| by Hannah Bosma |
This paper presents the preliminary results of my investigation into gender issues relating to voice sounds in computer music.
Introduction:
The sound of the human voice is an important element in a great
deal of computer music. In most cases these sounds - whether human,
manipulated or synthetic - have a sex: they are, or seem, to
originate from a woman or a man. Do female and male voices have
different roles in computer music?
Research into voice and gender in film and in opera indicates that
in these genres, male and female voices have different roles but
does this also apply to computer music?
Through the examination of a body of computer compositions, certain
gender patterns do become apparent and the most prominent will be
discussed in this paper. These gender patterns can then be used as
a frame of reference for interpreting individual compositions.
The paper concludes with an examination of selected compositions by
women composers which are markedly different from the generally-
identified gender patterns.
1. Male and female voices in film and opera
Joke Dame discerned a similarity in the way the female voice is
used in opera and in film. She based this on research by Kaja
Silverman and Michel Poizat, amongst others.
Silverman found in classic Hollywood cinema a link between the
female voice, the body and impotence, while the male voice was more
frequently disembodied and powerful. The impotence of female film
characters plays on different levels. Firstly it appears in the
story, where women are often "confined", shut up in small rooms or
threatened with death. This weak position is coupled with the non-
verbal expression of impotence -- the female cry, the scream of
fear or death. Silverman states that, thanks to synchronisation,
the female voice in Hollywood film is always attached to a female
body. The "voice-over", a voice that speaks without having a
physical persona in the film, is reserved for the male voice. The
voice-over has a special status, which can be compared to the voice
of God: the voice-over speaks from a superior position and knows
more than the characters in the film. Discursive impotence, says
Silverman, is projected onto the woman because the man could not
tolerate it in himself. "The male subject "proves" his symbolic
potency through the repeated demonstration of the female subject's
symbolic impotence" (Silverman: 24). Silverman wants "to read the
loss and difference associated with the female subject as a symptom
of the male condition" (24).
Dame notes that Poizat found a similar pattern in 19th century
opera. According to him in opera the scream of the female character
is central to the jouissance vocale. This scream, often a
scream of death, is formed by the soprano's high, non-linguistic
singing. Indeed, Dame points out how, according to Clément,
the female protagonists in libretti from well-known 19th century
opera's usually die (151-153). Throughout the history of opera
sopranos' arias have become steadily higher, and at high tones the
words of the singer become unintelligible. In addition, through
melismatic singing in colloratura the word is fragmented into
sound. For male roles, however, there has been a steady increase in
spoken language. "In this evolution, the [female singer] is tending
to disappear as a subject and become purely a voice, simply an
objet-voix" (Dame:153).
2. Male and female voices in computer music.
The linkage of the male voice to language and the female voice to
wordless sounds is, therefore, a pattern that can be discerned in
different areas, such as film and opera. Dame and Silverman's
research lead me to ask if similar gender patterns can be found in
computer vocal (and other electro-vocal) music.
To find out, all the compositions from the CD series Computer Music
Currents (1989-1992) from Wergo, were studied. The CMC series
comprises 11 CDs with a total of 52 compositions by different
composers. In 19 of these compositions there are vocal sounds, or
sounds which are strongly reminiscent of the voice. The various
voices used in these compositions were listened to and from this,
a list of different identifying factors was drawn up relating to:
sex, length, text, comprehensibility, type of voice (speaking,
singing, other), live or electronically manipulated, what type of
manipulation, and the role of the voice within the composition.
The most obvious gender pattern in computer music using the voice
is the absence of pieces for male singer and tape, as opposed to
the frequency of pieces for female singer and tape. This female
singing is mainly associated with the classical voice type and is
often non-linguistic. A second pattern is that male voices have
more spoken text than female. (I perceived these patterns also in
a lot of other electroacoustic compositions.)
2.1. Female singing
In the CMC series there are three compositions for female singer
and tape: Il Nome by Richard Karpen (Soprano: Judith
Bettina), L'autre face by Jean-Claude Risset (Soprano:
Irène Jarsky) and Anima by Lars-Gunnar Bodin
(Mezzosoprano: Kersten Ståhl).
The voice parts of these compositions are predominantly vocals with
many high tones which are sung by a classically-trained voice. In
Anima the vocal part consists entirely of textless vocalise,
sung in a classically-schooled voice. In the singing part of
L'autre face, there is a poem as text, but the impression is
more of wordless song rather than a poem. The text is not given in
the sleeve notes, only the title of the poem. Along with occasional
spoken, whispered or sung words, the soprano part is predominantly
vocalise with many notes, wide intervals in pitch and high tones.
The style of singing is classical, with occasional unconventional
vocal sound such as vocal fry. Only in Il Nome does text
play a meaningful role. The lyrics are, as stated in the notes,
about the death of a woman in a neo-fascist bomb attack on Bologna
in 1980. But in this composition too the vocal part is for the most
part comprised of melismatic vocalises of great range and high
notes.
2.2. Live performance
Silverman described the linkage of the voice and (the image of) the
female body with impotence in Hollywood film. How is the position
of the female singer in the live performance of computer music?
With performances of compositions for female singer and tape, there
is not only the combination of voice and image of a woman: the
singer herself is present.
On the one hand a female singer performing live often makes a
powerful impression with the sound of her voice, her vocal
virtuosity and her physical presence, as Dame and Abbate also note.
In addition, she is not only performing the composers' work, but is
interpreting and creating, becoming jointly responsible for the
music.
On the other hand live performances of compositions of singer and
tape sometimes give the impression that the singer is "imprisoned"
by the tape's rigidity and has to work very hard to produce the
right notes in the right time. The freedom in timing that a singer
often has when performing with piano or orchestra is gone. In
addition, the electronically created sounds can sometimes swamp the
voice of the female singer, diminishing her power and role.
In the performance of compositions for female singer and tape, both
options are possible. Janice Jackson's performance of L'autre
face at De Ijsbreker in Amsterdam on December 15, 1994,
differed markedly from her earlier performance of the work at De
Kikker in Utrecht on October 19, 1994. In Amsterdam she introduced
her performance by saying what the work meant for her, rather than
by outlining what the composer of the piece had in mind. Her
performance was not lyrical and expressive (as Risset indicated in
the sleeve notes to the CD and in the performance programme) but
introverted and concentrated, with varying timbre and often soft.
Instead of a vocalise with lot of notes (which was my impression of
her earlier performance, and also of the recording of the
performance by Irène Jarsky on the CMC cd), Janice Jackson
seemed to sing a "soundpainting". Now the tape acted as a source of
inspiration rather than a confining structure.
2.3. Spoken Text
Male voices in computer compositions are predominantly used for
presenting spoken text (eg. The Vanity of words by Roger
Reynolds, A Study in White by Joji Yuasa and Don Quixotte
Corporation by Alain Savouret). An important exception to this
is the composition Any Resemblance Is Purely Coincidental by
Charles Dodge, in which a classically schooled male voice takes a
prominent position.
The male singing voice in Any Resemblance Is Purely
Coincidental is that of Enrico Caruso, singing "Vesti la
giubba" from Ruggiero Leoncavallo's opera "I Pagliacci", a
recording from 1907 that had been abstracted from its original
accompaniment with the help of a computer. Caruso's singing, which
sometimes sounds as it did in the original recording and sometimes
has been significantly manipulated, is accompanied by a live
pianist. This male singing is not only of beautiful tone, but is an
object trouvé, a musical quote from our common
musical heritage, that for a large part is used for its symbolic
function.
There are also computer compositions with female speaking voices,
but these voices are less when compared to song for female voices
and speech for male voices (e.g. Interphone by Michel
Decoust, Ogni pensiero vola by Francis White and A Study
In White by Joji Yuasa).
As it grew dark by Paul Lansky, takes a special place in
compositions for female speaking voice. The voice can be heard
through almost the entire composition. The text (from Jane
Eyre by Charlotte Brontë) is difficult to understand
because the spoken text has been electronically manipulated and
fragmented. According to the composer's notes, the aim of the piece
is to put the listener in the position of overhearing, through
which not everything can be understood. This implies that the
electronic manipulation is not affecting the voice, but listener's
hearing. Silverman states that discursive impotence is projected on
the woman because it could not be accepted by the "normal" male
subject. Lansky suggests that the discursive impotence of the
wordless female voice can be reflected back on the listener.
3. Different female voices
The above described gender patterns can function as a frame of
reference for the interpretation of individual compositions. The
ways female voices are used in some compositions by women composers
become particularly meaningful when related to the gender patterns.
I will briefly discuss two computer-vocal compositions by Wende
Bartley, based on listening to recordings on CD and reading the
accompanying texts.
Ellipsis is for female singer (Fides Krucker) and tape
(IMED-9414-CD); the singing part has no text. Therefore, it follows
the first gender pattern; but there are also remarkable
differences. The singing part of Ellipsis consists of extended
vocal techniques such as a rapid repetitive series of
glottal attacks, multiphonics and vocal fry. The singer uses her
chest voice a lot. The vocal phrases and the voice sounds are based
on the breathing of the singer and contain glissando's, long
sustained pitches and repetitions of pitches and motives, with
changing timbre. The tape does not seem to be a coercive structure
and the singing appears to come from within the singer herself. In
the way the singing evolves throughout the piece (descending vocal
lines in the beginning; becoming more and more varied, articulated
and energetic; ending with long resonating tones, full of
overtones) a story about femininity is symbolised. Ellipsis
is, according to the programme notes, based on lunar mythology,
with 'the unfolding of the lunar cycle, with its three stages of
waxing, full and waning moon [, t]raditionally [...] associated
with three images of woman: virgin, mother, and crone.
Ellipsis [...] creates another three-fold story of woman,
[...] the spiritual and psychological empowerment of woman's
collective consciousness as it evolved through time: The Age of
Darkness, Creating a New Space, and The Age of Resonance'.
Rising Tides of Generations Lost (IMED-9414-CD) is 'one
attempt to retell a small portion of the story of woman'. In this
composition words and sentences gradually come to the fore out of
unintelligible fragments of voice sounds. The non-linguistic sounds
in the piece are not really "lost" and the intelligible and semi-
intelligible fragments of sentences and words and non-verbal voice
sounds are combined. The unintelligible voice sounds are not "pure
tone" but have a meaning in the context of the composition, in
combination with intelligible words. These words (such as: 'this
secret life', 'no one could speak', 'we were daughters of evil', 'I
compel you to see and feel', 'to have the courage and consciousness
to act for your own ...', 'though you may face the scorn and
contempt of the world for doing so'. 'I remember crying', 'I was
scared to death') and sounds seem to sketch, as well as a history
of woman (as the composer suggests), a history of the musical
representation of the female voice from a female perspective.
4. Conclusion
Like in film and in opera, there is a tendency in computer music to
use male and female voices in different ways: the female voice is
associated with (traditionally trained) singing, often without
words and often live, and the male voice is more often associated
with spoken language.
This gender pattern seems to be a useful frame of reference to
interpret individual compositions. For instance, the ways female
voices are used in some compositions by women composers become
particularly meaningful when related to the gender patterns. Various
ways of singing, speaking, non-linguistic and linguistic
female voice sounds, written text and electronic sound manipulations
are often combined by women composers to create different
stories about femininity in words and sounds.
Bibliography: