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Timbre, Orchestration, and the Human Voice

Summary | Contact | Overview | Subgroups | Projects

Summary

A group dedicated to exploring how voice timbre research can fit into orchestration studies.

Workgroup Leaders

Juanita Marchand Knight, Kit Soden

Contact: juanita.marchand[at]mail.concordia.ca

Overview

The newly formed ACTOR Voice Working Group brings together researchers and performers from all the fields represented in the ACTOR network, such as musicologists, composers, acousticians, performers, and theorists. Our joint mission is to explore the place of voice timbre research in orchestration theory and practice. Some questions we seek to answer are: What does it mean to play the piano, violin, or flute in a ‘singing style’? What guidance is available for writing vocalizations into orchestral parts – for composers and the instrumental players asked to produce these sounds? What are the various extended techniques available to singers/soloists and composers and how are they communicated? How are voices described in relation to other sounds? If, as Joan La Barbara said, “Voice is the original instrument,” Then we want to look to the voice to see how it can inform instrumental orchestration and timbre studies, while also situating it within the orchestra as a valid instrument in its own right.

Subgroups

Interactive catalogue of extended vocal techniques: orchestral vocalizing, how to orchestrate “around” extended techniques, effects of techniques, guide for singers, notation guides, etc. (Juanita Marchand, Laurie Radford, Jason Noble)
Voice and orchestration in opera (Kit Soden, Lindsey Reymore, Juanita Marchand)
Semantic description of vocal timbre, and comparison with instrumental timbre (Lindsey Reymore)
Vocal fry in musical contexts (Fabien Lévy, Malte Kob)
Choral orchestration/blending of vocal timbres in choirs (Caroline Traude, Malte Kob)