Virtual masks in the BACCHAE by introducing contemporary vocal Georgia Spiropoulos (ΙRCAM,2010) : techniques which exalt the tragic exploring tragic vocality in Max/Msp element through various means of vocal environment expression. Indeed, many composers for aesthetical have changed the Georgia Spiropoulos structure of the ancient Greek tragedy (IRCAM,[email protected] using traditional or non-traditional Anastasia Georgaki instruments in instrumental and ( Department, University of electroacoustic music[4]. For example Athens, [email protected]) Xenakis’s Oresteia (1965) written for a mixed and children’s choir and a chamber ensemble, reflects the Abstract composer’s most successful attempt to In this paper we present some technical write music for a Greek tragedy aspects on the interactive masks created focusing on the prosody of the ancient by the composer Georgia Spiropoulos Greek text [7][9]. Jani Christou in the for the needs of the opera Les 60’s introduced novel techniques for the Bacchantes (Ircam, 2010). Bacchae is vocal processing of the choir and an opera for a single performer, tape electroacoustic tape on tape in order to and live electronics where the voice of reinforce the tragicalness of the the performer interprets four different text. 2 Michael Adamis in the 70s roles with the interactive environment initiated processed voices in contrast to in Max/Msp. The virtual masks as a conventional underlining the metaphor of Euripide’s dramatic of the text by preserving its personae and masks1 of the same actor. prosody [6]. Are used as virtual scores which One step beyond, Georgia’s Spiropoulos register the vocal trace of the performer re-reads Euripides“Bacchae” in another and give further vocal agility, way: a single singer performs all the extensibility, mutation, multiplication characters, the dramatic action turns and augmented vocality. into vocal, the actor's mask3 into virtual mask, the interactive system replies as 1. Introduction chorus and the stage turns into a light sculpture. The close collaboration Since the beginning of XXth century between the composer and the more than a thousand Greek composers multivocalist Médéric Collignon 4 gave have composed music for ancient Greek dramas. most of them have been based upon the prosody of the text [5], the 2 The electrοacoustic material consisted of ancient Greek modes and the Byzantine ancient Greek modes and the Byzantine concrete and electronic sounds creating a kind of melos following the traces of a soundscape that introduces the audience into a archeomusicology[2]; on the second subconscious world. 3 half of the century many composers As a result, the art of ancient acting centered have gone one step further by around a performer's flexibility carrried out with the help of the masks and costumes which hid his own face and form from the audience's view.

1 The masks in Greek drama allowed the actors to 4 play multiple roles. They may have served as Mederic Collignon is a French jazz cornet resonance chambers so actors could be heard even player and excellent vocalist who uses a large when their backs were turned. palette of vocal techniques, from normal birth to a novel score which explores theory and the standardisation of the boundaries between the written and descriptive terminology for the voice 8 oral, the composition and the [11][12] improvisation, the real and virtual c)exploring avant-garde vocal voices proposing a new vocabulary on techniques such as those used by the tragic vocality. Demetrio Stratos and others.

2. Exploring polyvocality in “The? “Bacchae” follows the narrative thread Bacchae» 5 of the original text;9 it is articulated in “Bacchae” by G.Spiropoulos (Ircam, 7 parts (Prolog, Episodes I-V, Exodos) 2010) is an homage to Xenakis, binded by 5 electroacoustic interludes particularly for his works for solo (Stasima). (fig.1.the virtual score of voices or vocal ensembles which Bacchae). Spiropoulos explores the idea integrate idiomatic vocal writing such of "polyvocality" in music and creates a as Aïs, Kassandra, N’Shima, Akanthos highly virtuosic score where the and Nuits.6 performer interprets 4 different On the traces of this vocal exploration characters : Dionysos, Pentheus, Agave of the ritual, the composer has started and the Messenger. Each character has her journey on the search of the by his own "mask” determined by three boundaries between Greek oral vocal elements : the vocal mask (vocal type or tradition and compositon through Klama phonation),the virtual mask (electronic (Ircam, 2006) for mixed choir, live or microphonic transformation), and the electronics & "audio documents7. spatial point (the position on stage). In Bacchae she continues her research The vocal mask is articulated through on the vocality in the ritual context of different “types of phonation” (vocal the Greek oral tradition and the tragical modes). vocality through three different paths: a)Rewriting special vocal techniques that are used in traditional rituals: the Greek fire rite of Anastenaria and the ritual lament of New Guinea and Solomon Islands b) using contemporary theories on the fig.1.The main patch (virtual score) of integrative approach in general phonetic Bacchantes The electronic masks generated with to tuva technics, scat singing, Max/Msp reinforce the vocal identity of beatbox and aspirated singing. each character and generates the Bacchae Chorus. 10

7 "Klama" has its roots in the death rituals, performed in the region of Mani, in south 9 The structure of Greek tragedy is based on Peloponese. The meaning of the word "klama" is dialogues and choral parts where chorus may simultaneously "cry" and "ritual lament". It comment on what has already been said. characterizes a polyphony encompassing 9 From an aural point of view in Cued Speech and improvised monodies (moiroloya), epodes, crying, sign , prosody involves the rhythm, screams and monologues, accompanied by ritual length, and tenseness of gestures, mouthing, and gestures. Due to its acoustic violence...... More facial expression. at : www.georgiaspiropoulos.com/programnotes/ klama.html 10 The text fragments in french comes from the

3.Virtual masks in Max/Msp

In order to describe her work "inside of ”, Spiropoulos 3 types of sound mask : natural mask, virtual mask, and combined mask. The natural mask transforms the through a vocal or instrumental technique ; the virtual fig.2. Mask of Dionysos mask transforms the timbre through electronic treatment, the microphone and the electromagnetic waves ; the combined mask is the simultaneous utilization of the natural and of the virtual mask.11 The function of the virtual mask, the vocal treatment by live electronics, is to reinforce the vocal identity of the characters and to generate the Bacchae fig.3. mask of messenger chorus; it serves to modify the sound

(timbre, pitch, density, loudness) and the temporality (duration, rhythm).12 In the following table one can see the three kind of masks of each character.

fig.4 Mask of Pentheus

translation by Jean and Mayotte Bollack.

11 The composer borrows the idea of the mask in theatre and in ritual, and transposes it in the vocal and electronic writing as an element of acoustic identification or transformation of a character (or sound).

12 Behind the idea of mask, there is not any descriptive function of a psychological, emotional or naturalistic portrait, this dimension being perfectly accomplished by the narratives. NATURAL VOCAL VIRTUAL MASK SPATIAL MASK Voice processing POSITION type of phonation with Max/Msp on stage controlled with a midi mixer

DIONYSOS tense voice clipping (God & Stranger) (japanese hischiriki resonant filter wind instrument like) whistle effect (ok) falsetto voice whistle voice bisbigliando(different types)

PENTHEUS harsh aspirated voice comb filter (low) spectral stretch growl freq shifting falsetto (as a woman) clipping

THE whispery voice cepstral MESSENGER breathy voice granular synthesis

aspirated voice pulse sound tense voice (controlled by midi pedal)

AGAVE tense aspirated voice transposition falsetto stretching harsh,aspirated falsetto granular synthesis creaky voiced

THE CHORUS ELECTROACOUSTIC clipping 6 (The Bacchae) TAPE spectral stretch Loudspeake freq shifting rs around time stretching the granular synthesis audience. convolution filtering Table.1: natural and virtual masks

4. Virtual Choirs and Max/Msp has been used on the electroacoustic objects part to generate the virtual choir of the bacchants. Two different phonations of α) Virtual choir on tape Dionysos give the material for the The psychoirtrist13~ Max/Msp module baccants choir: a tense voice singing a

variations obtaining a choir effect. Each voice has 13 psychoirtrist~ transposes and delays a its own output.] monophonic input multiple times with random "li" at the very beggining of the work pitch and timbre. and a whistle expirated voice singing a The module allows high quality pitch "(h)a". transposition, de/re-mixing of sinusoidal, noise and transitory components as well as spectral envelope transformations and cross-synthesis.

fig. 5 . Psychoiriste module

The psychoirtrist~ module is a psola (pitch-synchronous-overlap-analysis) choral harmonizer developed by Norbert Fig. 6 Supervp.ring (stasimon 3)15 Schnell at Ircam. Applying random temporal andpitch modulation The supervp.ring~ module is part of the parameters it is used to emulate a choir Phase vocoder Max/Msp external from the voice of one singer. It has modules. These modules are enirely been also used for the first section of based on Axel Roebel's SuperVP also "Klama" to create progressively a 4- known as the calculation engine behind voice virtual choir glissando texture AudioSculpt. between a given interval from a single repeated tone. [13] c) Virtual choir live II:Agave's lament (becomes a mourner chorus) - b)virtual choir live Ι Exodos16 Stasimon 3 - The Chorus (improvised At the end of the work (Exodos) 14 on Pentheus microphone) Agave's lament is multiplied through All the stasima (the chorus parts) are the loudspeakers on stage and in the purely electroacoustic except the third hall. The idea is to create an stasimon entirely improvised. In the acoustic dissemination of the lament as third Stasimon the vocal mask of we may find at the ritual laments. Dionysos becomes once again the Agave is moving slowly to the extreme bacchae chorus.Different types of live edge of the stage. During this passage vocal sounds (whistle expirated or the voice is captured by three aspirated, sometimes transformed by the microphones at the middle of the stage hand of the singer) has been digitally and a mix of the three signals is treated processed. by two Max/Msp modules used (l'un The vocal sounds are treated by four après l'autre) to create a mourner supervp.ring~ modules. The incoming chorus: munger~ for granulation and sound is buffered in a ring buffer gizmo~ (four times) for variable and allowing for arbitrary scrubbing and thus varying the timing of a real-time 15 stream as well as the transformations of http://imtr.ircam.fr/imtr/Max/MSP_ex ternals

14 16 On patch and description: 1svpr, On patch and description: ctrl 7, 2svpr, 3svpr, 4svpr > stretch for Agave channel 7 : 1 mung, 1giz > granulation (stasimon) + transposition for Agave (stasimon) delayed transpositions. contemporary techniques and The munger~ module is a granular interactive media. Virtual choirs in synthesis object made by Luke Dubois different and real-time accomplish the that we use in order to emulate another ritual vocality and the electronic kind of distortion. Various-sized grains dramaturgy. of sound are taken from the signal and re-synthetized after adding small random time and pitch variations. Aknowledgments ("KLAMA: The Voice from Oral Thomas Goepfer (Computer Music Tradition in Death Rituals to a Work for Designer) Choir & Live Electronics", Georgia Maxime Le Saux (Sound engineer) Spiropoulos, Benoît Meudic, SMC Mederic Collignon (Performer) 2007). Arnaud Jung (Light designer) The gizmo~ module is a frequency- domain pitch shifter working by References analysing the frequency bins of an 1.Vovolis, Thanos and Giorgos Zamboulakis. The Acoustical Mask of Greak Tragedy, Didaskalia FFT'd signal, finding the peaks in the Vol. 7.1. spectrum and shifting them along the 2.Georgaki, P. Velianitis: “Aspects of musical frequency axis to transpose the sound. structure and functionality of electroacoustic (doc in Max/Msp gizmo! help window). media in the performance of ancient Greek tragedy A composers’ point of view”, in CIM08proceedings,Thessaloniki, Aristotle University 2008. 3.Charles, Daniel (1980). Thèses sur la voix. la Voix, l'écoute,Traverses, 20, Centre G. Pompidou. 4.Daverio, John (1999): The legacy of Greek antiquity as a stimulus for the musical avant- garde. In Symposium proceedins of music and ancient Greek international metting in 1996 in the fig.5. Agave’s modules Eutopean cultural center of Delphi. Athens: Livanis publishing, p.283-299. The Exodos ends with fragments of 5.Devine, A. M. & Stephens, L. D. (1994). The Prosody of Greek Speech. : Oxford. recorded ritual laments from New 6.Georgaki, Anastasia (2008). Allegories et Guinea, Solomon Islands, Terra del mutations vocales au sein de la tragedie Grecque Fuego, Pontus and a very short moderne a travers les oeuvres de Yannis Christou fragment by Demetrio Stratos. (1926-1971) et Michael Adamis(1929). In Giordano Ferrari, Harmattan (ed.) «la voix dans Epilogue. la dramaturgie contemporaine » (a apparaître) 7.Lohmann, Johannes (1989). Mousiké et Logos, In this paper we have presented Ed.T.E.R, Paris different virtual masks created by 8.Loraux, Νicolas (1999). «La voix endeuillée », Max/Msp tools which explore the verbal un essai sur la tragédie Grecque. Paris : and non verbal aspects of the tragic Gallimard. voice through different vocal 9.Vaggopoulou, Evagelia.(2005) The Universality of Xenakis’ techniques focusing into paralinguistic Oresteia.Incicm.mshparisnord.org/ColloqueXenak codes (tone,volume, breaths, aspiration, is/papers/Vaggopoulou.pdf formants,clipping,whistling,etc). 10.Nicolas D’Allesandro, Raphael Sebbe, Baris Virtual masks are here introduced as Bozkurt, Thiery Dutoit, “MAXMBROLA: A virtual scores which register the timbral MAX/MSP BROLA-BASED TOOL FOR REAL TIME SYNTHESIS”, Proceedings of the 13th mutations from different oral ritual European Signal Processing Conference traditions through the prism of (EuSiPCo’05), 2005. 11.Laver, John. Principles of . Cambridge UP, 1994. xxviii, 707pp. biblio 622-684. P221.L293 12.Ladefoged, Peter & Ian Maddiesen. The sounds of the world’s languages. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996. 12.Gold, Bernard et al. Speech and audio signal processing: processing and of speech and music...... 13. Georgia Spiropoulos, Benoît Meudic,KLAMA: The Voice from Oral Tradition in Death Rituals to a Work for Choir & Live Electronics", in proeceedings SMC 2007, Lefkada.

Technical support See the technical sound documentation : http://brahms.ircam.fr/media/uploads/spiropoulos- georgia/les-bacchantes/2010-06-19/agora- 2010/sound-technics/BACCHANTES.pdf DM2000 memory save : http://brahms.ircam.fr/media/uploads/spiro poulos-georgia/les-bacchantes/2010-06- 19/agora-2010/sound-technics /BACCHANTES_MEDERIC_MANOURY.Y SE Videos of the opera http://www.georgiaspiropoulos.com/works/baccha e_en.html#TEASER