramaturgical invention was the resurrection of Hecuba’s dead son, who would walk around the living people, mid-way of the performance. I identified this resurrection with electromagnetic field recordings. The moment of the resurrection was also an important sound momentum, since electronic music started for the first time.
lullaby. Since the child was resurrected, I composed a simple-sounding lullaby that the dead child sings to its mother, distorted by the chorus’ rough sound demonstrations. I also made this lullaby one of the leading music materials, after its appearance.
music-al moments. These are purely musically driven events, such as certain choral parts. Material from these choral parts was spread throughout the whole performance.
This is how the first organization of this material was made. With orange I marked the “function moments”, with yellow the musical moments and, with pink, the electronic musical events.
Terms used
i. shadow language, Epirotic song, lexiplasia (b.2.3, b.1.1, b.2.2)
Shadow language was one of the tools which gave the chorus its specific colour / character. A characteristic moment is the farewell of Hecuba to her daughter Polyxeni. The following paper shows the way I approached this fragment:
The way I worked on it is similar to the way I worked on “Morfé Δemoníon, disquietness”. I used the original text, choosing specific syllables. I connected these syllables creating a new sub-text. The choice of these syllables was not random – the aim was that the new text would be a mix of unintelligible Greek and words which would remind of, or be linked to a specific image / situation / other word.
For example, at the second line of the previous paper, there is the sentence:
“Κι άσε το μάγουλό σου στο δικό μου να ακουμπήσει” (= Let your cheek touch mine)
Choosing the black syllables, I extracted the sub-text “Αεμασου” which involves the phrase “εμασου”which in Greek means “your blood”.
I created fast chains of such simple events. The result was an estranged feeling of unknown but familiar sound, full of new unknown but familiar-sounding entities, a language within a language. This sub-text was recited by the chorus at the same time with the actor who was reciting the main text. Part of the training was the synchronization of the shadow language with the reference syllables of the main text. Eventually a transparent veil was “weaved” around the main actor’s speech. In a metaphorical way one could see this sub-language as the electromagnetic field recording-extract of the main language.
The actors were also assigned specific pitches over each syllable (written on the paper). They were also assigned certain ornaments that they were free to choose from.
ii. ornamentation, heterophony (b.1.4, b.1.2)
One of the main sound tools of the chorus was that of ornamentation. It was both used in the “shadow language” moments, and in composed music parts as well. The ornaments were at first strictly composed and taught. Eventually their interpretation was left relatively free to the performers, especially to the end of the 2nd chorus part, where they sing in unison (actually in heterophony).
Chorus part excerpt 1 and 2
iii. babbling language, exclamation, Epirotic song (a.1, a.2, b.1.1)
The case of "Káko"
Related to my first observation in the babbling language chapter (the “potato case”) is the case of “Káko”. In Greek κακό (ie. kakó) means “bad, evil, wrong”, depending on the context. One of the words that I extracted from the shadow language process was “κάκο” “ie. Kàko”. The sounding difference from the word “bad” is the stress.
I used this word as a polyphonic exclamation cloud at one of the main choral parts, in which the female chorus refers to the horrible course of Hecuba’s life. In fact, I placed this cloud exactly after the phrase “ολέθριο κακό” (describing something unbearable), thus, exactly after the word “kakò”. In this way, grammatically speaking, the lyrics move from a literal word to the distortion of this word, exclaimed in a way that resembles an actual lamentation, creating a powerful sonic result.
Together with my daughter we often make a specific walk around my house in Greece. At one corner there is a big cactus tree (in Greek pronounced “Kàktos”). Some weeks after I composed this part, (when she was the age of 1,5), when she saw the cactus she started shouting “Kàko! Kàko!”.
I cannot be sure If I had already heard this word from her when composing the part I mentioned. The moment I consciously heard it, I certainly acquired an emotional connection to this word. When I first traced the same word in the context of the “shadow language”, it felt, soundwise, interesting and effective. But when I also heard it by a 1,5 year old child, the word suddenly felt like deeply rooted.
At the same time, the placement of this “cloud” of sound at the end of a longer phrase is reminiscent of the role of the Epirotic richtis (see term b.1.) who “drops” the sound with an exclamation at the end of a main singing line.
iv. echo, distortion, exclamation (b.1.3, a.2)
Echo
The idea of echo appears in the broad sense, by turning a single phoneme into a “leitmotiv”. The sound “e-e-e-e-e”, continuous or broken, is the main composed component of the 2nd chorus part. This is the echo of an exclamation that Hecuba uses already before this choral part (the exclamation being this stretched -e-).
2nd chorus part opening bars
Distortion
In the 3rd chorus part the accordion player sings a lullaby that the dead child sings to its mother. For the creation of the lyrics of this song I used phrases that the phantom of Polydoros (son of Hecuba) uses when he appears, at the 1st scene of the play. At the same time that the lullaby is sung, the chorus “spits out” the original text of the 3rd chorus part, written by Euripides. The relation of these two is, at the beginning “one to one”, which means that the song stops when the chorus starts with small interlockings. As the piece develops, the chorus overlaps with the song, creating a distorting feeling, using the very words of Euripides.
Chorus part 3 excerpt
The idea of distortion is also applied at the finale of the performance, when Polymistor (the blinded king) is throwing curses towards Hecuba. At that moment, the chorus, lays down next to the microphones to achieve a close-mic effect. They are using all the “function” tools (the “weaving syllables”, ornamentation, shadow language) and practically, they create a counterpoint-distortion over Polymistor's speech.
Terms used
i. symbols, ornamentation, Byzantine quality characters (b.5.3, b.1.4, b.5.1)
The idea of the serpent, omnipresent in literature and mythology, is the central theme of the piece “Embracement”. The topic derives from John Milton’s Paradise Lost and the fragment where he describes the way the devil entered the serpent’s body while it was asleep.
“So saying, through each Thicket Danck or Drie,
Like a black mist low creeping, he held on
His midnight search, where soonest he might finde
The Serpent: him fast sleeping soon he found
In Labyrinth of many a round self-rowld,
His head the midst, well stor'd with suttle wiles:
Not yet in horrid Shade or dismal Den,
Nor nocent yet, but on the grassie Herbe
Fearless unfeard he slept: in at his Mouth
The Devil enterd, and his brutal sense,
In heart or head, possessing soon inspir'd
With act intelligential;”
For this piece I decided to avoid my usual process of deconstructing the language in all possible ways. On the contrary, I took a big block of text from book IX (starting with verse 179), and I added melody, as a song-writer, or a classical composer who takes a new libretto on their hands, would do. The first graphic approach to the piece was this:
This workout, reminds of the “stuttering” block from “Eve’s Lament” and the concept of the Byzantine “quality characters”. This sketch derives from the combination of ornaments and a main contour which was composed as the central direction of the melody (later split into four, since it is a 4-voice piece).
A fundamental element which led to the conception of the piece was this image:
This is a painting by the Greek painter Yorgos Makris, titled “Keylocks from Hade's prison, collected from Byzantine paintings of the Resurrection”. I found it on the front page of the Greek book “Σύσσημον”, written by the Greek poet Nikos Panagiotopoulos.
The keylock, as a representation, a symbol for imprisonment, in relation to the “imprisonment” of the serpent by the Devil in Paradise Lost, can create multilayer associations.
Practically speaking, I focused on the top left shape and created a list of ornaments, based on the analysis of each individual part of this keylock – symbol. Ιn the first case I use the symbol approximately as it appears in the painting. In the second case I turned it "upside down":
Ι arbitrarily assigned the interval of the 7th to the edges of this shape (I later realized that this symbol looks like number 7). Based on this interval, I created a variety of ornaments, as seen on these two handwritten papers.
The “width” of the ornaments was “opening” little by little as the piece was developing, starting from 2nds and 3rds, until reaching the full opening of the 7th:
This process resulted in a vividly-ornamented SATB acapella piece. A further analysis on the symbolism of the serpent is made for the piece “Grey earth, serpent”, which follows.
” Grey earth, serpent” (based on Dante's Inferno)
for 4 male voices
Premiere 10.09.2017 - Gaudeamus festival
voice 1- Michalis Paraskakis
voice 2- Nikos Ioakeim
voice 3- Alberto Granados Reguilón
voice 4- Christoph Blum
indian harmonium- Alexandros Gkonis
My first organized approach towards composing the voice happened in 2016. Since I was a teenager I had great fascination for Dante's Inferno. In 2016 I decided to take the original text of Inferno, put a microphone in front of me and for months improvised vocal gestures on the text, by dismantling and reconstructing words and phrases, guided by the pulse of the language and my youth's imagination of Hell. The result was a 4-voice acapella piece, which later became a music theatre piece in the Greek National Opera, called “Return, a polyphonic work based on the original text of Dante’s Inferno”.
Were it an image, it would be four peasants coming out of the path that Dante and Virgil walked on. They instinctively narrate what they experienced, in any way each of them can. The instrumental bourdon lays the foundations on which the story finds its roots.
Terms used
i. Alalia, word amnesia (d.4, d.5.2)
The four peasants, initially almost cannot talk. This is demonstrated by scattered phonemes they “spit out”. They try to form words, but it is impossible to do so. They fall into a series of repetitions, which will slowly lead to their first actual speaking qualities.
ii. gesture-based, prosody, whistling language (b.5, b.2.1, b.5.2)
This piece was the starting point for my approach to vocal music, in many ways. It was mostly based on improvisation. I was not understanding the text clearly, so it was mostly based on my perception of the language’s sound. I was thinking in “gestures” rather than melodies, taking care of the contour, the combination of ranges and dynamic waves. These are all depicted in the opening bars of the piece, which function like a “broken machine” which, little by little, finds a common pulse. The points of the gestures’ interlocking are very important, since they add the indistinct “pulsive” element of this block. The interlockings are based on the stressed words of the phrases used.
In this way, prosody comes to the foreground, with elements like pitch (in the strict sense) being secondary.
Looking at the construction of the opening gestures, there is also relation to my idea of detaching the whistling language’s contours from their semantic function.
The contours are the main semantic element of this section, with the text meaning being of secondary importance.
What follows is the form I drew while composing this piece:
One observation is that this form shows the big lines and the nature of the gestures. This is also a visualization of the gesture-based approach towards this piece.
The opening “sharp” shapes also relate to the keylocks’ painting used for “Embracement”, composed 8 years later.
iii. use of symbols (b.5.3)
For “Grey earth, serpent” I extensively worked on Inferno’s Canto XXV. A giant serpent embraces a sinner so tightly, that they turn into one entity.
“Com'io tenea levate in lor le ciglia,
e un serpente con sei pie` si lancia
dinanzi a l'uno, e tutto a lui s'appiglia.
Co' pie` di mezzo li avvinse la pancia,
e con li anterior le braccia prese;
poi li addento` e l'una e l'altra guancia;
li diretani a le cosce distese,
e miseli la coda tra 'mbedue,
e dietro per le ren su` la ritese.
Ellera abbarbicata mai non fue
ad alber si`, come l'orribil fiera
per l'altrui membra avviticchio` le sue.
Poi s'appiccar, come di calda cera
fossero stati, e mischiar lor colore,
ne' l'un ne' l'altro gia` parea quel ch'era.”
As I was composing the piece, the idea and the visual representation of the serpent, became central. The symbolic dimension of the serpent is connected to the underworld, initiation and revelation. Serpents are the “theriomorfic” (beast-like) forms of Godesses in many different cultures and civilizations, such as Persephone, Isis, Hades, Shiva etc.
Also, the motive of the serpent eating a human is met in various cultures, with the most common translation being that of transformation into something new.
Eventually, after months of working on the piece, I had one of the most vivid dreams of my life – I was on a rocky village on the mountains of Epirus in Northern Greece, in front of a semi destroyed stone house and an old well. The dream had colours of white and grey pallet, apart from a snake outside the house fence, which had light red stripes. At some point the snake jumped and bit me. I name the piece “Grey earth, serpent”, after the dream.
iv. biophony, (b.4.2)
An interesting aspect of the piece is related to the place it was conceived. The land of Epirus offers great inspiration, both for its landscape, its music, but for its innate soundscape as well. I have spent long time listening to goats’ “choruses”, recording them, separating the “voices”. This process has also had musical impact on my process. Glottal tremolo, creating a goat-like soundscape, is an important expressive element of this piece, also used in the piece “Eve’s Lament”.
v. inner speech (a.5)
The piece incorporates theatrical directions. The 4 singers all have different characters, demonstrated by different “ways” of singing:
vi. logorrhea (d.1)
The feeling of unstoppable individual talking is spread throughout the whole piece, pointing out the feeling of despair and isolation of the four singers-characters. This is an example of such a texture:
vii. Aphasia (d.)
A general a posteriori observation is that the concept of aphasia was already there when composing “Grey earth, serpent”. Elements such as the difficulty in tracing the correct word, unstoppable talking, stuttering etc, were incorporated, without conscious effort to do so. It is my oldest consistently organized vocal piece and yet, the sound world originating from aphasic concepts was already present.