A Voice in the Wilderness: A Singer's Guide to the Implications of Performance Context in R. Murray Schafer's Wolf Music
This dissertation investigates some of the challenges and opportunities inherent in the performance of Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer’s environmental compositions for female solo voice. Of particular relevance to this project are the vocal selections from Wolf Music (1996), a collection of pieces from Schafer’s Patria: The Epilogue; And Wolf Shall Inherit the Moon (1983- ). This dissertation aims to facilitate and improve performances of these pieces by providing insight and practical advice to their potential singers. Chapter One looks at how Schafer’s artistic goals, his beliefs, and his professional preoccupations all intersect in his environmental music, and in Wolf Music in particular. The second chapter compares Schafer’s vocal music intended for indoor and outdoor performance to reveal context-related changes in both his compositional style and in the aesthetic values of the music. Chapter Three describes the Wolf Music vocal selections in their original And Wolf Shall Inherit the Moon context, revealing the distinctive ethos that this context facilitates, and the remarkable experiences it has made possible for performers. The fourth chapter provides practical solutions for managing some of the potential challenges of performing these pieces. The implications of the previous chapters are thrown into clear focus in Chapter Five, through my performance journals from preparing Ariadne’s Aria in indoor and outdoor contexts in 2016. Throughout the paper I argue that with these compositions, Schafer is attempting to create something more than a beautiful soundscape; rather he seeks to engage the performer in a process of interactive creation with the natural environment, an interaction intended to be transformative.
Patria, Schafer, Singing, Space, vocal, Wolf
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