Inner Voices (1986-7)
for solo voice with extended techniques [11 mins.]
Premiered 4 November 1987 by soprano Melanie Tomasz
"Music From This Century" series at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Also performed by Deborah Kavasch in Las Vegas; (1990) and Lucy Shelton during Outside the Box 2012
Pamela Martinez in Mexico (2014) and Danielle Aldach in a straight-jacket! (2014)
Opus 18 — A.S.C.A.P. work I.D. 393827813
SCORE
"Music From This Century" series at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Also performed by Deborah Kavasch in Las Vegas; (1990) and Lucy Shelton during Outside the Box 2012
Pamela Martinez in Mexico (2014) and Danielle Aldach in a straight-jacket! (2014)
Opus 18 — A.S.C.A.P. work I.D. 393827813
SCORE
PROGRAM NOTES:
Inner Voices (1986-7)
Inner Voices was written for soprano Melanie Tomasz after hearing her sing Berio’s Sequenza No. III. This is a wild solo voice piece using as it’s text the IPA — the International Phonetic Alphabet – not India Pale Ale!
The language text in just about every song, in a way, spoils the abstract quality of the music. Words give meaning, real life meaning, relating words to exact emotions that the listener is to understand. In wordless music, meaning is derived only from the sounds, the pitches, tunes, rhythms dynamics, and the other musical parameters. Those sounds express a meaning that we all infer differently. This is music.
While Inner Voices has no real words, it does have sound. But because a person is singing these sounds, using mostly gibberish “words,” it may seem to the listener that words may be being expressed, that something is actually making sense in reality. Well, it’s not, but it wasn’t lost to me while I was composing the piece that it would seem like it. I knew that many of the phonetic sounds would sound close to words – in many languages. So, although this may seem quite abstract, it really is somewhat closer to reality than any wordless piece of music.
Inner Voices (1986-7)
Inner Voices was written for soprano Melanie Tomasz after hearing her sing Berio’s Sequenza No. III. This is a wild solo voice piece using as it’s text the IPA — the International Phonetic Alphabet – not India Pale Ale!
The language text in just about every song, in a way, spoils the abstract quality of the music. Words give meaning, real life meaning, relating words to exact emotions that the listener is to understand. In wordless music, meaning is derived only from the sounds, the pitches, tunes, rhythms dynamics, and the other musical parameters. Those sounds express a meaning that we all infer differently. This is music.
While Inner Voices has no real words, it does have sound. But because a person is singing these sounds, using mostly gibberish “words,” it may seem to the listener that words may be being expressed, that something is actually making sense in reality. Well, it’s not, but it wasn’t lost to me while I was composing the piece that it would seem like it. I knew that many of the phonetic sounds would sound close to words – in many languages. So, although this may seem quite abstract, it really is somewhat closer to reality than any wordless piece of music.
Danielle Aldach performing INNER VOICES in a straight-jacket