The Future of Song

Collect/Project asks, what is song? What is the future of this ancient tradition of musical art? As with any art form there is constant invention and re-invention amongst those who live their lives for the art in question. Music is a special art in that it only exists in collaboration. Be that collaboration between performers, audience or composers, there is communication and interaction. The participation of the audience’s silent focused listening is a critical link in the musical relationship between composer, performer and ‘hearer.’

The Future of Song delves into the realm of what it means to be a song in modern times. It is a tour de force through the realms of sonic possibilities of the two instruments (female voice and flute), an exploration of sound’s different personalities through one of the oldest forms of musical art. The haunting and beautiful melodies of Japanese folk tunes in Hosokawa’s Kuroda-Bushi contrast sharply with the subtle and power gestures of breath in his Atem Lied (Breath Song) for solo bass flute. Matthias Kaul’s work is at once eerie and riveting as sounds mingle from the voice and speaker placed within the mouth. Using text by the Belgian surrealist Henri Michaux to create a general atmosphere and sequence of events, Silence Is My Voice reverses the usual procedure of modifying the voice by sound processors as it is the voice that changes the sounds from the playbacks—a surrealist duet for one musician.

The two new works written for Collect/Project’s tour by Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf and Morgan Krauss stretch the idea of song into the future, challenging the traditional aspects of collaboration and the relationship between performer and audience. The songs could not be more different. While Mahnkopf’s works is steeped in textual satire and musical virtuosity constantly shifting the relationship between the individual parts, Krauss’ work is a tactile exploration of a performer’s physical awareness and the clash of emotional opposites and how an audience perceives these disparate elements.

Frauke Aulbert, voice
Shanna Gutierrez, flute

This event is co-presented with the Goethe-Institut, Chicago.

Program
Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf (GER: b. 1962): Finite Jest (2014) for voice and flute (9’) World Premiere

Matthias Kaul (GER: b. 1949):* Silence is my voice* for voice with tape and mouth speaker (18’)

Morgan Krauss (USA: b. 1985): New Work for voice and flute (6’) World Premiere

Toshio Hosokawa (JAP/GER: b. 1955) Atem Lied for bass flute solo (12’)

Toshio Hosokawa (JAP/GER: b. 1955) Kuroda-Bushi for voice and alto flute (8’)

Collect/Project emerges from a pool of today’s highly skilled contemporary music interpreters, versed not only in classical and experimental performance techniques but also steeped in popular and folkloric music traditions. Collect/Project members seek more than mere interpretation and perfect fulfillment of a score. We seek the music within the music. We seek creative subtlety to free orthodox interpretations and reveal novel nuances. Performing not only oeuvres which deploy the creativity of the performer beyond what might be considered normal boundaries, but also taking the liberty of re-creating or re- arranging a work in new ways which still serve the original creative intent of the composer.

Frauke Aulbert boasts a vocal range of four octaves and has specialized in the contemporary vocal performance having mastered overtone- and undertone-singing, multiphonics and other timbre-altering techniques, in addition to her formal training in lyrical singing. As a vocal-sound-researcher she studies, describes and sings many different genres—including gamelan, jazz, dhrupad, beatboxing—and applies those sounds to her interpretation of contemporary vocal music. International concert tours have included Brasil, Georgia, Tunisia and the United States. She was awarded the first prize by the Stockhausen Foundation for interpreting the INDIANERLIEDER and she has undertaken long-term artists residencies in Rome and Paris (Goethe Institut and Cité International des Arts).

Flutist Shanna Gutierrez appears throughout the United States and abroad as a soloist, clinician, and in various chamber collaborations. She is a founding member of Chicago-based Ensemble Dal Niente, recipient of the 2012 Kranichstein Prize for Interpretation. She has performed as a guest with ensemble interface, ensemble TZARA, Fonema Consort, and the Collegium Novum Zürich, in addition to concerts and residencies in Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, South Korea, Mexico, and Colombia. She has received numerous awards and accolades for her performances including, prizes at the 2011 (THINKI) and 2013 (XI) Stockhausen Courses, and the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music.