I Speak Music A project transforming our speaking voice into a wide spectrum of music
Project Idea
Curated by Viola Yip, this project is dedicated to the power and expressiveness of the natural speaking voice and would like to expand its potential as a musical instrument.
Our project aims to:
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Explore and develop new repertoire for speaking voice(s).
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Showcase a wide spectrum of sounds that a speaking voice can create.
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Build a community of performers and composers who have the same passion and dedication to use the natural speaking voice, vocal sounds, phonemes and text in music.
Why Speaking Voice?
Because we all have one!
We use our speaking voice as a vehicle to communicate and express on a daily basis; and we also use music to communicate and express in a sense. Why don't we use our speaking voice to "converse" in a musical way in order to achieve some of the most natural, direct and genuine musical expression?
If you are a musical individual, you can do so much with your voice: you can play around vocal sounds, phonemes, text, etc. That's why we like the idea; we can make music with our natural voice!
Spoken word in sound poetry was first explored by Dadaist and Futurist artists in the early 20th century, followed by adventurous composers who uncovered many new ways of using the singing voice and even asked instrumentalists to make vocal sounds. We would like to extend this spirit of adventure and experimentation to the speaking voice.