DANCING

2012

Intermedio (Justin West)

Participants walk through a white-space sound structure and experience morphing choral intensities.  24 voices sing out from speakers embedded within the structure.  Each person evokes spacial transformations of the music through their own movement.  Walking in the center creates the aural effect of a unified ensemble.  Each speaker plays the voice of one singer for the duration of the piece.  Outside of the hexagonal structure are four pylons that project a sound field that frames the choral consorts

Each singer rendered the melody several times during the recording process.  The music was half-composed/half-generated through a process underwent by each singer.  During the recording, the singers were given prompts to guide their inflection.  They were asked to sing in response to another recorded voice or to come prepared with their own interpretations of the given melody.  The aim was to preserve the vocal quality of an individual singing alone within the context of the ensemble presentation of the piece.  About half of the singers had vocal training, half did not.  The singers represent diverse backgrounds, musical traditions, and ages.  The youngest singer was 4 year old and the oldest was 73.