Human Voice and Instrumental Voice: An Investigation of Voicelikeness

Paola Livorsi

This artistic research explores the relations between human and instrumental voice (in the case of string instruments), seen from an embodied and performative point of view. The question originates from from my experience of violinist and composer. Voice is a unique mark of human identity: if this is particularly true for vocal timbre, something similar is at play in the ‘instrumental voice’, as a unique expression of personal and musical identity. This research aims to uncover the importance of the vocal and instrumental relations, acknowledging their common embodied nature and shared origins. As utterances directed at the ‘other’, both human and instrumental voice are deeply relational. From 2016 to 2022, I investigated the question of voicelikeness between a musician’s voice and their own instrument through five multidisciplinary art projects: in Imaginary Spaces fragments of individual and collective voice inhabited a performative environment shared by musicians and audience; The end of no ending focused on the relationships between two female voices and their mutable surroundings; Between word and life explored the multiple relations of voice and instrument in an electroacoustic space, de-multiplied by bringing in dance and video; Sounding Bodies gathered human and mechanical bodies to explore an unconventional space, inviting the audience to follow their path; Medusa was a music theatre work putting into perspective the question of voicelikeness by evoking Italian Early Baroque music, visual art, and dance. This artistic research was carried out through an artistic process, with supporting methods such as grounded theory, ethnography, and autoethnography, creating a virtuous cycle between practice and theory, with some interesting and unexpected changes taking place in my artistic journey. The research outcomes consist of a written part combined with a collection of traces, sounds, images, and video examples presented on the Research Catalogue. The theoretical framework for this inquiry includes recent studies in paleoanthropology, human development, music psychology, and embodiment. Cavarero’s philosophy of voice, Arendt’s philosophy of the ‘in-between’, various philosophies of the ‘other’, as well as a few contributions from psychoanalysis are put in mutual dialogue with my artistic practice. Among the research outcomes are the re-evaluation of vocal layers in personal and musical identity, considering music making as a relational practice, and an exploration of the porous boundaries between the roles of composer, performer, and listener. In this perspective, the new terms to ‘in-hear’ and to ‘co-hear’ respectively denote an attention to inner sounds, and toward one another in a community of listeners. Keywords: voicelikeness, artistic research, in-between, relationality, embodiment, performative space

Project stages

1. The first idea was to get inspired by Caravaggio's life and build a story around that. Sara was particularly interested in

controversial aspects such as:

Caravaggio's homosexuality and his fondness for young men (at the limit of paedophilia)
gender questions and fluidity
dark and violent aspects

2. Piia introduced the idea of the artist's narcissism and its dark sides. She also wrote a paper about it (for her pedagogy studies at the University of Jyväskylä). The project took a first shift when she insisted that the ancient myths contained already all what was needed. Sara and I did not initially agree but we finally included parts of Ovid's Metamorphosis (from Echo and Narcissus) in Part 1

3. Another important element, introduced by Sara, was Medusa. For a long time the title was not decided, until it finally came to Medusa. Sara connected Medusa with the Christian Mary, as another side of the mythological feminine.

She chose a particular of Caravaggio's Death of the Virgin, the red drape, to realise one of her works, for Medusa's Part 3

Important changes

Rather early on we decided not to represent Caravaggio himself: his figure would loom on the play without him being visible. Piia will take on more roles, playing on gender ambiguity: Tiresias, Narcissus and Echo in Part 1, tavern's singer, young painter apprentice/Caravaggio in Part 2

dancers' number: at first we thought of 2-3 female dancers, then we realised it would be good to have at least a male dancer; finally there are two of them, for a total of 5 dancers. They will also change roles: Narcissus' companions, Echo and Narcissus (hetero and homo couples), tavern's clients, painters, mythological beings etc. They will make use of their voices and play some percussion instruments (frame-drums)

scenic elements: Sara had the idea to build wooden boxes of different dimensions, painted in shiny black (reflecting surfaces): her paintings would be placed as box lids to open during the play; I had the idea to use them also as resonant objects. Unfortunately the idea was dropped this year, as the theatre's stage (Aleksanterin teatteri) is not big enough, and for costs and transportation reasons too.

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