Extended Vocal Technique
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Extended Vocal Technique uses the human voice beyond standard singing: multiphonics, overtones, glottal clicks, inhaled tone, screams, whispers, ululation, Sprechstimme, circular breathing, microtonal slides and body resonance. The voice is treated as a full sound engine rather than a carrier for melody alone. In performance it often blurs virtuosity and vulnerability, because the body itself becomes the instrument, amplifier and risk point.
History
Early modernist precedents include Schoenberg's Sprechstimme and Berio's Sequenza III for Cathy Berberian, but the term and practice expanded strongly in the 1970s through Joan La Barbara, Meredith Monk, Diamanda Galás and new-music vocal performance. Later artists connected it to free improvisation, throat-singing traditions, experimental theater, metal extremity and electronic processing.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Sequenza III — Cathy BerberianSpotifyYouTube
- Voice Piece: One-Note Internal Resonance Investigation — Joan La BarbaraSpotifyYouTube
- Dolmen Music — Meredith MonkSpotifyYouTube
- Wild Women with Steak-Knives — Diamanda GalásSpotifyYouTube
- Lost Rivers — Sainkho NamtchylakSpotifyYouTube
- Baggage Allowance — Pamela ZSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Red Bull Music Academy Joan La Barbara lecture
- scholarly overview of extended vocal techniques
- Tone Åse vocal performance art background
- Spotify experimental vocal reference playlist