Hearing voices: electroacoustic composition portfolio and commentary

The concept of voice is a fundamental thread that underpins my PhD portfolio, with the human voice being present in all but one of the compositions. The drive to make what I think of as 'voice works' has, to a large extent, been influenced by various theatrical vocal practices that are in some way concerned with the development of the natural voice. Such practices help to facilitate a broad potentiality of expression, not only through, but before or beyond text. No one method or theory has had primary influence on my work but rather, in the broadest sense, I recognise a set of affinities with many notable influential practices including that of Roy Hart Theatre; Kristin Linklater; David Moss; Joan La Barbara; Sainkho Namtchylak; and Jaap Blonk. The complicating factor, in every case, is that I also draw on a range of electroacoustic influences.Trevor Wishart's many ideas about 'the human repertoire' - vocal utterance, paralanguage, sound morphology and transformative compositional processes - are perhaps most relevant. But I have also drawn from Denis Smalley's spectromorphological concepts, particularly those pertaining to the aural perception of human gesture. My listening generally has been quite wide-ranging across genres but includes the work of Francois Bayle, Bernard Parmegiani, Francis Dhomont, Robert Normandeau, Natasha Barrett, Dennis Smalley, Yannis Kyriakides, Michel Chion and Heiner Goebels.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

PhD

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Glasgow

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Scrutton, Nichola Jane

• M Music

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.5525/gla.thesis.1551

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:theses.gla.ac.uk:1551