Abstracts
Abstract
This article is a musical analysis and formal study of Sandeep Bhagwati’s piece, Atish-e Zaban (composed and premiered in 2006). It touches on modalities of composing vocal music and, in particular, aspects of Bhagwati’s methods for creating intercultural encounters and sonic situations. Atish-e Zaban is a comprovisation piece scored for six a capella new music singers based on a series of poems in Urdu by the Pakistani poet, Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911-1984). This text uncovers layers of Bhagwati’s overall approach to vocal composition, providing an analytic guide for listening and performing, and describing the comprovisation methods used to express the connotations of the poems.
Keywords:
- contemporary vocal music,
- intercultural encounters,
- extra-normal voice,
- language semantics,
- comprovisation,
- human voice
Résumé
Cet article propose une analyse musicale ainsi qu’une étude formelle d’une oeuvre de Sandeep Bhagwati, Atish-e Zaban (composée et créée en 2006), tout en abordant les modalités de composition propres à la musique vocale dont, plus particulièrement, certains aspects spécifiques aux méthodes de Bhagwati quant à la création de rencontres interculturelles et de situations sonores. Atish-e Zaban est une pièce de comprovisation pour six chanteurs de musique nouvelle a capella, basée sur une série de poèmes en ourdou du poète pakistanais Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911-1984). L’objectif de cet article est de découvrir les différentes facettes de l’approche globale de Bhagwati en matière de composition vocale, de fournir un guide analytique pour l’écoute et l’interprétation, et de décrire les méthodes de comprovisation du compositeur en relation avec les connotations littérales des poèmes.
Mots-clés :
- musique vocale contemporaine,
- rencontres interculturelles,
- voix extra-normale,
- sémantique du langage,
- comprovisation,
- voix humaine
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Appendices
Bibliography
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- Barthes, Roland (1977[1972]), “The Grain of the Voice,” Image, Music, Text, London, Fontana Press, pp. 179-189.
- Bhagwati, Sandeep (2017[2013]), “Imagining the Other’s Voice: On Composing across Vocal Traditions,” in Christian Utz and Frederick Lau (eds.), Vocal Music and Contemporary Identities: Unlimited Voices in East Asia and the West, New York, Routledge, pp. 76-95.
- Bhagwati, Sandeep (2006), Atish-e Zaban (Fires of the Tongue), music score for 6 voices a capella.
- Bhagwati, Sandeep and Roozbeh Tabandeh (2023), Unpublished interview with Sandeep Bhagwati by Roozbeh Tabandeh, recorded on April 5, Montreal.
- Chion, Michel (1994[1990]), “The Three Listening Modes,” Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, edited and translated by Claudia Gorbman, with a foreword by Walter Murch, New York, Columbia University Press, pp. 25-34.
- Cook, Nicholas (2017[2013]), “Afterword: Giving Voice to Difference,” in Christian Utz and Frederick Lau (eds.), Vocal Music and Contemporary Identities: Unlimited Voices in East Asia and the West, New York, Routledge, pp. 285-295.
- Edgerton, Michael Edward (2004), The 21st Century Voice: Contemporary and Traditional Extra-Normal Voice, Lanham, Scarecrow Press.
- Keay, John (2011), India: A History, New York, Grove Atlantic.
- Labelle, Brandon (2006), Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art, New York, Bloomsbury Academic.
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- Robinson, Dylan (2020), Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
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Web links
- Bhagwati, Sandeep (2013a), Atish-e-Zaban, New Musics Festival, Montreal, available online on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/63271392 (accessed on July 27).
- Bhagwati, Sandeep (2013b), “Atish-e-Zaban (2006),” Website of Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (smcq), https://smcq.qc.ca/smcq/en/oeuvre/34393/atish-e-zaban (accessed on July 27).
- Kim, Jin-Ah (2018), “Réflexions sur la comprovisation de Sandeep Bhagwati,” Circuit, musiques contemporaines, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 23-33, https://doi.org/10.7202/1044373ar (accessed on July 27).
- Klein, Naomi and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (2013), “Dancing the World into Being: A Conversation with Idle No More’s Leanne Simpson,” YES! Magazine (blog), https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2013/03/06/dancing-the-world-into-being-a-conversation-with-idle-no-more-leanne-simpson (accessed on July 27).
10.7202/1044373arAppendices
Note biographique
Roozbeh Tabandeh est un artiste interdisciplinaire, compositeur et chercheur irano-canadien. Titulaire d’une maîtrise en architecture, il travaille actuellement à un projet de doctorat en recherche-création à l’Université Concordia, lequel porte sur les interrelations entre la musique et l’architecture ainsi que sur la notion d’espace sonore dans la culture auditive iranienne. Il a été directeur artistique de nombreux concerts et oeuvres scéniques au Canada et en Iran.