SOPRANOTRONICS 101. AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH WITH REPERTORIAL PROPOSAL

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbmusica.2023.spiss2.23

Keywords:

Sopranotronics, Soprano Fach, electronic music

Abstract

The current work aims to present an investigation of the past seventy years of Sopranotronics repertoire, approached through the eye of the performer. The Soprano Fach and the electronic environment merged in the last decades into a new interdisciplinary performance field, which is both artistic and scientific in its making. The Sopranotronics now offers a fresh vocal repertoire with challenging drama stories and thought-provoking art. Whether expressing a political disagreement (Nono’s La Fabbrica Illuminata) or describing a mythical story (Babbitt’s Philomel) in chamber works; writing a four-hour opera without dramatic action and a storyline (Glass’s Einstein on the Beach) or inventing the disembodied performance while the most humane character of the opera suffers because of this (Machover’s DATP) or chanting for spirits in an electro - acoustic aria (Crețu’s I.X.@100) and challenging any musical and vocal establishment in a dadaistic formula (Beldean’s Tekmirio) brings forward the human component of this experimental art worth performing.

References

Music Scores:

Beldean, Laurentiu. Tekmirio. Original Manuscript, Brasov, 2022.

Cretu, Cãtãlin. I.X.@100. Original Manuscript, Bucuresti, 2022.

Glass, Philip and Wilson, Robert. Einstein on the Beach, 1976, full-score, Dunvagen Music Publishers, Inc. made possible through Chester Music, UK via nkoda.com.

Machover, Tod. Death and The Power, The Robot Opera, Hanoa Productions, Inc., Hendon Music, Inc., Boosey and Hawkes, 2010 made available by Opera of the Future Group, MIT Media Lab, Simone Ovsey, producer of DATP.

Nono, Luigi. La Fabbrica Illuminata per soprano e nastro magnetico a quattro piste, Ricordi, 1967; 2010 made possible via nkoda.com.

Video Resources:

MIT Media Lab, Opera of the Future Group through direct contact.

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg live streaming.

The House of Hidden Knowledge, a professional database of archived videos of 20th century music, public domain.

International Archives of Music Scores, Performances and Research Data:

nkoda.com

wiseclassicalmusic.com

digitalcommons.unl.edu

mtosmt.org

operabase.com

robertwilson.com

philpglass.com

opera-beta.media.mit.edu

Articles:

Adamowicz, Emily J. “Subjectivity and Structure in Milton Babbitt’s Philomel”, MTO Journal of the Society for Music Theory, 17:2 (2011).

Buhaiciuc, Mihaela. “When Human Emotion meets Technology: A Study of Machover’s Death and the Powers, the Robot Opera”, Tehnologii Informatice și de Comunicație în Domeniul Muzical, IV:2 (2013), pp. 65-73.

Coventry, Chelsea M., “Einstein on the Beach: A Global Analysis”, Student Research, Creative Activity, and Performance - School of Music, 72 DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln (2014).

Crețu, Cătălin. “Four States of Iannis Xenakis’s Personality and their Extensions in the Contemporary Digital Environment”, Transilvania University Bulletin, Brasov, Series VIII: Performing Arts, 15(64):1, (2022), pp. 61-82.

Jessop, E., Torpey, P.A., Bloomberg, B. “Music and Technology in Death and the Powers”, MIT-NIME’11 Conference Proceedings, Oslo, Norway (2011), pp. 349-354.

Torpey, Peter A. “Digital systems for live multimodal performance in Death and the Powers’” International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 8:1, (2012), pp. 109-123.

Downloads

Published

2023-08-15

How to Cite

BUHAICIUC, M. (2023). SOPRANOTRONICS 101. AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH WITH REPERTORIAL PROPOSAL. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Musica, 68(Special Issue 2), 361–375. https://doi.org/10.24193/subbmusica.2023.spiss2.23