Tag Archive for: overtone choir

Exploring Vowel Overtone Singing in “Singing in Tune with Nature”

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Das neue Chorwerk “Singing in Tune with Nature” der australischen Komponistin Amanda Cole demonstriert wieder einmal, wie vielfältig die kreativen Möglichkeiten des vokalen Obertongesangs in der Chormusik sind. Dieses innovative SATB-Chorwerk war Finalist bei den APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards 2021 in der Kategorie Chor.

“Singing in Tune with Nature” wurde für das N.E.O. Voice Festival 2020 komponiert, das abenteuerliche Vokalmusik zelebriert. Das Festival wurde gegründet, um das weitreichende Potenzial der menschlichen Stimme zu erforschen und neue Werke vorzustellen, die von der neuesten Vokalforschung inspiriert sind.

In diesem Stück verwendet Cole die mikrotonale Reinintonation anstelle der zwölftönigen gleichschwebenden Stimmung des Klaviers. Dadruch wird ermöglicht, dass jedes gesungene Intervall direkt aus der natürlichen harmonischen Obertonreihe abgeleitet wird, die in jeder Stimme vorhanden ist. Der Effekt erzeugt schimmernde Wolken schimmernder Obertöne, ähnlich wie beim Obertongesang, nur zarter, versteckter, und – wie der Hörtest von Wolfgang Saus erfahrbar macht – für jeden Menschen ein wenig anders.

Laut Programmheft ist dieser Ansatz als Metapher für die Wertschätzung und Konzentration auf die Wunder der natürlichen Welt gedacht. Die mikrotonale Stimmung erfordert ein tiefes Zuhören zwischen den Sängern, die zu einem einheitlichen Chor verschmelzen.

Australian composer Amanda Cole’s recent choral work “Singing in Tune with Nature” showcases the creative possibilities of vocal overtone singing. This innovative SATB choir piece is a finalist in the 2021 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards in the choral category.

“Singing in Tune with Nature” was composed for the 2020 N.E.O. Voice Festival, which celebrates adventurous vocal music. The festival was founded to explore the expansive potential of the human voice and feature new works inspired by cutting-edge vocal research.

In this piece, Cole utilizes microtonal just intonation tuning, rather than the twelve-tone equal temperament of the piano. This allows each sung interval to come directly from the natural harmonic overtone series present in every voice. The effect creates shimmering clouds of lush overtones, similar to overtone singing, only more delicate, more hidden, and – as Wolfgang Saus’ hearing test makes it possible to experience – a little different for each person.

According to the program notes, this approach is meant as a metaphor for appreciating and focusing on the wonders of the natural world. The microtonal tuning requires deep listening between singers, blending as a unified choir.

Beyond her choral writing, Amanda Cole is known for composing experimental electronic and instrumental music. She writes software for interactive performances, often collaborating with other artists. Cole holds a PhD in composition from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she currently teaches.

Her nomination for this APRA AMCOS Award recognizes Cole’s adventurous musical voice. “Singing in Tune with Nature” expands our conception of choral possibility, embracing the voice’s hidden overtone colors. Exploring new tuning systems and extended techniques, Cole’s music connects to universal elements of nature and the human spirit.

Neben ihrer Chorarbeit ist Amanda Cole auch als Komponistin experimenteller elektronischer und instrumentaler Musik bekannt. Sie schreibt Software für interaktive Aufführungen und arbeitet dabei oft mit anderen Künstlern zusammen. Cole hat einen Doktortitel in Komposition vom Sydney Conservatorium of Music, wo sie derzeit unterrichtet.

Ihre Nominierung für den APRA AMCOS Award ist eine Anerkennung für Coles abenteuerlustige musikalische Sprache. “Singing in Tune with Nature” (Singen im Einklang mit der Natur) erweitert unsere Vorstellung von chorischen Möglichkeiten, indem es die verborgenen Obertonfarben der Stimme berücksichtigt. Indem sie neue Stimmsysteme und erweiterte Techniken erforscht, verbindet sich Coles Musik mit universellen Elementen der Natur und des menschlichen Geistes.

A Costly Final Chord

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How Things Fall. He had little time to arrange his piece for Nordic Voices, says Koka Nikoladze, born in 1989 in Georgia, now living in Norway, composing and inventing instruments. How Things Fall and then spectrally spray, “How Things Fall,” 2021, performed by the Norwegian professional ensemble Nordic Voices, known for brilliantly handling overtone singing (from 1:44). Nikoladze keeps the final chord from us. He auctioned the final chord on ebay and realized $13,900. I love the Nordic self-irony, just right for lockdown times.

Sōmei Satō – MANDARA, Music for Tape (1982)

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Sōmei Satō creates a multi-track overtone choir with his own voice and uses vowel overtone singing as an effect. I have heard something similar from Roberto Laneri’s “Two views of the Amazon” from 1981. At the beginning of the 1980s, this probably sounded more like electronic music to most listeners, as overtone singing was still virtually unknown in the West.

Premiere 1982. Tokyo.
Commitioned by Japan Foundation
RD:ALM/AL-26, NEW ALBION/NA-099, NA-016

European Overtone Choir

28.02.19 – 22h – DLF Kultur Radio Broadcast about the Europa Obertonchor

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The Deutschlandfunk Kultur broadcasts on Thursday, 28 February 2019 from 22h to 22h30 a radio feature about the European Overton Choir. The EOC is an experimental project choir that once a year from Easter Monday invites interested singers for a week to experiment with the potential and new sound possibilities of overtones in choral music. Works will be sung by notes as well as improvisations developed with new methods.

DLF Kultur, Thursday 28. Feb 2019, 22:00 h

⇒European Overton Choir, next project week 22.-28. April 2019

Overtones in Canon | Mundwerk

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The Munich a cappella group Mundwerk sings Brother Jaques not only with voices in canon, but also with overtones. My student and master class graduate Oliver Zunker (now no longer with the group) sings together with his colleague Jens Ickert the canon exclusively with overtones. Oliver himself is an excellent overtone teacher, as you can hear. I think the whole choral arrangement is superb!

All tones of the melody are already contained in a single keynote (harmonic 6 to 13, cf. composing with overtones). So you can sing them on one fundamental note.

Here you can download the sheet music for free →

Sources & Links

https://www.facebook.com/oliver.zunker?fref=ts

http://www.mundwerk.biz/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A8re_Jacques

La Grande Bellezza – with overtones to the Academy Award | Vox Clamantis

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CD Filia Sion

Vox Clamantis - Filia Sion

Die Musik zum Film “La Grande Bellezza” (Die große Schönheit, 2013) von Paolo Sorrentino bedient sich u. a. der Obertongesang-Interpretation von Pérotins “Beata viscera” des estnischen a cappella Ensembles Vox Clamantis. Beata viscera ist auf der CD Filia Sion enthalten.

Beata viscera ist ein Werk des französischen Komponisten Pérotin aus dem 12. Jh und gehört zur frühesten Mehrstimmigkeit in Europa.

Obertongesang verleiht der Komposition eine mystische Stimmung. Natürlich ist Obertongesang nicht Bestandteil der Originalkomposition von Perotin, sondern wurde von Vox Clamantis hinzugefügt. Mir gefällt diese Modifikation sehr, besonders deshalb, weil die Obertöne kontrolliert und musikalisch integriert werden. Sie bilden eine eigenständige Melodie und sind vermutlich nicht, wie weit verbreitet, Zufallsprodukte, sondern ganz gezielt gesungen. Obwohl manchmal die Dur-Terz der Obertonreihe mit der Moll-Terz der dorischen Melodie in Konflikt steht. Ich bringe meinen Masterclass-Studenten bei, diese Konflikte gezielt zu umgehen, es sei denn, sie wären ausdrücklich erwünscht.

Beata viscera hatte übrigens früher schon einmal das Hilliard Ensemble zu einer Neuinterpretation mit dem Saxophonisten Jan Garbarek angeregt (auf der CD Officium).

Bildnachweis: Beata Viscera von Perotin (Wolfenbüttel Digital Library) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

 

Aachen Overtone Choir in “The Life Of The Buddha” (BBC Documentary)

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The Life of the Buddha. The London-based composer Glenn Keiles composed the film music for this 50-minute BBC documentary for the Aachen Obertonchor conducted by Wolfgang Saus in 2002. With a small group we recorded the choir part in a single day in St. Gereon in Giesenkirchen. Participants: Britta Blisniewski, Ellen Kreft, Helga and Wolfhard Barke, Chris and Tim Ellis, Ralf Malzkorn (and I of course).

Glenn brought the production manager and all the equipment from England, just to fly on to South Africa the next day. He must have mixed the pre-recorded solos and instrumental parts during the flight, because already in the evening the master was ready to listen.

Since we did not have an overall impression of the piece in advance and did not know the film, it was an exciting work to record the phrases according to the composer’s very precise sound concepts. The overtones were partly notated. In some cases there was room for improvisation. The fundamental tones were always precisely written down.

The reactions of Glenn’s fellow composers in London were very interesting: they wanted to know how he programmed such a natural and lively sounding synthesizer sound. In 2003 overtone singing in chorus was still largely unknown to composers.

International movie data base: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1806108/

 

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