Sound Poetry
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Sound Poetry is poetry performed as sound before meaning: phonemes, syllables, breath, tongue clicks, shouts, chants, tape edits and visual scores. The voice becomes percussion, noise source and instrument, often hovering between literature, music, theater and performance art. Its pieces can be comic, ritualistic or aggressively abstract, but their power comes from language being pushed back into the body.
History
Its modern roots are in Futurism and Dada, especially Hugo Ball's phonetic poems and Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate. After World War II, Henri Chopin, François Dufrêne, Bob Cobbing, bpNichol and other concrete/sound poets expanded the form through tape recorders, graphic notation and live vocal performance. The style remains a core bridge between experimental poetry, sound art and vocal music.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- The Wire Sound Poetry Portal
- Bowerbird Sound Poetry Effects Catalog
- Melodigging sound poetry overview
- Open Library Humanities article on Bob Cobbing