Voicing subjectivity: Artistic Research in the realization of new Vocal Music

Abstract

The voice and vocalizing subjects have long been a discussed in philosophical, cultural and critical studies circles as places in which meaning lives and is conveyed. In recent years, through developments in musicology, artistic research and autoethnography the bodies of performers have taken on renewed significance for knowledge production. The subjectivities involved in the realization of musical works are now being unpacked and traditional notions of objectivity and concrete meaning as conveyed by musical texts, have eroded. Voicing Subjectivity argues for vocal subjectivity as a site for exploration and experiment in practice-based, artistic research. It queries whether a conscious negotiation of performer subjectivity makes for stronger practice and realizations in new vocal music? The thesis presents two projects, realizing five new and recent notated works for voice. The researcher performs and problematizes her multiple realizations of Helmut Lachenmann’s Got Lost (2008), Jeanette Little’s Mechanical Bride (2013), Alexander Garsden’s [ja] Maser (2014), James Rushford’s The fabric of Wind (2014) and Anthony Pateras’ Prayer for Nil (2014). Informed by and situated within literature from subjectivity studies, interdisciplinary voice studies, music-history and professional vocal practice the author describes her artistic research through three stages: preparation, performance and recording. The exegesis fleshes out issues of embodiment, the indiscrete subject, technologized voice and inter-subjectivity through an active performer’s practice in a mixed-methodological framework that integrates elements from artistic research and auto-ethnography. By applying a considered methodological structure and actively focusing the lens through which problem-solving takes place, the author demonstrates how the conscious negotiation of subjectivity enables better understanding of practice and makes the site of knowledge production, the living subject of the author, a site that is fit to purpose.