Scribd
Upload

Virtual Oratorio: Fabulous Paris

43 views3 pages
The document describes an oratorio called "Fabulous Paris" composed of three movements: 1. "The Division of Labour" sets Adam Smith's text on the pin factory division of labor to synthesized sounds and voice transformations. 2. "Angel" uses recordings of the composer's aunt to generate harmonic fields and synthesized accompaniment exploring her memory. 3. "Fabulous Paris" mixes recordings of cities and voices into three sections organized by software instruments and time-changing filters, moving from urban sounds to nature.

Uploaded by

vals
License
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

FABULOUS PARIS

A Virtual Oratorio

The Division of Labour

Angel

Fabulous Paris

THE DIVISION OF LABOUR


15 variations on a sacred text.

“A workman not educated to the business could scarce make one pin a day. But one man draws out the wire, another straightens it, a
third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top. The head requires three distinct operations. To put it on is a peculiar business,
to whiten the pins another. In this manner, making a pin is divided into eighteen distinct operations, and those persons can make forty-
eight thousand pins a day.”
Adam Smith : The Wealth of Nations

Human lives become the instruments of a spectacular materialism.

1. Statement 6. Chorus 11. Perturbations

2. Imitation 7. Flecks 12. Misstatement

3. Song without words 8. Word dance I 13. Liquidation/Toll

4. Inflation 9. Compression 14. Hubbub

5. Hocket 10. Word dance II 15. Trace


with the voice of Alex Gordon

ANGEL

A woman remembers some of those inconsequential yet special experiences which define an individual life.

with the voice of Mary Smith.


FABULOUS PARIS

By the year 2010, more than 50% of the world’s population will live in cities of over a million inhabitants. Approaching that exciting yet
frightening labyrinth of information and experience which is the modern mega-city, “Fabulous Paris” is first encountered as the prize
destination on an American TV game show, but soon becomes the mysterious city of our dreams, hopes and fears.

With the voices of Neil Armstrong, President Kennedy,


Adolf Hitler and many others.

TECHNICAL NOTES

This 3-movement, secular oratorio explores our collective and individual experience of the mass industrial society in which we live,
through the medium of the human voice.

Apart from the final post-production mix of the final movement (Birmingham University Studio), ‘Fabulous Paris, the Oratorio’ was
made entirely on a PC or laptop, using the Composers Desktop Project software, either at home or (for the initial work on ‘Angel’) in
residence in Toronto.

The Division of Labour

The text describes the division of labour in a Scottish pin factory. Adam Smith was Professor of Logic at the University of Glasgow and
the text here is spoken with a Glaswegian accent. A sequence of sonic “divisions” follows.

Imitation: The text vowels are synthesized and combined with the original consonants (resonated). The material plays in canon in 2
parts, then 4, then (at the end) very many.

Song Without Words: The pitch contour of the speech is played as a sliding triad, with the original consonants superimposed,
ornamented by traffic sirens, kookaburras and starlings (the only extraneous sounds in this movement).

Inflation: Speech syllables are extended in time, through different types of time-stretching, ‘bouncing’ transformations, imitation or
rhythmic repetition.

Hocket: The syllables of the text are each time-contracted and set in a regular pulse. Eight copies are hocketed against one another,
then forced through a filter-bank of their most prominent pitches.
Chorus: The choral sonorities derive from instantaneous harmonies cut from Word Dance I. Against this, we hear vastly time-stretched
syllables, pulsated and panned.

Flecks: Isolated slices of the text are revealed, often derived from sharp cuts into the trailing edges of syllables.

Word Dance I: Irregular loops of speech material, and 'bouncing' syllables develop in an agitated rhythm.

Compression: The text, extremely time-contracted, pans around the space, sometimes emerging from a spectrally blurred and time-
stretched transformation.

Word Dance II: Syllables are looped at a regular speed, with simple polyrhythms and imitation, emphasizing the harmonic qualities of
the speech-segments.

Perturbation: Successive text elements read back and forth in time, are combined with rapidly panning individual syllables, sometimes
evolving in colour, pitch or articulation.

Permutation: The original text phrases reappear but with their syllables rearranged in meaningless sequence.

Liquidation: A dense mass of syllables from the text ‘breathes’ through two alternating tuned filters. Beneath this, the words of the text
are spectrally-traced so their most prominent partials bubble through the texture.

Toll: A sequence of syllables in descending pitch order is chosen from the text. As this falling sequence repeats, the pitches are focused
through filters tuned to each particular syllable, becoming more invasive on each repetition. A second filter is tuned to all the text
pitches. The words eventually dissolve, generating the metallic ‘peel of bells’.

Hubub: Toll continues over layers of Imitation, Song without Words, with extracts from Word Dance II, Chorus and others.

Trace: A trace of the pitch and vowel colour of the original text remains, with a faint echo of the changing rhythm of the speech in the
tremulations of the sound.

Work on this movement made possible by an AHRB Creative Arts Fellowship at the University of Birmingham Music Dept.

Angel

My aunt, Mary Smith, was a very religious woman. In the face of personal difficulty or suffering she remained irrepressibly optimistic. A
friend’s eulogy at her funeral concluded, “We shall all remember Mary Smith. She was an angel.” And this was meant to be taken
literally.

The movement originates in recordings of my aunt made by my wife some years earlier, as part of a family history project, using a
mono cassette recorder. Special processes were used to clean these recordings and isolate my aunt’s voice. The melodic contours of
the speech, and the resulting harmonic fields, were extracted and then used to synthesize accompanying materials, to define time-
changing filters applied either to the voice or to the synthesis of choir-like textures, to specify the pitch-sequence of accompanying
sounds, and so on, using software written for the purpose. A number of other detailed voice transformations are also used.

Angel was commissioned by the 2006 Deep Wireless Festival, in Toronto.

Fabulous Paris

This movement, the earliest composed, uses recordings made in many cities - the traffic tunnels of Stockholm, the Paris metro, an
amusement park in Kobe… - voices from American TV adverts and game-shows (recorded whilst working at Allen Strange’s San Jose
studio in the early 80s), traffic announcements on the California freeways (recorded, at my request, by the sound-poet Larry Wendt),
the voices of astronauts, President Kennedy, Adolf Hitler and others.

The piece aims to organise a dense web of spoken information and environmental sounds, using many software instruments, in
particular, filters tuneable to time-changing harmonies, developed specifically for this movement. It falls into 3 distinct sections, with
brief pauses between them, the 3rd section recapitulating the first but dissolving the hum of the City into the sounds of the natural
literally.

The movement originates in recordings of my aunt made by my wife some years earlier, as part of a family history project, using a
mono cassette recorder. Special processes were used to clean these recordings and isolate my aunt’s voice. The melodic contours of
the speech, and the resulting harmonic fields, were extracted and then used to synthesize accompanying materials, to define time-
changing filters applied either to the voice or to the synthesis of choir-like textures, to specify the pitch-sequence of accompanying
sounds, and so on, using software written for the purpose. A number of other detailed voice transformations are also used.

Angel was commissioned by the 2006 Deep Wireless Festival, in Toronto.

Fabulous Paris

This movement, the earliest composed, uses recordings made in many cities - the traffic tunnels of Stockholm, the Paris metro, an
amusement park in Kobe… - voices from American TV adverts and game-shows (recorded whilst working at Allen Strange’s San Jose
studio in the early 80s), traffic announcements on the California freeways (recorded, at my request, by the sound-poet Larry Wendt),
the voices of astronauts, President Kennedy, Adolf Hitler and others.

The piece aims to organise a dense web of spoken information and environmental sounds, using many software instruments, in
particular, filters tuneable to time-changing harmonies, developed specifically for this movement. It falls into 3 distinct sections, with
brief pauses between them, the 3rd section recapitulating the first but dissolving the hum of the City into the sounds of the natural
world.

Fabulous Paris was commissioned by Swedish Radio, Malmö, and the Birmingham Rumours Festival.

Common questions

Powered by AI

In 'Angel,' voice transformation is crucial to capturing the personal essence of the narrative. This movement uses recordings of the composer's aunt, Mary Smith, whose voice is cleaned and isolated from mono cassette tapes. The melodic contours of her speech and harmonic fields are extracted to synthesize accompanying materials and apply time-varying filters to her voice or simulate choir-like textures. These processes help convey the emotional and spiritual elements of her character, emphasizing the oratorio's exploration of individual and mass industrial experience .

In 'Word Dance I,' rhythmic repetition is executed through irregular loops of speech material and agitated bouncing syllables, creating an energetic and disjointed rhythm. It serves to emphasize the tension and unrest reflected in the text's content. Meanwhile, 'Word Dance II' employs simple polyrhythms and looping syllables at a regular speed to spotlight the harmonic qualities of the speech segments. This distinction in rhythmic structures helps differentiate the thematic exploration between the movements, painting a more complex auditory picture of communication dynamics .

In 'Permutation,' the original text phrases are rearranged into a seemingly random sequence that disrupts semantic meaning, creating a form of speech that challenges the listener's expectations. This deliberate alteration prompts listeners to reassess their relationship with familiar language and encourages a focus on the musical and rhythmic qualities of speech itself. The effect is a heightened awareness of linguistic structures and an appreciation for the abstract potential of language, transforming it into a purely sonic experience that transcends traditional comprehension .

'Fabulous Paris' employs a diverse collection of recordings from various cities and contexts, such as traffic tunnels in Stockholm, the Paris metro, and an amusement park in Kobe. It also incorporates voices from American TV adverts, game shows, and recordings of notable figures like President Kennedy and Adolf Hitler. These elements are organized into a complex web of spoken information and environmental sounds, using tuneable filters and other software instruments to emphasize the harmony and develop the thematic structure. The piece is divided into three sections, with the final section revisiting the first but transitioning the city's hum to natural world sounds, creating a thematic connection between urban life and nature .

The use of a Glaswegian accent in 'The Division of Labour' movement adds cultural and historical depth to the oratorio, as it refers to Adam Smith's Scottish roots and the context of his work. The accent reinforces the authenticity of the narrative and grounds the thematic exploration of industrial labor in a specific cultural context. This choice supports the oratorio's exploration of individual and collective experiences within a mass industrial society, connecting the abstract concept of labor with the tangible heritage of Glasgow .

The inclusion of historical figures' voices, such as President Kennedy and Adolf Hitler, adds a profound layer of historical and cultural resonance to 'Fabulous Paris.' These voices invoke powerful collective memories and emotions, juxtaposing the grand narratives of history against the disparate, chaotic nature of modern urban life. This contrast enhances the oratorio's critique of contemporary society by highlighting the enduring influence of past events and leaders on present-day experiences, emphasizing the intertwined nature of historical and modern narratives within the human experience .

The theme of 'division of labor' in 'The Division of Labour' movement is musically represented through a complex sonic dissection of speech describing industrial processes, such as pin-making. The division is reflected in various techniques: speech syllables are segmented and manipulated using time-stretching, hocket, and rhythmic repetition. These techniques parallel the labor process, where different tasks are segmented and specialized. This approach highlights the deconstruction and reconstruction of speech, mirroring the breakdown and specialization seen in industrial labor .

The technological innovations, especially the use of the Composers Desktop Project software, are pivotal in realizing the oratorio's complex sonic landscape. This software allows for intricate manipulations such as time-stretching, filtering, and precise voice transformations, which are central to the oratorio's thematic exploration. These technologies enable composers to construct rich, multi-layered soundscapes that reflect the intricate emotional and social themes within the piece, showcasing the significant role of digital technology in enhancing contemporary musical expression .

The 'Hubbub' movement embodies societal cacophony through its building layers of sound: a continuation of 'Toll,' combined with overlays from 'Imitation,' 'Song without Words,' and extracts from 'Word Dance II' and 'Chorus.' This layering creates a dense, overwhelming sonic environment that symbolizes the noise and confusion inherent in contemporary society. By juxtaposing diverse musical elements and blending them, the movement communicates the complexities and information overload that characterize modern life, ultimately serving as a sonic metaphor for societal disorder .

'Fabulous Paris' critiques modern urbanization by juxtaposing the allure of the city as a game show prize with the chaotic reality of its vast, labyrinthine experience. The composition reflects the overwhelming nature of mega-cities, using a dense overlay of voices, noises, and music to symbolize the constant flow of information and sensory experience. This auditory onslaught questions the impact of such environments on human psychology, portraying cities as both centers of hope and existential fear, highlighting the tension between allure and disillusionment typical of urban life .

You might also like