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ELECTROACOUSTIC VOICES: SOUNDS QUEER, AND WHY IT MATTERS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2017

Alexa Woloshyn
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Abstract

Queer processes abound in fixed media electroacoustic music with voice, in both the composition and listening processes. ‘Queer’ means transgressive, unstable, and disruptive, and queer processes break down restrictive traditional binaries. In this article, I name the queer where some may have thought it does not or could not exist, in well-known works by Berio, Stockhausen and Lucier, as well as lesser-known works by Truax, Normandeau and Westerkamp. Any claim to the queer in these electroacoustic works is inherently political because the core of the term's meaning is to disrupt and perturb the status quo, which is maintained by existing power structures. I outline how composers unsettle the gendered voice and exploit its mediating role between the body and language. Studio manipulation is further enhanced by the acousmatic listening context, which is intimate and unsettling (‘queer’), and can depict the ‘third space’ between the bodies of the voice and listener.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Information
Tempo , Volume 71 , Issue 280 , April 2017 , pp. 68 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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References

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