for 6 singers and electronics
Written for and dedicated to the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart
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Introduction Erinnerungen, in Farben (Memories, in Colours)
The unmistakable timbre of the voice is a fascinating phenomenon. In Farben, the natural timbre of the voice takes centre stage.
The voice is as personal as one's own memories. This, and the question of the immediacy of composed language, were decisive factors in the choice of sound material: experiences from the singers' past, recounted by the singers themselves. One after the other, each begins to tell a story in their native language. However, due to the overlapping of the six voices, only individual fragments are recognisable to the listener. Thus, the personal ultimately does not really become public, even though it is presented publicly. After a while, the mass of speech is thinned out, filtered further and further, until in the end only a shimmer of sounds remains. It is the frequencies that make up the respective timbre. The singers hear individual pitches from the mixture of sounds and sing these notes. The electronics filter the sung pitches out of the mixture of sounds. In this way, more and more notes are removed from the sound until a single last note disappears into silence, where the memories remain entirely personal.
Setup
The six singers are positioned in a large semicircle on stage. Each singer has a microphone—preferably a dynamic microphone with a cardioid pattern—mounted on a stand. The voices are processed electronically at the sound desk and then routed to four loudspeakers arranged behind the ensemble, corresponding to the performers’ positions. Alternatively, the loudspeakers can be placed in front of the ensemble if stage monitors are available to the performers.
Performance Instructions for Singers
During the preparation, each singer thinks of a personal story they would like to tell. Some examples:
About one’s parents
About siblings
About one’s birthplace
First love
The most memorable concert experience
A school prank
A memory of a particular scent
…
It is preferable not to tell the same story in every rehearsal or performance. Each story should last longer than one minute, but not much longer than two minutes.
One person begins telling their story; after about ten seconds, the next person joins in. This continues until all six are speaking. The stories should be told in the mother tongue or dialect, as naturally as possible.
After a while, you will hear the sound of your own voice through the loudspeakers. This sound will then be progressively filtered. When you notice the effect of the filtering, you may bring your story to a conclusion.
Once all stories have been told, and tonal elements are discernible in the filtered vocal sound, each singer individually selects a pitch that they attempt to “sing away.” To achieve this, the pitch should be held for approximately 7–8 seconds.
The singing is performed on a freely chosen vowel. The volume of the electronics should be adjusted accordingly.
When all pitches have been “sung away,” the piece comes to an end.
Performance Instructions for Electronics
For the electronics, a laptop running software such as Max/MSP (or similar) and an audio interface with at least six inputs and four outputs are required. It is recommended to insert a compressor or limiter before processing to smooth out dynamic differences.
While the singers are speaking, each microphone is recorded as a sample. After a short period, the sample is played back in a loop, overlapping with itself. This process occurs for each singer. Simultaneously, the recorded sample is analysed in terms of frequency. The most dominant frequencies of each voice are sent to resonance filters, which, with a very narrow bandwidth, progressively filter the voices over approximately two minutes, until only the individual pitches of their filters are audible.
Additionally, the dynamic contours of the speech are smoothed via an envelope follower, in order to blur the natural accentuation of the voice.
Finally, the frequencies of the microphone signals are analysed in real time and compared with the filter frequencies. If frequencies overlap, the corresponding filter is muted.
Cyrill Lim, 2019