Sonic Vertigo (2003) for 16 amplified voices and electronics.
Duration 07:45 minutes.
This piece was written during the spring of 2003 for the York Vocal Index. In Sonic Vertigo I tried to ‘sonify’ the moment when the ship Argo (in Greek mythology) had to pass the island of the Sirens; the moment when Orpheus with his song drowned the sound of those lovely fatal voices and so prevented the Argonauts from being lured to their destruction.
I used the sound material derived from the process of ‘sonification’, in a rather abstract way. There are neither textual nor contextual references any more. The structure of the piece gives the sensation of an ‘empty’ rotation and an evolution without progress, out of which the musical form is finally built.
The vocal sound sources are based on phonemes and other sounds produced by mouth such as whistles, whispers, swells, falls. The amplification of the voices causes the dividing 'edge' between tape and voices to be blurred. Formant transformations are extensively used to create a continuum between the voices and the tape.
The “vintage” sound quality of the tape part, mainly based on voice sounds with the exception of some percussive raps, intends to extend the phrasing and timbre of the voice beyond its natural acoustic means with large evolving atmospheres, massive textures and gestures. Homogeneous sounds are carefully combined by creating unique sonorities, by creating a ‘sonic adventure’.
This piece was awarded the First Prize at 2012 Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Choral Composition Competition in Kansas City/ Kansas; and, was Finalist at 2015 2nd Annual ORTUS International New Music Competition presented by KHORIKOS and Dorian Artists Corp in NYC, NY/ USA.