In this session, we will consider the most important aspect of music-texts relationships, the sound of the voice. Beginning with a basic understanding of the physiology of vocal production, we will also consider methods of recording and notating the human voice, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet. These considerations will form the basis for a more detailed exploration of a range of vocal usgae in music, from western art music through to phonetically and gesturally driven contemporary composition.

Class Examples

Associated Resources

• The International Phonetic Association
• The International Phonetic Alphabet (with sound)

Associated Listening

• Vox Humana: Alfred Wolfsohn’s Experiments in Extension of Human Vocal Range
• Singing synthesis with the chant progam (synthetic version of Mozart’s Queen of the Night)
• Trevor Wishart – Anticredos
• Lucoiano Berio – Thema: Omaggio a Joyce [Cathy Berberian reading from Ulysses | Notes and Text]

Internet Resources

• Roy Hart Theatre Archives
• Wikipedia’s Vocal Pedgogy page provides a reasonable overview of vocal production, classification, and approaches to singing

Further Reading

• Roland Barthes – ‘The Grain of the Voice’ in Image-Music-Text
• Steven Connor – The Decomposing Voice of Postmodern Music
• Nina Horvath – The “Theatre of the Ear”: Analyzing Berio’s Musical Documentary A-Ronne
• Janet Halfyard – Before Night Comes: Narrative and Gesture in Berio’s Sequenza III
• Paul Jackson – Developments in Extended Vocal Techniques (part one only)