In musical environments, the human voice is entangled in a number of structural, conceptual and cultural frameworks that enable it to convey a multiplicity of meanings. In the discussion of musical globalisation, vocal music takes a particularly important role, since this versatility allows for both cultural rapprochement or hybridity as well as the reinforcement of local, regional, and national identities. This article introduces a first approach to an analytical framework for an intercultural history and analytical methodology of vocal music based on comparative studies of both traditional and contemporary works and genres and their construction of musical meaning. The articulation of the voice, conceived here as a multifarious passage between speech and song, is discussed in three major sections: »mapping«, »fragmentation and montage«, and »aesthetics of presence«. First, the plausibility and limitations of classification systems for spoken/ sung vocal styles (as developed by George List and Kenji Hirano, among others) and their application as tools for a comparison of culturally and historically diverse »voices« are examined. A closer analysis of the vocal style gidayū-bushi reveals a highly »fragmented« vocal microstructure based on a minute theoretical conception of delivery techniques, held together by the unique timbre of the recitor. Connections between Chinese jingju (Peking Opera) and Tan Dun’s »vocal calligraphy« as well as the controversial discussions on the vocal part in Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire are reviewed to imply that these vocal styles, too, can be conceived of as multiply fragmented, as microstructural »montages« that (intentionally or not) place much responsibility on the agency of the vocal performer. A comparable influence of the performer can be observed in recent Japanese vocal music that evokes the archaic power of single words or phonems (Hifumi Shimoyama, Y şji Takahashi). The high degree of articulatory differentiation closely connected to unique features of the Japanese language (including specific regional forms) found in these works is finally connected to the theory of recitative around 1600 based on a similar conception of the Italian language (Jacopo Peri, Giulio Caccini) and to its reception in Salvatore Sciarrino’s unique form of vocal writing that the composer has termed »sillabazione scivolata« [gliding syllable articulation]. These diverse case studies suggest that intercultural history and analysis of vocal music must take into account the major role of the vocal performer and its complex interaction with musical texts and aural traditions in both contemporary and traditional contexts. It can be further argued that vocal music generally tends to represent Roland Barthes’ concept of »genosong«, a kind of singing that originates from the »materiality of language«. A comprehensive theory of vocal music, finally, can neither be reduced to the discussion of its encoding by notation, nor to its performative act, but rather has to consider cultural memory and reception processes as key contexts of a cultural »codification« that produces meaning. Such a broad perspective has to consider prominently intercultural passages such as those introduced in this essay.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:87067 |
| Date | 12 September 2023 |
| Creators | Utz, Christian |
| Contributors | Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst |
| Publisher | PFAU-Verlag |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | German |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:bookPart, info:eu-repo/semantics/bookPart, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 02, urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa2-854170, qucosa:85417 |
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