The Old Folks at Home

TITLE: The Old Folks at Home
CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): 95 (2016)  
INSTRUMENTATION: solo voice
PAGES: 15
DURATION (APPROX): 5’00
NOTE: this composition is linked to a compressed version of the piece that was included for demonstration purposes in the 2nd edition of my book, The 21st Century Voice, published by Rowman & Littlefield

INFORMATION: THE OLD FOLKS AT HOME presents a network of nine interrelated elements which are designed to explore vocal sound production by unlocking the nonlinear basis of voice through a variety of scaled behaviors. A basic idea is that every parametric change from ordinary will produce a change of timbre or even acoustic class.

Beginning with an already complex pitch and rhythm line, the modifications to tone are prompted by a modified tablature notation, in which elements are shifted between minimal and maximal values (for example, extremely low to extremely high airflow). Due to the nonlinearity of voice, extreme parametric alterations will often carry more than a single expectation of sound output; or in other words, the resulting sounds will not be entirely predictable.

This composition is an uncompressed version that is linked to the excerpt of the same name that was included in the 2nd edition of my book, The 21st Century Voice.