simplicity in expression seems to be at the heart of Yan Jun’s sonic ideology, choosing to push an idea of “non-technicality” and pure expression without any convolution. He mentioned that most of the things he does are simple. this simplicity – for me – unlocked a brilliant sense of freedom within me when i first heard him talk about it. Why should “unskilled” expression be any less valid that “skilled” expression in the soundarts cannon or musical narrative of the world as a whole? Instead of dedicated his time with technicalities Yan instead dedicates his time to derive expression in its most minimal form.
Yan realised that the definition on talent does not stop the realisation of his own expressive freedom and I find that incredibly liberating. Being against this idea of “virtuosity” could possibly lead to more creative outcomes within the soundart cannon.
My sound work draws inspiration from the altered Nixon speech using documented archived material to shift a narrative created by Coleman Barks of an altered, changed and orientalised Rumi. I want to create a stereo piece, with each channel representing voices as as both original Persian poetry performance and Coleman barks’ performance almost “fight” to gain control of the central sonic field.
I initially wanted to create something of an audio documentary, as I did with my project on Qawwali, with it being informative and enlightening. However as I continued to find performances of Coleman Barks, I wanted to leave my voice out of it, choosing to opt for a slightly more abstract piece that relies on the audience’s thought, and although arguably biased already, the removal of my voice reduces this. My main objective with the piece is to remove myself as an authoritative voice and allow the sonic medium, cuts and edits to speak. I have used panning as well as spatialisation techniques to separate the two voices within the piece, representing voices “fighting” for representation and to be heard. It demonstrates the nature of which the poetry is seen in the world and how it must go through layers to be eventually heard.
“Looking back at this from a much later time, I am very much aware of the benefits of this slow process of internalising the piece. I gradually and very intuitively formed my own interpretation of it, without any pressure from outside, and without any knowledge of versions of it by other performers.” (Jaapblonk.com, 2022)
An example of a poetry performance reinterpreted. One thing I really enjoy about the reinterpretation is the change in performance and the way in which Blonk makes it his own, through a very learned style and consistency.
The article discusses the significant difference between Rumi’s initial literature, which was infused with Quranic teachings, and Rumi’s spiritual and theological understanding and Bark’s translations and how Rumi’s original Persian poetry was a vivid depiction of his Muslim identity and spiritual views. Rumi’s poetry was warped, deprived of the culture it was entrenched in, and changed to a diluted imitation of his original poetry in the hands of colonial ‘translators.’
Coleman Barks was the interpreter who most visibly separated Rumi from his Muslim background and built a profession out of his ‘translations.’ Barks had a Literature degree, but he had never studied Islam or Sufism academically.
A possible topic I wish to explore for my unit would be the performance and listening of mistranslated poetry with a focus on poetry by Rumi and the East by Western poets and translators. This follows up on the research I conducted in my last unit based on the commercialisation of Qawwali and how it affected the genre when bought to a western audience. I wish to explore how mistranslation leads to societal issues within the poetry field as well as the way in which it affects the sonic narrative of performance and listening in contemporary western audiences and settings.
An interesting article on the differences between a lecture and a performance lecture.
“The performance lecture at its best has varied functions and elements operating on multiple levels. These can form a visual rhetoric or performative actions and artistic non-sequiturs Techniques of advertising and propaganda or more straight forward education lectures and slides are used to explore the relationship between the image and the text or between consensus and the facts, or contrasting ideas or narratives.“
Yeoh, B. (2019). Then Do Better. [online] Then Do Better. Available at: https://www.thendobetter.com/arts/2019/3/22/whats-a-performance-lecture [Accessed 14 May 2022].
There were a few drafts for the music, the initial being an unfinished low fidelity piano construction used for mostly exploration into how I would go about making the music that I initially went for but was eventually replaced. However, i used this same structure and idea to construct the second in terms of using a midi chord pack and a sampler to place down the instrumentation using a phone app called Oval Synth.
I use instrumentation from oval synth and used the EXS24 sampler within logic to create something closer to Mort Garsons Plantasia which was the main inspiration i was given for the music.
As someone who is not really musically inclined the music was one of the challenges, I faced as I took on the task. I realised how complex it was to score music for a game, however by the end I felt accomplished with what I came up with. I feel as if the continual trial and error – especially as it was my first time doing something for VR – allowed me to gain a further understanding of the challenges and hurdles for a task like this and by the end made me a lot more technically able.
There were a few things I wanted to consider for the creation of the forest music. 1) I wanted to capture the mystery and enigma of the forest 2) I wanted to encourage exploration 3) I wanted to consider the other sounds that would be at play during gameplay.
capturing the mystery and enigma of the forest:
I think from the jump I had a clear idea of the type of music that would fit – airy, ethereal, magical, dense yet simple. The inspiration we were given gave us a more focused idea and helped me narrow in on the sounds I wanted to use. After exploring what type of synths I wanted to use, I came across oval synth which allowed me to create really vibrant, enigmatic sounds. To create the arrangement I sampled each note into Logic and used a MIDI chord pack to help me arrange the piece. I mostly only used one instrument in the forefront to keep the sound minimal and more immersive.
2) Encourage exploration:
I think by making the music more mysterious it would inspire the player to want to explore the entire forest as a whole. The gameplay is quite linear, the player goes to a certain place and unlocks another, however in between that, there is a form of non-linear exploration and tribulation the player must undergo before seeing the next level. The player does not initially know what is where, especially with the dense and rich environment of the forest – the music should match.
3) I wanted to consider the other sounds that would be at play during gameplay:
With such a vibrant and dynamic environment, there would a large soundscape separate from the music. I had to think about the way in which the other sounds would interact with each other as well as the way in which the music would interact with the foley. I tried to keep the music very minimal and harmonise with the background and environment so as not to disrupt the dynamism of the overall soundscape.
During this session we worked on recording the voices for Master and the oins – both the villain within and the story and the creatures the character works with within the story. Both, me, jack and james all made attempts at recording and eventually went with my voice for master and Jacks for the oins which we would then edit to get a closer and more accurate result. We were given inspiration and details on how to voice the character as well as a script:
This was the first time I had ever voiced anyone/anything for a video game, but I tried to use the inspiration given to me to do the best villain voice I could. I later went on to do more takes in my own time as well as use pitch shifting, reverb and vocal transformer effects to finalise the result in which the MA students were happy with.
For the Oins, Jack voiced it using both the script and the inspiration. This was a lot more difficult compared to Masters voice as it was a mythical creature rather than a human voice. A lot of editing was required in post to make something accurate and something that represented the voice of the oins. However during the recording session we tried to get the sound of a high-pitched creature like voice as close as possible keeping the essence of the inspiration that was given to us.
here the visual element (a generative art composition of my graphic score) would be projected from the ceiling and form as the piece progresses. This would be played on a continual loop like the sound.
