I) after a couple of talks here in Buenos Ayres with Gernot, we agreed
on a couple of cyberchor ideas:
1. the method of using the adress of the 'sender' will be used. this
will determine a stage (in which the sound will not be distorted) and a
sound (from a database of 256 sounds or less).
2. the cyberchor will follow the structure of the play (6/7
episodes/parts). this structure (this 'division of the whole into parts')
will determine the max. amount of sounds to be produced, which should be
decreasing, and _may_ determine other sound characteristics.
3. there was a play in Viena ('24m2 luck') which used the kind of sounds
we were discussing about (phrases, nature, instruments, etc.) so the
proposed idea would make oudeis sound like that play, and we agreed that
that is not desirable. furthermore, we can achieve a much better result
choosing a more suitable family of sounds (see III).
II) i've been searching some info about the role of the chorus in greek
tragedy (with the help of Gonzalo Alonso and Elsa Gonzalez Bolia, two
non-email oudeis members here). this is a brief account of what i've found:
1. it was homogeneous (old men or ladies or young men, etc.).
2. they were 12-15 dancing singers, except special cases.
3. each tragedy was divided in episodes (with up to three actors and the
chorus) and 'stasimous'* (where the chorus danced and singed alone,
commenting the action)
4. each of the 'stasimous' had the following structure:
. 'estrofa'* (movement towards the platform/stage). | could be
. 'antistrofa'* (towards the altar). | repeated
. 'epodo' (optional last song in the altar).
5. the 'stasimous' was sung in 'atic'* dialect, with some 'doric'*
influences. dialogues (wich where half sung and half spoken) were in pure
'atic' dialect.
6. the chorus commented on the action, not being able to change it.
7. it wore much lighter clothes and had no makeup.
8. its positions were pre-defined.
(* these words are in spanish or spanglish, as i couldn't find the
english ones. if anybody out there knows them, send mail.)
III) some ideas:
1. the structure of the play (I.2) may be thought of as an analogy of
the 'structuralism' of greek tragedy (II.3, 4).
2. each part of the play should be homogeneous (II.1) in its sound.
3. the movement of the chorus (II.4) may be represented by determining
the stereo position of the sound by the same means the choice of sound is
determined (I.1), thus each 'event' would have the following information:
stage, sound number, stereo position.
4. since we should avoid having a mixture of sounds (I.3), i thought
about which sound would better represent the idea of the original chorus.
my first idea was to have spoken verses of the odyssey in greek. this had
the advantage of being true to the original and of including the greek
language on the play, but it was a bit too simple (direct?). then i
remembered this guys were _singing_. my idea is that a number of short solo
vocal pieces can be composed. each would be from one word to a verse in
length. each of this vocal pieces would then be recorded and put in the
database. by using this sounds we have the chorus sing (II.5); we can make
each part homogeneous (III.2) by using one kind of voice for each part
(soprano, contralto, baritono, bass, etc.); we're being true to the
original (the cyberchor will sound like a contemporary *choral*
composition, with recorded voices coming from different places in the
world); and we'll be using greek!
5. if everybody agrees on this idea, i would like to write the pieces,
or a group of composers (one for each part?) may do it. when everything's
written, the recordings can be made in Buenos Ayres (one of our partners
here is the Catholic University, which has one of the best music schools in
Argentina), or in other countries.
well, that's it. hope you like the idea. a decision should be taken as soon
as possible, as the writing and recording of this things will take some
time.
hope the weather gets better for you in the northern cone.
un abrazo,
santiago
mailto:jaco@overnet.com.ar
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/3721/
music is dressed silence