scholarship highlights
“A Primordial Buzzing,” Ecologies of Resonance: A Study of Three Praxial Choral Ecosystems [Doctoral dissertation, University of California San Diego], In Progress.
EXCERPT
Our giant carob tree out back became host to a great number of bees this Spring. While at first alarmed, I came to find their presence calming. As I stood beneath the branches, breathing in the many-bodied hum, dazzled by the group’s precise dance, my sense of bodily confinement melted. Their music invigorated my cells; I too began to buzz. I had forgotten, but they reminded me once again of my belonging with nature. For a time, my mind emptied of all tasks and worries. I simply listened.
Whether by way of refined body percussion (like with bees) or vocal chord vibration, living creatures intone together to survive, and have done so for hundreds of millions of years according to evolutionary scientists. (Merker 1999; Sidtis 2018; Peretz 2005) These communicative behaviors, be they mating calls or warning signals, can be understood as social cues that enable individuals to connect to their environment and to each other. Functionally ecological and cooperative, according to evolutionary musicologist Joseph Jordania (2016), “choral singing (was) the central feature of pre-linguistic communication” in human history” (20) His theory links musical call-and-response structures to what in his view is a uniquely human feature of intelligence, asking questions, an ability that forms the core of dialogic communication, teaching and learning, governance, and so much more. Whether consisting of whistles and grunts signifying times of rests (“contact calls”) or intimidating displays of polyphony used to ward off enemies, these responsive utterances are what Jordania deemed musical and choral, in a primitive sense.
“Question I,” PhD Qualifying Examination. University of California San Diego, May 2020.
EXCERPT
I remember there was a sense of importance around this idea. Sitting there in the presence of twenty or so people currently experiencing displacement, experiencing various injustices due to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, I felt responsibility--weight. This performance would matter. It would matter in a way that singing at Carnegie Hall never had.
“These are pedagogical performances that matter. They give voice to the subaltern. They do something in the world. They move people to action.” (Denzin 2018:67)
Scene 4: Same place, right after.
The piece came together quickly - it had to. With the better part of five minutes left, I could hear it, see the piece in my mind’s eye. This was my wheelhouse, the way in which my skills could serve. The spot was open, gaping, so I stepped in.
Learning is active
“Julia, you’re the wall. Pick something rhythmic, low, and chant ‘wall’ repeatedly,” I said, o r something to that effect. She put her arms up in a T, splitting our group in half, and searched vocally for a groove. “Maria, you’re on this side, I’m on the other. And we want to cross. We want freedom. We’re singing, calling for the right to cross.” She was right there with me, focused, embodied, grasping across Julia’s T-shaped configuration. “Baby and Eva, you’re on opposite ends, singing the word ‘freedom,’ ‘libertad.’” In my mind, they represented communities standing in solidarity, though it seemed unnecessary to explain so at the time. “At a high point, when it feels right, we’ll shift Julia ninety degrees, transforming her into a bridge.” This may have been Julia’s idea, or at least I remember clearly her excitement around it! I experimented with touch and movement, Maria following suit, that could incite Julia’s shift. As our time ran out, we’d successfully determined a solid overall structure and had assigned performative responsibilities. (Although there wasn’t too much in the way of dialogue during this final stage of preparation, given the time constraints and the newness of the relationships in the group, it felt important to me to simply establish a shared concept, trusting that the dialogue and details would come about in performance.)
When we took the stage, or rather took our positions in the foyer of the shelter in front of the other choir members and residents, something incredible happened. Maria changed, right before our eyes. Without warning, she assumed the role of spokesperson, leader of the group, and addressed the audience with a sense of pride and ownership I hadn’t yet seen. This was her story, her piece. (This was exactly how it was meant to be. I’m crying just recalling it.) She talked about her family, her struggle, and when we sang, her voice was magic. I remember noticing her range; she sang at times in a register far higher than I’d expected to hear. Her voice carried raw emotion and unapologetically abstract melodies. Together, we were oddly entwined contrapuntal birds, calling across time and space, singing as though her family could hear, her past self, policy-makers, past, present, and future, as though they were all in the room with us. It felt like the entire world could see us, and see, truly see, Maria, her story, and her heart. There were hands, grasping, pulling, brushing, until finally, on her cue, they could connect, cross over. The sense of triumph, of release, welled up in our eyes, and I remember she appeared stronger, more fully solid in her body by the end. My gaze locked with hers, we found each others’ arms, and collectively whispered “thank you, thank you. Muchas gracias” as another group took the stage.
“A performance of possibilities gives a voice to those on the margin, moving them for the moment to the political center.” (Denzin 2018:67)
“The performance is not a mirror, it is the hammer that breaks the mirror, shatters the glass, builds new realities, incites transformations, causes trouble... The performer, self-consciously becomes part of the performance, an instrument of change engaged in ethical acts of advocacy.” (ibid.:29-30, cf. Madison 2010:10-12)
Scene 5
What do you think? Does theater change lives? Can we perform change to make it so?
“Dissertation Prospectus,” PhD Qualifying Examination. University of California San Diego, May 2020.
I. Working Title
Toward an Ecology of Resonance: Three Case Studies of Non-Normative Voice Pedagogy
II. Abstract
Despite long histories of passing vocal trends, today, “appropriate” singing in the Western classical tradition is thought to be stagnant and homogenous, and largely dependent on past masters’ methods. Even with the ever-growing variety of vocal expertise in 21st-century Euro-America, and the emergence of technological advancements altering vocal requirements within widely accepted performance settings, formal learning spaces dedicated to the craft of singing continue to prioritize European art music and methods, most prominently the “bel canto method,” effectively silencing other traditions and ways of knowing. This dissertation explores how, through teaching resources and training methods, voice educators impart their ideologies to learners, and how their various methods impress certain perceptions and behaviors upon their pupils, a potentially empowering or disempowering transaction. By examining, on the one hand, the patterns and contexts of prominent historical method books, scholarly texts, and archival pedagogical materials and, on the other, ethnographic data of illustrative non-normative voice education spaces, I articulate a complex nonuniform landscape of formal voice education, challenging commonly held beliefs about the bounds of the genre and providing relevant contemporary examples of change.
“Overview of Research,” Presentation Slides [Doctoral dissertation, University of California San Diego]. November 2019.