Wednesday 30 August 2017

more about voice performance


 (this time only on english)

some thoughts about: Voice in (my) Performance Art

As a performance artist I try to find spaces inside of the realm of performance art in which the human voice can appear as a medium that doesn´t just transport musical material or language but has an impact by itself. Where is the place for the human voice in fine arts? This is the question that gives orientation to a lot of my artistic activities.

You can distinguish between performances, that use voice as one tool beside others (somebody sings or recites a text etc.) and performances, in which the human voice has a much more important role that is similar to the role of the human body in performance art. Then the creation of the performance or the performative situation starts with the voice and with a question or an idea how the voice would act in a special situation. This second form is what I call voice performance.
Sometimes the performative situation with its demands and requirements is also site specific. The space with its atmosphere and history has an effect on the way my voice moves.

When I talk about the voice I mean the human voice with all its tonal possibilities. Sometimes this idea of the voice is called „extended voice“. The voice implies much more sounds than we normally use. But every sound has the potential to be part of an artistic creation. My research as a voice performer is looking for new artistic forms in which all the sounds that my voice wants to show can be heard in an artistic way – without being music!

I work very rarelely with amplification or recordings, because these devices change the space very much. If you send your voice into a microphone you add a new space of listening to the original one. This is sometimes confusing and destroys the power of the original space. Listening to a voice means first of all being in a common space with other human beings. Through electronic tools this space becomes artificial. Sometimes this can be interesting, but in my work it is often better to let the original space resonate. Only then a voice performance can become site specific.

In my performances the audience is invited to leave or stay as long as they want. The relation to the public is one of the crucial issues for my work as performance artist. I want people to listen to what is happening in the space with my voice, leaving behind the idea of music. You can listen to me more in a way you would watch a sculpture. Maybe you just pass by hardly noticing what you see/hear. Or you get curious and stay for a while, maybe sit down and let the sculpture get in contact with you on different levels. Then the audience becomes a part of the atmosphere and the situation. The movement of the voice will change through this presence.

In a voice performance I stay in deep contact with the different dimensions of my self: my body, my inner situation, my reactions on the outer situation. At the same time I leave my voice as free from myself as possible. I don´t want to express my feelings or thoughts or pain or whatever. I try to give my voice the space to move freely while, at the same time, I stay in deep contact with everything that is happening inside and outside. Strong connection and big freedom.

In my performance series „Dao Series“ I work with mind material from ancient chinese thinking, mainly in Daoism. I use concepts like „the colourless voice“, „emptiness“, „beginning“ as they are understood in the chinese tradition and create situations in which I connect myself and my voice with one of these concepts. The artistic question is: How does my voice react on these ideas? These performances can be pretty long, from one hour to a couple of days (with breaks in between). I often need this time to enter the situation and to let my voice move more or less independently from my habits and intentions.




Thursday 24 August 2017

Jerry Lewis as a voice artist

With Jerry Lewis not only a great actor, comedien, clown, dancer and film director passed away but also a great voice artist. His voice was able to do some pretty extraordinary things. And Lewis didn´t learn or make them through a voice technique but through absolutely incorporating one of his personas: the child (actually a number of different children), the clown, the idiot, the singer etc. He went into a role with his body, mind and soul and the voice was free to follow and join the party. Impressive....

Monday 14 August 2017

What is a voice problem? Was ist ein Stimmproblem?


english below!!

Was ist ein Stimmproblem?


In einem Artikel des Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/aug/10/adele-vocal-cord-surgery-why-stars-keep-losing-their-voices?CMP=share_btn_fb
nimmt der Autor Bernard Warner eine Konzertabsage von Adele aufgrund von neuerlichen Stimmproblemen zum Anlass, ganz generell zu diskutieren, warum so viele Sänger und Sängerinnen in allen musikalischen Sparten heutzutage so oft ernsthafte Stimmprobleme bekommen und was dagegen gemacht werden kann.
Gute Frage! Die Antwort auf den zweiten Teil der Frage, die Bernard Warner in seinem sehr lesenswerten Artikel vorbringt, läuft auf die Alternative Operation oder bessere Stimmtechnik hinaus. Viele Gesangslehrer raten aus guten Gründen von Operationen an den Stimmlippen ab, andere glauben, dass darin zumindest eine gute zusätzliche Maßnahme zu sehen ist. Im Fall von Adele, die sich 2012 nach einem Totalausfall der Stimme hat operieren lassen, hat die Vorhersage der Stimmlehrerin Lisa Paglin, dass die Problem wieder auftauchen werden, wohl gestimmt. Das Problem liegt nach ihrer Meinung bei Adele und den tausenden Sänger*innen an einer grundfalschen Methodik des Singens. So lange die nicht geändert würde, könnten Operationen nur zeitweise ein Problem beheben.
Aus meiner Sicht als Stimmlehrer und –künstler in der Tradition von Roy Hart und Alfred Wolfsohn krankt die Diskussion daran, dass sie auf beiden Seiten ganz in der Metaphorik des Instrumentes hängen bleibt. Die Stimme wird betrachtet als ein Instrument, und die Frage der Heilung der Stimme wird reduziert auf das Problem, wie die Reparatur vollzogen werden soll. Muss die Hardware ausgebessert werden oder genügt es, das Werkzeug besser zu ölen und seine Handhabung besser zu trainieren? Das sind Fragen, die zwar nicht ganz ohne Relevanz sind, aber an dem eigentlichen Problem vorbei gehen. Die Stimme ist nämlich kein Instrument – oder etwas vorsichtiger ausgedrückt: mit der Instrumentenmetapher können bestimmte Aspekte des Verhältnisses eines Menschen zu seiner Stimme nicht beschrieben werden, und gerade die Aspekte, die bei Stimmproblemen wichtig werden, bleiben in der Vorstellung vom Instrument außen vor.
Bei einem Musikinstrument gibt es keine Zwefel darüber, wer hier Akteur und wer bzw. was hier das Instrument ist und gespielt wird (auch wenn große Virtuosen das Gefühl kennen, vom Instrument gespielt zu werden). Bei der Stimme ist die Situation anders. Denn manchmal macht die Stimme nicht das, was ich will, sondern das, was sie will. Die Stimme hat eine eigene Entscheidungs- und Handlungskompetenz. Deshalb ist es oft viel sinnvoller von der Stimme als einer Partnerin zu sprechen, mit der ich auf einer Ebene kommuniziere – im Gegensatz zum Verhältnis zu einem Instrument, das immer hierarchisch ist. So genannte Stimmprobleme zeigen sich aus dieser Perspektive als Warn- und Weckrufe der Stimme, die mir signalisieren will, dass in unserem Verhältnis etwas nicht „stimmt“. Je länger ich diese Signale ignoriere, um so lauter werden sie und um so größer wird die Gefahr, dass sie sich zu echten, also chronischen Stimmproblemen auf der funktionalen oder organischen Ebene ausbilden.
Doch das, was in dem Verhältnis zu meiner Stimme womöglich problematisch ist, spielt sich nicht in erster Linie auf einer technischen Ebene ab, sondern ist ein Phänomen, das den Menschen als ganzen betrifft. Um langfristig das Verhältnis für beide Seiten (Stimme und Mensch) gesund und lebendig zu halten, ist es nötig, die geistigen, psychischen und körperlichen Verbindungen in diesem Verhältnis zu erforschen und eventuell neu zu justieren. Ich muss erkennen, mit welchem Selbst- und Stimmverständnis ich lebe und erforschen, wo dieses Verständnis vielleicht nicht mehr meiner Lebenssituation angemessen ist. Der Königsweg dieser Erforschung heißt: der eigenen Stimme zuhören! Am besten mit der Hilfe eines Menschen, der Erfahrung hat in dieser Art des Hörens.
In diesem Prozess spielt zwar von Beginn an das Thema, wie ich mit meiner Stimme im Singen und Tönen umgehe, eine große Rolle, aber entscheidend dabei ist es herauszufinden, warum ich bislang auf eine Weise töne, die meiner Stimme nicht gut tut. Und da ist der Hinweis auf eine erlernte Technik in der Regel nicht die entscheidende und zufriedenstellende Antwort. Die Frage, wie ich singe, ist eingebettet in den größeren Zusammenhang meiner Konzepte, die ich über meine Stimme mit mir trage, anders gesagt, der Art und Weise, wie ich meine Stimme verstehe. Dieser Zusammenhang besitzt nicht nur eine individuell-persönliche Dimension, sondern auch soziale und kulturelle Implikationen. Nur so wird verständlich, warum es Zeiten wie die unsere gibt, in denen so viele Sänger*innen so große Probleme mit ihrer Stimme bekommen. Die Gründe können nicht nur auf der persönlichen Ebene liegen.
Zu dem Thema gibt es viel zu sagen. Für heute belasse ich es hierbei.





What is a voice problem?


In an article of the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/aug/10/adele-vocal-cord-surgery-why-stars-keep-losing-their-voices?CMP=share_btn_fb
the author Bernard Warner uses the cancellation of two concerts in London by Adele who again suffers from serious voice problems to discuss on a general level the reason why so many singers in all musical disciplines nowadays often get serious problems with their voices and what can be done about it.
Good question! The answer to the second aspect, which Bernard Warner puts forward in his very recommandable article, is the alternative: surgery or better tuning. Many vocal teacher advise for good reasons against surgery on the vocal folds, others believe that this is at least a good additional measure. In the case of Adele, who has been operated in 2012 after a total failure of the voice, the prediction of the voice teacher Lisa Paglin that the problem will reappear again, was obvioulsy correct. According to her opinion, the problem with Adele and the thousands of singers with voice problems lies in the basic method of singing. As long as that would not be changed, operations could only temporarily fix a problem.
From my point of view as a voice teacher and artist in the tradition of Roy Hart and Alfred Wolfsohn, the discussion suffers from the fact that on both sides it remains entirely in the metaphor of the instrument. The voice is considered as an instrument, and the question of healing the voice is reduced to the problem of how the repair is to be performed. Does the hardware need to be improved, or is it better to lubricate the tool and train its handling better? These are questions that are not entirely without relevance, but which don´t hit the real problem. The voice is not an instrument, or more cautiously expressed: with the instrumental metaphor, certain aspects of the relationship of a person to his voice can not be described, and the aspects which are important in the case of voice problems remain unaffected in the concept of the instrument.
In a musical instrument, there is no doubt about who is the actor and who or what is the instrument and is played here (even if great virtuosos know how the feeling of being played by the instrument). The situation is different with the voice. Sometimes the voice does not what I want, but what it wants itsself. The voice has its own power of decision-making and acting. That is why it is often much more meaningful to speak of the voice as a partner with whom I communicate on the same level - as opposed to the relationship to an instrument that is always hierarchical. So-called voice problems appear from this perspective as warning and wake-ups calls from the voice, that wants to signal to me that in our relationship something is not "right". The longer I ignore these signals, the louder they become and the greater becomes the risk that they will develop into real, ie, chronic, voice problems on a functional or organic level.
However, what may be problematic in relation to my voice is not primarily concerned with a technical level, but is a phenomenon that affects human beings as a whole. In order to keep the relationship healthy and alive for both sides (voice and human being), it is necessary to investigate the mental, psychological and physical connections in this relationship and possibly to re-adjust them. I need to recognize with what self- and vocal understanding I live and explore, where this understanding is perhaps no longer appropriate to my life situation. The royal road of this exploration is to listen to one's own voice! Best with the help of a person who has experience in this type of hearing.
In this process, the theme of how I deal with my voice in singing and sounding plays a big role from the beginning, but it is crucial to find out why I am acting in a way that is not good for my voice. And, usually, the reference to a learned singing technique is not the decisive and satisfactory answer. The question of how I sing is embedded in the wider context of my concepts that I carry with me about my voice, in other words, the way I understand my voice. This context has not only an individual-personal dimension but also social and cultural implications. This is the only way to understand why there are times like ours, where so many singers get so great problems with their voice. The reasons can not only lie on the personal level.

There is much more to say about these issues but I stop for now….