Study for Voice and ISPW

This was my first finished piece using Max-fts. It explores the role of the voice in singing and the space between intelligibility and musicality. Much of the computer part consists of assembling melodic and phonetic patterns by playing back short (<600msec) pre-recorded samples. These samples are replaced towards the end of the piece with live input from the singer.

The text comes from Shakespeare’s Richard II:

(And now) my tongue’s use is to me no more
Than an unstringed viol or a harp,
Or like a cunning instrument cased up,
Or, being open, put into his hands
That knows no touch to tune the harmony:
Within my mouth you have engaol’d my tongue,
Doubly portcullis’d with my teeth and lips;
And dull unfeeling barren ignorance
Is made my gaoler to attend on me.