In my previous program note post, I discussed my goals of innovating my abilities and output as a performer within the world of Classical music. After my first two doctoral concerts, I discovered that the easiest ways for me to expand my skills, knowledge and ways of performing and creating performances, were to expose myself to new artistic experiences, such as performances, art exhibitions, and workshops I wouldn’t normally choose to attend; and to collaborate on projects with artists that specialised in fields that were different from my own (both inside and outside of the classical music world).
I went through a period of time where I attended everything from infinity room art-installations, to audience controlled moveable theatre performances, to dance and alternative movement workshops, to freely improvised performances (as both performer and audience), to formal script writing classes, to seminars on Greek mythology, to whiskey tasting events, to fashion shows, etc. etc. etc. And through these experiences, I met many of my current collaborators and I developed a lot of the ideas and skills that are present in my performance projects now. Before I dive into specifics, I should tell you that Medea was never a part of my original concert plan. The ideas for this project developed out of these new experiences and collaborations I was engaging with and it also developed out of my ever-during passion and interest for history and historical performance practices. I was drawn to this project for the same reason I was drawn to European renaissance and baroque vocal music: I love to look back at lost worlds and reimagine them for contemporary audiences. I love to stand with one foot in the past and one in the present and weave together performances that span the eras. I love to invite audiences to creatively rewrite history with me. Approaching and engaging with Ancient Greek mythology and performance traditions are particularly interesting to me because of my work in historically informed vocal performance from the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The artists I am most drawn to from this time were looking to the Ancient Greek philosophers, poets and performers in hopes of returning to their traditions. We all fully know that we cannot, no matter how hard we look, return to ‘old ways of doing’; But in looking back and engaging with historical traditions, we are afforded a very unique opportunity to intersect past voices with our own and those of our contemporaries. And this intersection, this dialogue between past and present, can yield new ways of doing. This is how opera was born, how Shakespearean Tragedy was formed, how the art of rhetoric developed. In looking back at Greek mythology and Ancient Greek Tragedy, I pictured myself in a similar place as those composers and poets I so admire from the 17th century: searching for new ways of doing by engaging with the traditions that have come before me. I don’t know that a lot of these conventions will be recognised in the final iteration of this project, but in case you are curious, here are some of the “rules” and conventions that have informed the creative development and artistic choices of the Medea project: Unity of time and space - The four episodes of this story and the events that each episode depict will be released and occur in real time. Each episode will take place in a single location (space), however the location will change from episode to episode. The use of violence - While violence is implied in the third episode of this project, it will not be depicted on stage. It will be implied with sound and gesture. The use of the Chorus - There is only a true chorus used in the final episode of this performance but the concept of using outsider voices to comment on the main action of the story, is a running theme throughout the entire series. The radio commentators, the journalist, the singers in the temple of tears, the singing in the sound-installation are all ‘voices’ that offer outside commentary on what is happening in each episode of the performance. The use of singing and vocal sounds - While we can’t really know how Greek tragedy was performed or the kind of singing or vocal delivery used in the performances, there is at least agreement on the fact that there were a lot of musical elements in the performances, especially with regards to singing (or heightened vocal delivery). Not all episodes will feature singing, but almost all the episodes will be constructed entirely out of vocal sounds (with some small exceptions such as the radio songs played in the first episode, and a few sound effects in the episodes 1 & 2). The text comes first - Like the Ancient Greeks, there was a belief in the 17th century that music was a form of poetry. When people spoke of music, they almost always meant music with text because the two were inextricably bound. This made music subservient to the text, or secondary to the text, which is also the case in the Medea project. All of the texts were created first and the world of sound that accompanies it, was born in reaction to the text and in hopes of elevating the text and exploiting new ways to understand and experience the text. That being said, it is important for me to note that the text was all developed in connection to how the voice, and it’s many capacities, might deliver those texts, or heighten or depict or add depth to the meaning of the text. Rhetorical gestures - You can’t really study renaissance and baroque music without studying rhetoric and the art of rhetoric. How we apply it to renaissance and baroque music, stems from the culture of public speaking in Ancient Greece. In the 17th century, not only was the text that composers set laden with rhetorical devices, but the music was as well. This combination of textual and musical rhetoric was all aimed at convincing and persuading the affects of the audience. In the live improvisations, as well as in the scripted texts and pre-composed materials, we have adapted and employed the instruments of rhetoric to try and persuade the emotions and the experience of our listeners. Vocal Affect - Again, we can’t really know how singers, performers, orators, actors sounded in Ancient Greek theatre or 17th century opera. But we can develop ideas based on the artistic material that survives from those times, as well as the primary sources that describe and detail performances and performance techniques, and the incredible amount of research that has been conducted on historical performance practices. In engaging with these materials and developing our ideas, we end up producing something entirely contemporary and unique to our own place and practice in history.
The basic, founding idea that I have developed over the course of this study, is that the voice is something that we, as humans, can easily relate to and understand in an intimate and personal way. In knowing this, we can use the voice to communicate very complex emotions, thoughts, ideas, narratives, that can be precise and detailed, or nebulous and abstract. We can combine the voice with language to shape our communication or when words fail us, we are still capable of shaping communication with the raw and guttural sounds the voice; we can combine the breath and with the resonating body to still depict complex emotion and story. When I think of my voice, I immediately think of classical style singing and the way I have studied historical vocal practices. But in creating this project and in re-imagining these practices, I realized (whether or not this is true) that in their experiments, the 17th century opera composers were doing what I am doing now: trying to uncover new ways to use the voice to tell a story, to communicate meaning, to connect and persuade the affects of an audience. In this project, you will hear vocal sounds and affects and musical gestures that are taken directly from 17th century compositions and our contemporary ideas of 17th century vocal practices. But you will also experience the new ways in which I think about the voice: - As a multifaceted instrument that creates aural and physical sensations within our own bodies and the bodies of others through the use of breath and our own personal physiology. - As something most humans can connect to and understand through hearing, memory and / or physical sensation. - As the full gamut of sound that can be produced using my breath, my body, my creativity, my languages.
I will leave you here for today and perhaps with a task that James Andean (who I will talk about in the next post) and I did when we began talking about the voice: write a list of every "sound" you can make with your voice and then go through that list and try out every sound - don't think too hard about it, just go for it.
