Lab
collective vocal improvisation
An Artistic Investigation
From April to June 2022, the facilities of Escola Superior de Educação of IPP hosted a research lab aimed at exploring collective vocal improvisation with an ensemble of eight singers. In the four organized sessions, we worked on exercises drawn from practices that include vocal and collective improvisation. We sought to answer the following questions:
What are the existing practices in collective improvisation and collective vocal improvisation?
What is the process of creating a collective vocal ensemble?
In this context, a collective vocal improvisation lab was created, where exercises gathered from circlesinging, soundpainting, jazz, soundsinging, soundscapes, aleatory/indeterminate music, free improvisation, and the voice/body duality were explored.
The sessions were recorded in audiovisual format and accompanied by a logbook.
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Composed for this ensemble, the piece allows space for improvisation, exploring the potential ambiguities of unconventional notation.
You can download the score and audio at the end of this page.
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A special thank you to my colleagues - Alexandre, Bárbara, Beatriz, Catarina, João, Soraia, and Tomás - who accepted the challenge of being part of the lab. Without them, this research would not have been possible.
Session i
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Exercise in long notes, starting and ending in unison, allowing for an exploration of free sounds.
(Skårhøj, 2011)
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Exercise in rhythmic synchronization, creating a sound machine, whose parts work together.
(Stoloff, 2006)
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Exercise in rhythmic synchronization, throwing a ball, which aims to reach a final melody with everyone's contribution.
(Mehrabi, 2017)
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Ostinatos exercise, with each member contributing, in overlapping layers.
Loosely based on the practice of circlesinging.
(Treece, 2015)
One-chaos-one
Human machines
Flying voices
Loops
Session ii
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Exercise in which you follow the movement of the hands present in a video with your voice.
(HIVE Choir, 2020)
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Exercise in sound interpretation of text and image, based on “PoemFields N1” by VanderBeek (1967).
Loosely based on the practice of soundsinging.
(Tonelli, 2016)
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Exercise of sound loops associated with movement in space.
(Monk, 2019)
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Exercise in group creation of a structured improvisation.
Hand watching
Sound design
Vocal rooms
Collective creation i
Session iii
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Exercise that uses gesture to lead the group's improvisation.
Loosely based on the practice of soundpainting.
(Thompson, 2006)
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Exercise that makes use of the sounds found during a certain route, to reproduce them using the voice.
(Green & D'Arcy, 2017)
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Improvisation under/over melody, using harmonization or counterpoint.
Harmonic progressions associated with a melody.
(Canabiss, 2019)
Leading by gesture
Soundscape
Harmonic Improvisation
Session iv
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Based on the work “Towards an unbearable lightness” by Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1992).
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Exercise in group creation of a structured improvisation.
Graphic Score
Collective creation ii
SessionSessão v
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Improvisation without combined structure.
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Based on the work "Encontrar o espaço” by Luísa Matos.
*download at the end of the page
Free Improvisation
Encontrar o espaço
The piece “Encontrar o espaço” [Find the space] was composed for this ensemble. The work allows space for improvisation. You can download the score in video or pdf + audio.