I have been spending lots of time consuming the work of Meredith Monk and Joan La Barbara, two heroes of mine in the sound art and extended vocal technique world. Listening to La Barbara’s Tapesong has helped me to flesh out my understanding of extended vocal technique. I’ve been experimenting with this world for about a year now. Much of what I write vocally is consonant, taking influence from jazz and the folk tradition, as well as monody and Gregorian plainchant. I like to write melodies as a separate entity from functional harmony, often favouring long, modal lines over an allegiance to the tonic and the dominant. However, listening to La Barbara and Monk’s work, particularly Monk’s 1971 album Key, has given me the desire to blend the use of extended technique and rich, multitracked, consonant harmony. I am someone who will virtually always choose to multitrack my vocal harmonies because I feel my tone of voice lends itself well to the textural quality of the technique. However, I set myself a challenge exercise to use only four vocal tracks altogether – two employing straight-ahead, consonant singing and two using extended vocal techniques. I sang a two part quartal harmony in my middle register, then complemented these with two higher lines using extended vocal technique. As I sang I massaged my Adam’s apple and slid between falsetto notes to try and capture the microtonal intervals. I stepped back from the four track blend and listened. I was immediately captured by the technique. I felt that if added many, many more layers to this I could use this blend of styles as the fervour portion of the suite.
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