SPRECHGESANG, SYNTHESIZER SOUND EFFECTS BETWEEN

Nelida
The
Human
NEDELCUŢ,
Voice in Vlad
MusicTudor
[in the
ENIU
Lyric Show, in Concert, in Composing, in Folklore (Folk Art)]
SPRECHGESANG, SYNTHESIZER
SOUND EFFECTS BETWEEN THEATER
AND LYRICAL PERFORMANCE
Nelida NEDELCUŢ1, Vlad Tudor ENIU2
1. Prof. PhD, „Gh. Dima” Music Academy, Cluj-Napoca
Nelida NEDELCUŢ, prof. PhD at the Music Academy “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj, the subject, music theory, is a
graduate of the same institution, the doctoral research topic in the creation of musical notation century piano music.
Published a study on musicology, attended by national and international communications, coordinated research
projects funded by CNCS and European funds. Many researches are done in the use of information and communication
technologies in music, the editor in chief of the ICT field and musical director of the Center of Excellence of Music
Academy “Gheorghe Dima” from Cluj.
e-mail: [email protected]
2. Stud., „Gh. Dima” Music Academy, Cluj-Napoca
e-mail: [email protected]
Abstract
The contemporary poetic claims various requirements
of musical expression, bringing into attention new
possibilities and performance techniques, and this is a
result of the composers’ desire to obtain from voices
effects and diverse timbral colors.
We are witnessing a considerable broadening of the
goal of vocal writing, which calls for the deployment of
techniques reserved once only to instruments. This trend
is visible from the first reading of a score when we find
problems such as: the maximum extension of registers
specific to each voice category, difficult configurations of
intonation and rhythm and various vocal emission
requirements, requiring a prior rigorous work for the
elaboration of sonorities.
Keywords: sound effect, speech, sung/singing voice,
contemporary music.
INTRODUCTION
Language of contemporary music composer,
based on a wide range of stylistic guidelines,
promoted the introduction of innovated sounds
68
and sound effects through the use of their variety
led to the development of vocal technique to
extremes. We notice in cosistentsight-readings
sco indications of scores of sound achievement,
marked by signs which sometimes differ from one
composer to another, and a rich vocabulary of
expressions detailing the sound effects such as:
• murmur at different heights or extreme
heights;
• Spoken voice, the murmur or whisper;
• nasal scales (the nasal resonance);
• execution of kicks throat with snap lip or
tongue;
• whistling, screaming, crying, laughing.
These requirements sometimes cause bel-canto
precepts renunciation site, shaping a new direc­
tion vocalism technique based on declamation,
extended to sprechgesang variety voice effects.
The legend of their works the composers
make use of a rich catalog of technical terms,
covering multiple anatomical and physiological
volume 1 • issue 1 January / June 2012 • pp. 68-75
SPRECHGESANG, SYNTHESIZER SOUND EFFECTS BETWEEN THEATER
AND LYRICAL PERFORMANCE
possibilities of producing audible voice joints:
lips, labiodentale, Dental, prepalatale, pharynx,
larynx etc. The authors detail the various ways
of building the sound such as nasal singing, burr
– The Bald Soprano by Dan Voiculescu; – The
Love Doctor by Bentoiu Pascal, his voice hoarse
with tone thickening, white lovely voice, loud,
clear, natural voice – Farse medievale by Cristian
Misievici. Voice broadcasting becomes therefore
a complex process, in detail, its education
becomes necessary to solve any technical
difficulties and artistic required by the score.
In order to diversify timbre, composers resort
to novel solutions in choosing voices that will
reproduce music content too.
Choosing performers as belonging to a certain
prototype voice (in relation to the musical make)
is fully turned into account, in addition to
resorting to dissociation of the categories of
voices criteria such as:
• in relation to stylistic era the voice
specialzes in;
• the level of education of the performer's
voice (voice worked, impostor, the belcanto manner and so on.)
• to appeal to specific voice features extraEuropean cultures;
• by calling electro-acoustic equipment.
Such technical vocabulary is encountered
when choosing the characters by Aurel Stroe in
Oresteia II, where the specialization vocaltrend
on separate lines is clear:
– Oreste baritone it is preferred a specialized
voice in the baroque music of a voice
twentieth century opera genre;
– Clytemnestra: mezzo-serious voice
amplified through a microphone portable;
– Egist: pedalist bass, natural vocals
preferably less worked in the manner of
old Russian cantors or certain negrospiritualis singers;
– Chorus: upper voices, voices of jazz, rock,
lower voice, harsh voice, chest, almost
nevibrate.
International Journal of Human Voice
SPRECHGESANG SOFTWARE,
VOCAL EFFECT BETWEEN
SUNG AND SPOKEN SPEECH
In his music played with the spoken word
combination, resulted in the sprechgesang has
been a common practice in opera music of all
time, a practice that gave rise to melodrama,
where recitation of spoken texts associate a
musical background.
New sense of community sprechgesang is
attributed to A. Schonberg – Moses and Aaron
Wozzek works – constituting itself as a component
of many pieces in the style of the second Viennese
school.
If the technical vocabulary of music and
postseriale dodecaphonic the sprechgesang
term has a limited meaning, as the sole element
of rubato in the context of ultradetermina­
tion of serialism, its approach by composers
of other stylistic guidelines, draws an enlar­
gement of the approach of the notion. That
extension is conditioned primarily by the ratio
between the spoken word and the word sung,
and the prevalence of one or other of these
two factors leads to the breakdown of the
meaning given to the sprechgesang meaning
as follows:
• broadly defined the sprechgesang is not a
specific process, but as a principle of
construction, the approximation of speech
is pursued in the first place;
• narrowly defined, from the kind of
declamation obtained by Schoenberg, the
sprechgesang brings the equal collaboration
of spoken word with music, where this
method of execution was defined as an
“organic structure between speech and
song.”1
From this last definition given to the
sprechgesang it is useful to track the prevalence
of one or the other factor from the report
referred to in some of the contemporary
Romanian scores. This is what we do in terms
of different ways of scoring the sprechgesang,
for speech and singing entwining contem­
porary musical2 discourse using declamations,
69
Nelida NEDELCUŢ, Vlad Tudor ENIU
the whisper, the murmur, the cry, of some special
emission of vowels and consonants, using
multiple execution indications (e.g. tongue beats
or hand slaps over the mouth), which will require
the calling of the corresponding graphic signs,
not rarely different from one composer to
another.
70
In the first category can be recalled the
situations where the exact pattern of melodic
notation in times of sung recitation, will result
in a decrease in the importance of the text, resort­
ing at sprechgesang in order to create a certain
atmosphere desired by the composer. In such
cases, use different ways of scoring such as:
volume 1 • issue 1 January / June 2012 • pp. 68-75
SPRECHGESANG, SYNTHESIZER SOUND EFFECTS BETWEEN THEATER
AND LYRICAL PERFORMANCE
• specify the height and pace of traditional
notation, representing musical discourse
on the same height and chain stress depend
on the tonic rhythmic words (e.g. T. Jarda,
La casa de peste drum, C. Ripa, often Pax)
makes use of signs accurately setting the
pace and height – same or changing – of
spoken sounds (crosses for height values​​
for rate notes), as in the work of D. Buciu
or Shout by T. Olah.
International Journal of Human Voice
• some other times special signs sets,
explained in the legend of works. For
example composer L. Dandara in Marea in
the cycle, Imnurile inchinate verii use
empty rhombic notes written on a single
line of the muscal text, to point to the
whispered speech to indicate height change
on three levels, and heights framed in an
angular sign for the glissando speak
towards the shown direction.
71
Nelida NEDELCUŢ, Vlad Tudor ENIU
Another category can be represented by
the works where the musical configuration
derived from speech intonations will generate
imperatively a primordiality of the literary
content. There are times when the melody is kept
within the song itself, which notes down the
approximate heights through specific signs of
each composer.
For example, I.O. Tutuianu in Rugul painii
choral poem consisting entirely of overlapping
recitations, sung or not (in different rhythmic
formulas – 3, 4, 5, 6 –, combined with regular
divisions) that give rise to mobile clusters, notes
72
thoroughly different possibilities of transition
from one sound to another (calling the glissando,
portamento, tremolo) through their signs,
duplicated in the work legend.
Approximately specified heights in moments
of sprechgesang are met at other composers like
C. Taranu, Supplex, St. Niculescu, Aphorismes
d’Heraclius, I.O. Tutuianu, two.
In other cases, composers entirely miss
accurate heights, foreshadowing approximately
rhythmic design. In this way the composer
C. Taranu notes the sprechgesang in the works
Testament si Horea.
volume 1 • issue 1 January / June 2012 • pp. 68-75
SPRECHGESANG, SYNTHESIZER SOUND EFFECTS BETWEEN THEATER
AND LYRICAL PERFORMANCE
In most works we meet a structural equality
between speech and song, equality already
planned by the atolonist composers. Here, the
phonic values of words ​​are similar to the words
together with the sound playing elements and
properties, hence will result in a homogenization
of singing and speech. It falls into the category
of works where the scoring of the sprechgesang
site is free from all semiotic code, execution
remains up to singers, a kind of random prosody.
Such situations are met in:
• D. Voiculescu, who in the choral poem
Omagiu lui Blaga notes the melodic pattern with
horizontal bars placed on the musical paper, and
the x.15-20.
• V. Herman, distinguishes in the legend of
his work Viersuri de dor the signs employed for
spoken sound, murmured, whispered, moments
in which the composer calls on the Sprechgesang
are often placed in rectangular boxes, indicating
that individual repeated execution in different
rhythmic-melodic combinations of that specific
fragment.
Sometimes, for expressive needs, composers
resort to theatrical speech inflections close to
using intonations lower than the semitone 3,
rigorously, or not, specified in the score. Based
on this concept is Ritual pentru setea pamintului
by Myriam Marbe, a work built not so much on
International Journal of Human Voice
the melodic structure itself, as on playing a
musical expression unified by the sonorous
words or syllables. Composing in sections
appeals to microintervals with a dramatic
character: Jelania Scaloianului, Invocarea
pamintului in order to underline expression
bringing lack of coordination of sung rectations
specific to heterophonic process.
Composer M. Moldovan in his work Obârşii
makes use of sprechgesang noted in boxes
indicating ad libitum execution of the fragment,
these moments being built on quarter-tone
oscillations. The legend of the work states that
the microton vacilation will be indicated by
setting the height of a whole note, with undulating
lines.
The entwining of speech and singing style
was a mixed construction was shaped, according
to new means of musical drama. The existence
of a permanent balance between text and music
is the main condition of creation in this area and
none of the two components must dominate or
monopolize the global unbalance it because none
of the elements can replace the other.4 In the
German music foreshadows the distinction
between played sound (Gesangton) and spoken
sound (Sprechton) to achieve moments like these
joining effects such as: use of declamation, a
whisper, a whisper of special emission of vowels
and consonants such as:
73
Nelida NEDELCUŢ, Vlad Tudor ENIU
• shout, whisper composer C. Ripa in A‑Z
(Abracadabra);
• intensive whisper – S. Toduţă: Cintecul
spicelor, where the author adds: “it is
recited in the beginning intensily
whispered, then gradually crescendo is
reached in speech and the intonation also
rises”;
• shouted, whistled, A. Stroe, Oresteia II;
• struck up speech, speech-like sounds song
with Alan Glodeanu, Zamolxe;
• speaking: with spirit, with disgust, with
concern, with effusion, special, recessed,
with false politeness P. Bentoiu, Amorul
doctor.
To these expressions aiming at the voice in
detail the composers join various execution
indications(nasal resonance with throat strikes
etc.), even different degrees of opening of the
mouth:
– Boca Chiusa – L. Profeta: Artists;
– The mouth half open – C. Taranu: Epitaph.
Toduţă Sigismund, in the Court longing
(verses by Lucian Blaga), differs:
•
•
•
•
•
Bocca con Chiusa;
Bocca Aperta’s con Tono scuro;
Bocca Aperta’s Tono con meno scuro;
Bocca Aperta is attacco glottale cone;
Bocca Chiusa’s dental cone Strett.
In vocal music, made with the mouth closed
has the effect of a discreet murmur (often piano)
which brings unique sound colors. The technique
is often used for marking lyrical moments,
diaphanous as in sleep Cintecul somnului (lyrics
by Lucian Blaga) by D. Voiculescu bringing
short lyric fragments in the end labeled with
M-silent murmur or Artistii (Del. lyrics.
O. Joseph s) by L. Profeta where the murmurnoted
on extended passages, accompnied by the
indication pp ad libitum colla bocca chiusa,
nostalgico.
This rich vocabulary of expressions on vocal
technique in detail, shows the concerns of
composers to broaden the possibilities of
expression and vocal technique. Composer
C. Caesar in choral suite Flacari si roti makes
use various sound patterns. The legend of his
74
work noting special signs for oral transmission,
the voice, the more air emission nose, mouth
closed, guttural, larynx or diaphragm tremolo,
tremolo language, interlabial, beating palace
tongue lips beat etc.
These subtleties that must be solved on
timbral plan raise emission and voice problems
to be solved by adopting appropriate observances.
Although there is an inextricable link between
the two forms of expression of human language,
speaking and singing in specialized textbooks
there are revealed large variations of emission
used to sing and talk. Anatomical and physio­
logical theories justify the change of emissions
by working on different nerve centers.
In achieving of a multiple score requirements
in voice emission, the mentioned differences
should not be exaggerated. On the contrary, the
balance of vocal gesture achieved by equal voice
emission, turning natural timbre into account,
resonance amplification techniques and the
approach of each vocal body part, voice tract,
sung talk, will provide the opportunity to become
susceptible to the most varied and subtle
expressive valences. Otherwise, preferring
sonority instead of being articulate, or a too
marked elocution, the soundtrack is prevented
from progressing to facial resonators and due to
this abnormal function, speech becomes faulty.
In this respect it seems appropriate to say, “the
greatest singers give us the feeling that talk, as
the greatest actors in speech touch musicality”.5
CONCLUSIONS
Besides noise emission, voice specialization
becomes an important element for getting new
voice timbres and solve various color
requirements demanded by modern score
requires deep education on a broad stylistic voice
color.
Overall, contemporary music brings an
excessively technical approach to the voice,
which requires real work of sound making,
considerable broadening of voice writing
(rhythm and intonation difficulties stretching,
amplification volume), leading to the creation of
original sound effects. Timbre exponential
volume 1 • issue 1 January / June 2012 • pp. 68-75
SPRECHGESANG, SYNTHESIZER SOUND EFFECTS BETWEEN THEATER
AND LYRICAL PERFORMANCE
growth, of the color effect shows a spectacular
universe, exquisite variety, nuanced performance
requirements formulated6 in the contemporary
composers, in contemporary creation from
which we have, presented a few examples, shows
that the act should be designed in full voice as
a means of music playback, of very diverse
expressive and emotional needs. Their imple­
mentation requires a level of education of very
high voice, possessing a wide range of technical
availability susceptible to various voice emission
requirements proposed by the authors. The
sprechgesang reprisents a sound effect commonly
used in current creation, which sets the human
voice in a synthesizing a state between theater
and lyrical performance.
International Journal of Human Voice
Endnotes
1. Vancea Zeno, Dictionary of musical terms, Scientific
and Encyclopedic Publishing House, Bucharest, 1984.
2. Ionescu A.C., History of music psychology, Music
Publishing House, Bucharest, 1982.
3. Taranu Cornel, Musical stylistic elements, „Gh. Dima”
Music Academy, Cluj-Napoca.
4. Pop Sergiu Dan, Musical theatre, structural and
stylistic reflections, Music Publishing House,
Bucharest, 2000.
5. Cimpeanu Liviu, Voice aesthetic elements,
“Interferenţe”, Bucharest, 1975.
6. Ciocan Dinu, A semiotic theory to interpret voice,
National University of Music Publishing House,
Bucharest, 2005.
75