Migrating Sound Peripheral Voices in European Opera and Music Theatre

MIGRATING SOUND

PERIPHERAL VOICES IN EUROPEAN OPERA AND MUSIC THEATRE

Dr. P.M.G. VerstraeteMercator – IPC Fellow

Sabancı University Istanbul(Honorary Fellow, University of Exeter)

„Sound und Performance“Kongress der Gesellschaft für Theaterwissenschaft

Universität Bayreuth5 October 2012

“Postmigrants are the new Germans. It would be difficult to call us New German Theatre. That would have been a step too far, and I would not know if every college of high culture would take this with the necessary doses of humor. It is a play with notions. We place ourselves in a discourse which already exists: ‘post-migrant’ appeared for the first time in Anglo-Saxon literature, when ten years ago Feridun Zaimoglu was invited to a symposium. To me post-migrant, in the understanding of the producers and recipients at Ballhaus, is the right description, to the extent that one can describe something accurately.”

(Shermin Langhoff; my translation, PV)

‘Post-migrant’‘Community’‘Aurality’

Lege Wieg / Boş Beşik (2010)

directed and produced by Cilia Hogerzeilcomposed by Seung-Ah Oh

Hollands Diep in collaboration with VocaalLAB in Het Energiehuis in Dordrecht

Tango Türk (2010)

directed by Lotte De Beercomposed by Sinem Altan

Neuköllner Oper in Berlin

The Aesthetic Argument

Acoustic Communication and Inter-Aurality

ACOUSTIC COMMUNICATION

“… how sound, in all its forms and functions, defines the relationship of the individual, the community, and ultimately a culture, to the environment and those within it.”

(Barry Truax 1984: 3)

Bebeğin beşiği çamdan The cradle of the baby is made of pine wood

Yuvarlandı düştü damdan the baby fell over the roof 

Kurtulur mu gelin gamdan would the daughter-in-law (the mother) be free from sorrow?

Nenni nenni nenni lullaby, lullaby, lullabyNenni bebek hey (oy) lullaby, baby

Dere olup taşamadım I could not be a creek overflow

Kader dağin aşamadım I could not climb/pass over the mountain of destiny

Gelin olup yaşamadım I could not be a daughter-in-life (wife) and live well 

Nenni nenni nenniNenni bebek hey (oy)

Bebek beni deleyledi the baby made me crazy

Yaktı yaktı kül eyledi it burnt me, it burnt me, it turned me into ashes

Her kap ya kul eyledi it made me a servant to everybody (everyone’s door)

Nenni nenni nenniNenni bebek hey (oy)

Lege Wieg / Boş Beşik: ‘Nenni Bebek’

The Social Argument

Community as Critical Concept

BI-MUSICALITY“This is the ability to function competently and with understanding within the musical practice of another culture. Hood notes that every culture’s music can be appreciated only on its own terms and he offers the example that basic western musicianship, such as having perfect pitch, actually represents a ‘conditioned prejudice to overcome’ interfering with the musician’s ability to hear ‘microtonal inflections’ (Hood 1960: 56). The needed skill set can be gained through learned sensitivity and actual musical performance experience.”

(Robert Gluck 2008: 143)

COMMUNITY

“… it may be allowed too easily to become an explanation rather than something to be explained.”

(Brian Alleyne 2002: 608)

Community as departure point for inquiry:

Bataille, ‘community without community’

Nancy, ‘inoperative community’

Agamben, ‘the coming community’

Blanchot, ‘unavowable community’

Conclusion

A Radical Politics of Community

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