Abstract
In recent years an increasing number of composers have used speech as source material for instrumental, electronic and electroacoustic music. This article examines this particular intersection of music and language through an analysis of Jonathan Harvey’s Speakings for orchestra and electronics. I attempt to understand how Harvey made an orchestra sound like a human voice by analyzing his use of technology and his compositional techniques, particularly as they relate to existing theories of speech perception, acoustics and articulatory phonetics. This technical achievement is then placed in its broader musical context to examine the role that speech-sounds play in this piece, and the implications of hearing an orchestra speak in the context of this work’s narrative.
Highlights
Jonathan Harvey’s Speakings (2007-08), for orchestra, 11 amplified soloists and electronics, was commissioned by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and IRCAM with funds from Radio France
The piece draws on many ideas that have been central to Harvey’s compositional thinking since the 1980’s: the use of bells, the timbre of the human voice, and a sophisticated use of live processing and computerassisted-composition
Timbre is important for speech perception: “When we describe the acoustic attributes necessary for a sound to be perceived phonetically, we are, in general, describing characteristics associated in music with timbre” (Jones, 1987, p. 147)
Summary
Jonathan Harvey’s Speakings (2007-08), for orchestra, 11 amplified soloists and electronics, was commissioned by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and IRCAM with funds from Radio France. An Analysis of Jonathan Harvey’s Speakings for Orchestra and Electronics assertion, fear, love, frenetic chatter, etc.), and 3) a final evolution away from speech towards the Buddhist mantra that evolves into plainchant These three sections are not discrete states, but rather points along a spectrum: Harvey’s gradual introduction of explicit voice-like material is accompanied by an even more gradual preparation of the mantra and plainchant through a bell-like sound orchestrated with piano, tubular bells and often trombone. While this narrative mimics language acquisition (learning to speak) and spiritual transcendence (the mantra and plainchant), Harvey constantly juxtaposes previous gestures with latter ones, creating a cyclicality that disrupts this directional process through continuous foreshadowing and recollection. The pitches notated in the MIDI keyboard are not sounding pitches: this keyboard is used to trigger and control the real-time electronics
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