Interface, Vol. 6 (1977), pp. 113-115.

Extended Vocal Techniques

TED SZANT6

ABSTRACT

The article gives a brief description of extended vocal techniques from its inception in
the avant-garde of the fifties and early sixties. Some related techniques in jazz and
folk-music are mentioned.
Three different approaches in recent music (Extended Vocal Techniques group,
Prima Materia and Joan LaBarbara) are contrasted with recent vocal pieces by John
Cage.

The term “extended vocal techniques” can be freely interpreted as experimental voice
techniques applied to music. Their precursor, extended instrumental techniques, dates
from a few years back, and involves new possibilities of playing conventional (often
wind) instruments. Every musician is by now familiar with the pioneer book in this field:
“New Sounds for Woodwind” (1967) by Bruno Bartolozzi. New nuances of timbre are
chiefly involved, with relation both to all kinds of noise and to extremely precisely
m anipulate chords played on one instrument by means of, for instance, special over­
blowing techniques.
Extended vocal techniques may be regarded as phase two of the postwar develop­
ments in the innovations in vocal musical expression. Phase one was set in motion by
John Cage and Luciano Berio (both influenced by, among others, the writer James
Joyce) with pieces such as “Aria” (1958) and “Visage” (1961). Pauline Oliveros’
composition ‘Sound Patterns’ also dates from 1961, and is a remarkable piece for mixed
choir. A common characteristic of these pieces is unquestionably their abstract-
intellectual frame of reference; even in theatrical aspects, the ritualistic element does
not predominate. A large part of this ritual character can be observed in extended vocal
technique pieces of the ‘seventies. This is not coincidental, since this second generation
does not generally swear by James Joyce but by Tibetan and Mongolian folklore, a
consequence being that music is not regarded abstractly but as concrete material for
getting to grips with, using nature as a source of inspiration.
114 TED SZANTO

It is practically certain that the appearance of the Anthology AST 4005 disc (“The
Tantric Rituals”) — providing the best documentation to date of certain Tibetan
religious chants, also documented on Nonesuch H 72055 and H 72064 - was a
milestone in the evolution of extended vocal techniques. On these records, Tibetan
monks (a very small group) demonstrate phenomenal control of their vocal chords, one
example being the singing of one tone with clearly audible harmonics of that tone,
harmonics which moreover do not get out of control. Similar vocal techniques are
known in Mongolia, Vietnam and Siberia, but in secular music. Other vocal techniques
rediscovered from folklore are yodelling and curious vocal traditions from Ethiopia. In
America, too, La Monte Young’s experiments with vocal overtone timbres which have
been going on since 1965 (‘Theater of Eternal Music’) showed that the time was ripe for
influences from Asian ritual.
The point of application for such influences was the Center for Music Experiment at
the University of San Diego in South California. When it was founded, the C.M.E.’s
task was to work in close association with other departments of the same university, the
emphasis being on musical practice and thus highly pragmatic. The Center for Music
Experiment collaborated closely with the linguistics department (1972) in its explora­
tion of the possibilities for extending vocal music. The first results of this association
were heard at the “Visuals and Voices” symposium in February 1974. The “ Extended
Vocal Techniques Ensemble” (founded in 1972) demonstrated a whole series of
techniques. They are described in Bonnie Mara Barnett’s doctoral thesis, “Aspects of
Vocal Multiphonics” (1972).* The author was at that time a graduate student at the San
Diego music faculty, whose director, Kenneth Gaburo, deserves mention: in his compo­
sitions “Antiphony” (II and III) he, too, systematically explored the expressive possibi­
lities of the human voice with the “New Music Choral Ensemble” which was also
attached to the music center. Besides the EVT group, an international group of music
students and composers were active in San Diego as well: the Prima Materia group. The
emphasis in their vocal explorations is more on improvisation, in contrast to the more
systematic work of the EVT group. They welcome audience participation in their
improvisation.
An aspect which the EVT people and Joan La Barbara reject in their activities, as
opposed to the Prima Materia group, is the religious one. Prima Materia are chiefly
interested in psychological factors —their music is totally subordinate to them: “ No
ego-centered games of composers and performers”, and: “ ... an inner search making
ourselves carriers and resonators of such universal vibration” (Robert Laneri, Prima
Materia’s spokesman). In a nutshell, sound yoga. Stockhausen’s “Stimmung” can be
placed in this semi-religious context, and was Europe’s first fundamental contribution
to extended vocal techniques. Stockhausen composed this piece in Mexico and the
United States ...
As far as other parallels are concerned Bonnie Mara Barnett draws attention in her
thesis to the experimental use of the voice in the context of theatre—and even of ballet:
the Open Theater and Meredith Monk. Yoko Ono, originally an avant-garde vocalist,
can also be mentioned in this connection; her vocal experiments (e.g. the piece “Fly”)
* See page 117 of this issue.
 EXTENDED VOCAL TECHNIQUES 115

seem to be directly linked with Arthur Janov’s primal scream therapy, which she and
John Lennon underwent together.
An early forerunner of extended vocal techniques was the scat vocal in jazz: a kind of
vocalise with syllables. The prime example is Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘How High the Moon’.
The ‘space voice’ (a kind of successor to the growl techniques of trombonists from Duke
Ellington’s band) of jazz musician Sun Ra is worthy of mention too. Another early and
very curious forerunner: in 1956 an American disc was produced which documented
experiments by Aired Wolfsohn (an apt name, judging by the results) with ‘extensions
of the human vocal range’, performed by the Vox Humana group. The vocal range was
mainly increased, there were new timbre gradations an d ... chords sung by one person.
Joan La Barbara appears to steer a middle course through the labyrinth of self-
examination and musical experiment: in ‘Circular Song’ and ‘One Note Internal Reso­
nance Investigation’ (both from 1974) she only uses her voice. She interprets the
technical skill expressed in these pieces in an exclusively musical way, not metaphysical­
ly. In ‘Vocal Extensions’ and ‘Cyclone Piece’ too (1974 and 1975-76), in which she
makes use of electronics, she is only concerned with musical research into new sounds
and techniques.
John Cage must be mentioned in this survey. In recent years he often interprets his
own pieces, pieces in which the vocal aspect predominates. ‘Mureau’ (1972) and
‘Empty Words’ (1973 - the present) are the result of applying chance operations to the
writings of the American philosopher Thoreau. This thinker has had a crucial influence
on Cage in the past, as exhibited by Cage’s interest in ecology and other problems of
people and their environment. (Thoreau led a very retired life in the woods surrounding
Walden.) In the pieces mentioned above, it is striking how Cage in fact dispenses with
more or less technical procedures for renewing vocal expression, showing himself a
master, however, in providing extremely ritual, subtly monotonous concrete poetry
with a balanced dosage of musical expression. To put it more briefly: he “musicalizes”
language. There is no trace of the occasionally naive sound of some extended vocal
technique groups - naive due to the total absence of any abstract and relativating frame
of reference whatsoever. In this direction one encounters too often clever or less clever
demonstrations of acoustical phenomena, folklore imitations combined or not with
exercises from the sphere of humanist psychology: spontaneous expression of emotion,
etcetera, all boiling down to a back-to-nature aesthetic and ideology, often dissemina­
ted in a somewhat dogmatic fashion.
As far as the relativating framework of expanding consciousness by means of the
voice is concerned, it is definitely worth taking the trouble to compare Joan La
Barbara’s “Vocal Extensions” (Wizard Records) with Gordon Mumma’s and David
Tudor’s electronic version of “Solos for Voice 2” by John Cage (on CBS) - both pieces
are for voice plus electronics.

Ted SzSnto . .
Parkstraat 15D1
Utrecht

This article originally appeared in Dutch in the 1977 Holland Festival Guide.