Chambers: Scores by Alvin Lucier

7. The Duke of York

THE DUKE OF YORK THE DUKE OF YORK (1971) for voice and synthesizer(s). Two persons design a musical performance in which one of them, the synthesist, uses an electronic music synthesizeror equivalent configuration of electronic equipment to alter the vocal identity of the other, the vocalist, who selects and orders any number of songs, speeches, arias, passages from books, films, television, poems, or plays, or any other vocal utterances including those of non-human intelligences, in waysdetermined by his or her relationship to the synthesist and the particular purpose of the performance. Performances may be used to strengthen personal ties, make friends with strangers, or uncover clues to hidden families and past identities. In strengthening personal ties, one, with the help of the other, selects examples that either or both have known and remembered since childhood, arranging them in the order of their emergence in their awarenesses. In making friends with strangers,the vocalist selects examplesthat the synthesist might have known and remembered, based on assumptions as to race, color, date and place of birth, manner of speech, dress, hair style, or any other outward sign, arranging them in the order that they might have emerged in the synthesist's awareness. In uncovering clues to hidden families and past identities, vocal examples of any kind may be arranged in any order or in temporal or geographical clusters. Examples may betaken from letters, diaries, memoirs, musical works, or biographies of real or fictitious persons. The vocalist sings, speaks or utters the examplesto the synthesistthrough a microphone and amplifier system. He or she may read from script or score, memorize, or listen through headphones to a record player or tape recorder upon which are stored the examples in their chosen order. Separations between examples are determined either by the length of time it takes to change each record or by the natural spaces that are formed by turning pages, splicing, or collecting and recording examples. The vocalist learns to mimic recorded examples as perfectly as he or she can, without interpretation or improvisation, in order to partake of and 80 communicate to the synthesist as fully as possible the vocal identity of the recording artist represented by each example. All aspectsof the sound images including those produced by recording techniques and other special effects should be regarded by both performers as much a part of the remembered or imagined identities as such vocal considerations as inflection , articulation, timbre, breath control, projection, and vibrato. During those parts of examples in which the recording artists rest or where it is impossible to follow, the vocalist either imitates the accompanying parts or leaves gaps. Whole examples, not parts of examples,should beused. In cases of vocal identities for which there are no recorded examples,the vocalist tries to imitate the vocal identities as he or she imagines them to be. The synthesist alters the vocal examples asthey arrive from the vocalist, trying to make them sound as much as possible like the originals as he or she remembers or imagines them to be. Any disparities that arise between either performer's remembrance of original examples, their imitation , re-recording, or cover versions, should be regarded as inherent discontinuities in space or time. In uncovering clues to hidden families or past identities, the synthesist composes a set of examples designed to sketch biographies of personsother than those sketched by the vocalist. The separate sets of examples are then performed simultaneously. Within each example, the synthesist makes one or more alterations of any aspect of sound including pitch, timbre, range, envelope, vibrato, and amount of echo. Alterations, once made, may not be lessened but may be increased from example to example to produce a continually changing composite vocal identity made up of many layers of partial identities. In performances involving more than two persons,the synthesizers may be played separately or linked together. Sounds made by the synthesizer itself should be considered its attempt to establish continuity or to express its inability to cope with the situation. 81 This page intentionally left blank The Duke of York seems to me to deal with adjustments to memories . . . Yes. . . . and the reinterpretation of material as it relates to memory experiences . The person operating the synthesizer seems to try to re-create past experiences by making sense of the data she's receiving. The piece...