3.3 Combining electronics and poem
The first thing we did in our meetings was to try different effects with viola and electronics, and for voice and electronics, and find which sound was the better to express the ideas of the poem. It took around one week to decide what sounds we wanted to use with the prepared viola, and check that none of the effects crash on the computer.
Once the sound was clear, Marcela and I tried improvising to create a “dialog” between us, one sounding louder than the other when playing at the same time and repeating or imitating sounds to each other. Marcela was not only reciting the poem, but also creating sounds with her voice by using any means she had, repeating the same phrase of the poem but changing the character of it, as if she was an instrument.
After exploring the possibilities between acoustic and electronics instruments, I arrived at the conclusion that electronics should be processing the sound rather than generating its own sounds. The important instrumental voice was meant to be the viola, because its timber, compared to all other instruments, is the one which many people feel to be more human in the sense it is close to the human voice. In my opinion, it fits very good with the meaning of the poem, being able to mix with the voice, which in turn can take the roll of being another instrument.
3.6 Meeting all together to create the performance
During the last part of the preparation we worked on body movement and trying to make the performance look good on stage. We based our preparation on the recording we made during rehearsals in order to judge our acting.
The performance begins with the dancer moving and being followed by the viola. The violist is sitting close to the audience back to back with the narrator. Everything starts when the first voice appears on stage and at the same time the body of that voice is followed by movement, thus bringing the music to life. The first paragraph of the poem ends with a big fortissimo and right after that, everything comes to a silence.
At that moment, the violist place a rubber between the C and G strings, and starts to play a lyrical sad melody, modified by a metal sound effect by the electronics, and she walks backwards to the dancer. The movements are done around the violist – that is the first meeting between the music and the dance. Meanwhile, Marcela (the reciter) walks backwards as well and gives the microphone to the dancer, establishing a physical interaction. Meanwhile, the violist does her movements and then she sits on the floor, the reciter sits next to her and removes the rubber making a change is the sound-colour. During this time the dancer moves to where the sinologist is, and winds the cable of the microphone around her neck; a metaphor from Guisela’s poem, expressing the restriction she feels as a woman. Therefore, the violist starts to play pizzicato, where two cards are placed on the fingerboard by the reciter. This pizzicato is the music to the forth paragraph of the performance. Then the percussive part begins. The reciter walks slowly, takes her microphone back from the dancer and sits on a chair, reciting the next part of the poem. The sonologist is using an echo effect to repeat the notes sounding on the viola, whilst the dancer is making fast and short movements dancing with the bow of the violist – creating a connection between the dance and the music. The movement of the dancer is related with the poem, illustrating a metaphor Guisela not having the freedom to “dance, fly, dream and laugh”. For this reason this part is more rhythmical and abstract.
Prepared viola
The first thing I did is to look for new sounds in the viola more similar to the sound of a computer does. For this I met Marcela Andrea León, who is reciting the poem in the project, to help me to find different colors with a prepared viola.
Here are the different objects we tried being aware not to use anything that could damage my viola.
Recording 2
This one is the same but moving one card up and down creating a glissando. I finally did not use it because I had to reduce the effects in order to not stay all the performance changing things in my viola.
3.4 My movement practice
In order to interact with the dancer on the stage, I recorded myself moving and improvising to see what works and what does not work. During the first days I practiced the movement while playing, my mind was too concentrated on my own playing so that my body was stopping unconsciously. Then I pushed myself to concentrate better on the moving, but this caused the improvisation to became senseless. I had to practice this every day for around 5 minutes in order to get used to moving and improvising; to be able to concentrate in both things simultaneously. I worked with recording to see what worked and what did not. Here are some of the recordings.
3.5 Dancer meeting and videos
In the first meeting between myself and the dancer, I read the poem whilst time she was reacting to my playing. The first time, we where not very connected and the movements and music where not conveying the same idea. In order to connect more, we read the poem together and shared emotions and feelings from what we understood. Then we recorded the poem and tried again to react to the audio and the dancer reacted on my music. Now, it had much more sense and relation to one another. Still, we were missing a structure and a progression in the music. We then tried to add some movements from my part, but without any outside feedback, this was difficult to judge. I tried to improvise and at the same time do the movements she was trying to do, but some of them were impossible for me as it harmed my sound.
Recording 4-Guitarr peg
Interesting sound where the harmonics where extremely clear just passing the bow on the string. But I only could get one and it did not affect other strings, so I decided not to use this one.
Recording 3- wool on the strings
The sound was really interesting, it sounded as a ship, but unfortunately took too much time on preparing, so I decided not to use it.
Recording 1- Cards with pizzicato
Two cards placed at the top of the fingerboard of the viola, between the strings, provoking a rhythmical and interesting sound. I am using this sound in the 4th paragraph of the poem, giving to the music a rhythmical texture related on the lyrics of the poem: dancing – in my knees, flying – in my feed, dreaming – in my desire, laughing – in my gaze.
The reciter left a metal object to create a new sound close to the microphone (the recording in 3.2) and the reciting continued alone, this time without the viola. Her voice is modified by the computer, using an echo effect. In that moment, the dancer sits next to the violist - that is the 5th paragraph of the poem, there is once more an interaction between movement and sound, where the dancer plays the instrument moving with the violist, making movements together, until the bow is taken back by the violist and the dancer goes away to continue her improvisation alone.
The 6th and 7th paragraphs are provoking tension. The reciter talks with anger and the microphone cable – this time around the sinologist - is another metaphor to show him how she is feeling herself as a woman.
The viola breaks the silence with fast notes developing to another fortissimo, whilst the reciter runs in front of the stage and the dancer is doing crazy and fast movements. This is the first time in the performance where the sonologist and the violist are both improvising. The end of this section is followed by another silence. The calm returns with the last two paragraphs of the poem. The violist plays the same as she did at the beginning; music with plenty of air and harmonics, and the violist and the dancer end the performance by dancing together, using body contact. The connection with the poem here is with the skin Guisela mentions in her poem, where both dance and music are the body in which Guisela has to live her life.
recording 7- rubber between C and G strings
This one sounds as an old recording. I am using this one on the 2nd and 3rd paragraph of the poem that creates a melancholic atmosphere, in my opinion, that fits perfects with the lyrics of the poem. It must be located between C and G string, because of the low register, and touching directly the bridge, otherwise the sound was less clear and a bit scratchy.
Recording 5- clips on the bridge
I loved this sound but as well took too much time to prepare this one.