Extended vocal techniques in avant-garde
20-21st century classical music
Look at the vocal music of: Schoenberg, Berio, Crumb, Nono, Ligeti, Cage, Monk, and many others. Singers: Lucy Shelton, Cathy Berbarian many others.
You might divide these techniques into the following categories:
Theatrical— adding motions, non vocal sounds, creating different characters, rituals, speaking, sprechstimme.
Visual techniques where sounds are not heard, only mouthed or seen, or signed–or supertitled–I use this in my song “Rain Chant” the final line “Far as man can see comes the rain, comes the rain with me” is only mouthed.
Sound effects —body percussion-mouth sounds-screams- slurs, extreme registers etc.
Transfer–singers play the violin–cello players singing etc.
Electronics—vocoders, tapes, samples etc.
Crossover techniques –Multicultural: Tibetan Monks etc.
Mix-me-ups: Pop singers singing opera, Opera singers singing pop. (see transfer)
Motion Music -(minimalism) find a place to breathe!
Micro-tonal –John Eaton’s 32 notes octave operas.
And of course, wide leaps between notes.. Perhaps I left some out?
Assignments
Create a song, or take a song already created, and develop 2 different scenarios for the song using ideas from the list above, invent some extended techniques to go with it. Don’t be afraid to completely deconstruct the musical materials.