Monsters I Love: On Multivocal Arts

Alex Nowitz

Proposing a ‘multivocal practice’ in the vocal arts, this exposition (documented artistic research project) embodies an inclusive approach to four core categories for the contemporary performance voice: the singing, speaking, extended and disembodied voice. The culmination of a four-year PhD project in Artistic Practices (Performative and Mediated Practices, with specialisations in choreography/film and media/opera /performing arts), it documents artistic research sub-projects through the presentation of multimedia material, interweaving performance recordings with reflective and contextualising texts. Multivocality addresses various models of virtuosity, all of which are informed by a multi-faceted artistic knowledge, whether experimental or experiential, technical or technological, improvisational or compositional. Contemporary vocal performance practices are loaded by questions pertaining to detecting and solving technical issues that span the vocal domains. Through a range of artistic practices—vocal, oral, bodily and technology-related—the research project unfolds what is conceived as a bountiful ‘vocal imaginary’. When voice and body meet technology-related practices that aim at the expansion of the vocal realm by using custom and gesture-controlled live electronics, a performance æsthetics of the in-between emerges. This is explored via the ‘strophonion’, formerly built at STEIM in Amsterdam and, during the course of the PhD, further developed by Berlin-based software programmer Sukandar Kartadinata who created an intricate configuration on the basis of the audio processing application Max/MSP. Through the formulation and performance of ‘The Manifesto for the Multivocal Voice’—a ‘discursive solo performance act’ that aims to provide insights into principles and premises, and to develop the discourse on the politics of today’s performance voice—the exposition attempts to establish a potential theoretical and philosophical grounding for multivocality. Its second major concern relates to the poetics of the voice, investigating the thresholds of highly individualised vocal practices by asking: what are the boundaries of the contemporary performance voice? The exposition (on the Research Catalogue) comprises video and audio documentation of public live performances, lectures and artists’ talks as well as studio productions and rehearsals. The user is invited to study scores and various texts, such as poems, extended programme notes, translations, performance instructions, comments and other reflections. The collection of essays and articles that guide the user through the edifice of ideas that the artistic research project has unveiled remains central to the endeavour.

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Note that a second version of the work exists featuring voice, strophonion and video. In this case the video functions as co-player on stage. To see the documentary of a live presentation during the show Tongues and Ghosts at the fabrik Potsdam go to this: Mundfundstücke: Das Konsonantenvokabular, for voice, strophonion and video.

Mundfundstücke: Das Konsonantenvokabular

[mouth found objects: the consonant vocabulary]

for screen and two loudspeakers]

This piece, translated into English as 'mouth found objects: the consonant vocabulary', is a video composition displaying the consonantal material derived from the German/English alphabet.
Video recording: Oscar Loeser, audio recording: Roy Carroll

Part of the artistic research sub-project ‘Staging the Mouth, Directing the Voice’, the composition explores the vocabulary of consonants as vocal objects instead of inventing or re-inventing 'new' vocal material.

Material Flowchart using the International Phonetic Alphabet

(video length: 08:15)

01) 56’’ (00:08 - 00:54) l unvoiced, l voiced (2; trembling, with tremolo)

4’’ (tacet)

02) 65’’ (00:58 - 02:03) n voiced, n unvoiced (ɑː - ɔː - ɑː), n voiced (2; n-hits)

2’’ (tacet)

03) 60’’ (02:05 - 03:05) m trembling, voiced (ɔː , ‘doubled’ in the video), m voiced (ɑː , m-hits), m voiced/backwards (‘doubled’)

2’’ (tacet)

04) 46’’ (03:07 - 03:53) f unvoiced (with and without force), f voiced (with force), f unvoiced (without force) => s => ʃ => s

1’’ (tacet)

05) 4’’ (03:54 - 03:58) ʃ unvoiced

3’’ (tacet)

06) 33’’ (04:01- 04:34) dʊ voiced (2), d unvoiced/percussive (5), d unvoiced/perc./open (æ, a,iː , 9), dʌ (3), d unvoiced /perc./open => accel. => silent video slides/cuts

5’’ (tacet)

07) 28’’ (04:39 - 05:07) gh [x] unvoiced/bright [i], gh unvoiced/dark [ʌ], [iː - ʌ - iː], cross-fading into r unvoiced

(05:07 - 05:51) r voiced (2; ‘doubled’), r unvoiced, r voiced [ʌ-æ-ʌ], r unvoiced [i-yː-i-yː] (bright/dark)

3’’ (tacet)

08) 22’’ (05:54 - 06:16) dʒiː voiced (2x), dʒ unvoiced (a few times) ≈> glottis beats, dʒiː voiced (6) [iː - yː], glottis beats (6), dʒiː voiced (6) [iː - yː], glottis beats (6)

2’’ (tacet)

09) 9’’ (06:18 - 06:27) dziː voiced (4), dz unvoiced (4)

3’’ (tacet)

10) 4’’ (06:30 - 06-34) tʃ unvoiced (4) [iː - ʊ]

1’’ (tacet)

11) 20’’ (06:35 - 06:55) b unvoiced/perc. [ɛ - ɑː , ɛ - ɑː], b backward, forward, rw, vw… [ɛ - ɑː - ʊ]

2’’ (tacet)

12) 23’’ (06:57 - 07:20) g unvoiced [iː - ɔː - ɑː- ʊ], g/k unvoiced [iː - ɔː - ɑː- ʊ], g [ɑː - ɔː - ɑː - ɑː], glottis beats / g unvoiced (video fadeout)

7’’ (tacet)

13) 16’’ (07:27 - 07:43) h unvoiced [a] (long), h unvoiced [ɑː] (rel. short)

1’’ (tacet)

14) 15’’ (07:44 - 08:09) hɔː voiced/sung (3), h voiced [ɔː] (2, short), h unvoiced [ɔː - ʊ - ɑː - ɔː - ʊ] (1; long) ≈> like the wind …

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Mundfundstücke: Das Konsonantenvokabular