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"Singer, Writer: A Choric Exploration of Sound and Writing"
by Crystal VanKooten
0:00 Typewriter sound (audio excerpt from Shipka’s “Stealing Sounds”: loading
paper, turning wheel, then typing letters.) Music: Brahms Requiem, movement 1 begins,
instrumental
0:45 Narrator: Thomas Rickert, Sarah Arroyo, and Jeff Rice
all theorize the concept of chora. Brahms lyrics, sung, begin: Selig Sind, die da lied
tragen, den sie sollen getröstet werden. [Translation: Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted.]
Narrator: Chora is place, space,
dance, a dancing floor, invention, becoming, gathering,
analogy, chance, collaboration. Chora is felt in the body, it’s emotion,
association, embodiment [...] [overlapping narration]
Chora is memory, networking, movement. [...] sensation. It’s mystical, physical,
a beginning.
1. Connection
1:14 Narrator: I sing, I write
Choric, connected Embodied, Filled with emotion Together, with
others I sing. I write. I compose.
Narrator: Narrator:
Brahms employs a fugue in several sections of “A German Requiem.” A fugue is a
1:30 Brahms’s “A German Requiem,” is a large-scale
choral and orchestral work. It was composed in the 1860s in German, and it has
7 movements. Music: Brahms Requiem, movement 3 excerpt,
with example of fugue singing. Lyrics: Der Gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes
Hand und keine Qual rühret sie an. [Translation: But the souls of the righteous
are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.]
a musical composition in which one or two themes are repeated or imitated by
successively entering voices. These voices are developed through counterpoint, in a
continuous interweaving of the voice parts.
2:00 Mary Hocks: “Sound, unlike other modalities, has such
a visceral, embodied quality because it bounces off surfaces and vibrates in our bones!”
(Hocks & Shipka, 2013).
Jody Shipka: “Oh my gosh! I never thought about this
kind of juxtaposition before!” (Hocks & Shipka, 2013).
2:15 Narrator: “One of chora’s essential properties is
its connectivity” (Rice, 2007, p. 35).
“The moods and memories recovered then link elsewhere through an unfolding and rhizomatic
network of associations. They become moments, events, celebrations, and collaboration during
which inventions then ‘catch’ and come into appearance” (Arroyo, 2013, p. 66).
2:36 Narrator: We sing in layers, four parts come together
to form a whole. I hear myself: air and voice, vibrato,
And then I dissolve into the whole, I blend, mesh, listen.
2:54 Narrator: The ability to link information, manipulate
information easily, [second electronic voice joins narrator, low
register] morph information, and so on lends itself
to choral practices. Ulmer names this electronic writing practice
[third voice joins, medium register] ‘chorography’ and offers a set of instructions
for how to be a chorographer: ‘do not choose between the different meanings
of key terms, [fourth electronic voice joins, high register]
but compose by using all the meanings’” (Rice, 2007, p. 34).
Music: Brahms Requiem, movement 3 excerpt. Narrator’s singing voice is prominent.
Lyrics: Herr, lehre doch mich, daß ein Ende mit mir haben muß, und mein Leben ein
Ziel hat, und ich davon muß.
[Translation: Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is:
that I may know how frail I am.]
2. Body
3:20 Sound: typewriter typing letters Narrator:
A chorus is the simultaneous utterance in singing, speaking, or shouting.
Mary Hocks and narrator together: Sound, unlike other modalities, has such a
visceral, embodied quality because it bounces off surfaces and vibrates in our bones! (Hocks
& Shipka, 2013).
Jody Shipka and narrator together: “Oh my gosh! I never thought about this
kind of juxtaposition before!” (Hocks & Shipka, 2013).
3:39 Narrator: In choir, we throw our hands and arms in the
air, We stand, we sit, we’re told to sit up straight.
We make hand motions for vowels—“o” like a circle, “e” like a line.
Music: choir warming up and singing various excerpts from Brahms Requiem.
3:57 Narrator: I write, seated, hands active.
The words scritch and click with keys, quiet The sounds of my words hitting together, silent.
Sound: hands typing on laptop keyboard Mary Hocks and electronic voice:
“Sound, unlike other modalities, has such a visceral, embodied quality because it bounces
off surfaces and vibrates in our bones!” (Hocks & Shipka, 2013).
kind of juxtaposition before!” (Hocks & Shipka, 2013).
4:26 Narrator: “In the space of chora, the inventor will
experience punctums of recognition, third meanings” (Arroyo, 2013, p. 66).
3. Emotion
4:31 Sound: typewriter typing letters Narrator, overlapping:
Chora is place, space, dance, a dancing floor, invention, becoming, gathering, analogy, chance,
collaboration, felt in the body, emotion, association, embodiment, sensation, mystical,
physical, a beginning, memory, networking, movement ...
Narrator: I sing with tears, moved, expressive.
Listening to melodies, harmonies in combination. Even in German, I feel; the music speaks.
Music: Brahms Requiem, movement 4 excerpt. Lyrics:
Narrator: I write with smiles and tears, moved Fascinated
by connection. Even through sentences, I feel; words speak.
Mary Hocks, narrator, and electronic voice: “Because it bounces off surfaces and vibrates
in our bones!” (Hocks & Shipka, 2013). Jody Shipka, narrator, and electronic voice:
“Oh my gosh! I never thought about this kind of juxtaposition before!” (Hocks & Shipka,
2013).
4. Collaboration
5:18 Sound: typewriter typing letters Narrator, overlapping:
A chord is the simultaneous sounding of a group of musical notes, usually three notes
or more. So for example, [sings 3 notes], but they would all be sounded together to
form a chord. A chord is also the line segment between two points in math. And finally, a
chord can also be a feeling or emotion, as in “to strike a chord.”
Narrator, overlapping: Chora is place, space, dance, a dancing floor,
invention, becoming, gathering, analogy, chance, collaboration, felt in the body, emotion,
association, embodiment, sensation, mystical, physical, a beginning, memory, networking,
movement ... Narrator, overlapping:
A chorus is the simultaneous utterance in singing, speaking, or shouting.
Meine seele verlanget und sehnet sich nach den Vorh fen des Herrn.
[Translation: My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.]
5:43 Narrator: In choir, I can’t sing alone – we sing,
we work, we tell the story. I hope for times when I forget about myself,
Clinging to, combining, joining. Music (through ending): Brahms Requiem, movement
1 excerpt. Lyrics: Selig Sind, die da lied tragen, den sie sollen getröstet werden.
[Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.]
I write, too, with others. We write, we work, we tell the story.
I sing, I write Choric, connected
Embodied, filled with emotion Together, with others.
I sing. I write. I compose.
Audio excerpt from Shipka’s “Stealing Sounds” (student’s voice):
It’s all supposed to kind of connect to each other.
Audio excerpt from Shipka’s “Stealing Sounds” (Jody Shipka’s voice):
But how did you feel making these things or experiencing these things today?
Narrator, overlapping: Chora is place, space, dance, a dancing floor,
invention, becoming, gathering, analogy, chance, collaboration, felt in the body, emotion,
association, embodiment, sensation, mystical, physical, a beginning.
Narrator, overlapping: “In the space of chora, the inventor will
experience punctums of recognition, third meanings” (Arroyo, 2013, p.66).
Narrator, overlapping: “Things are messier” (Rickert, 2007, p.
263). Jody Shipka, overlapping:
“Oh my gosh! I never thought about this kind of juxtaposition before!” (Hocks & Shipka,
2013). Narrator, overlapping:
Chora is memory, networking, movement. Narrator, overlapping:
“But compose by using all the meanings” (Rice, 2007, p. 34).
Sound: pen writing “juxtaposition!” and underlining it twice, dropping the pen. Narrator,
overlapping: Brahms employs a fugue in several sections
of A German Requiem. Narrator, overlapping:
Jody Shipka. Mary Hocks.
Thomas Rickert, Sarah Arroyo, and Jeff Rice. [Written Credits]
7:24 Narrator: “There is movement to invention, a going
beyond boundaries and returning, that precludes its being fixed in place, even though it simultaneously
emerges in and through place. It turns back around on itself, ensuring that what remains
at the heart of invention is invention itself” (Rickert, 2007, p. 270).