Transparently

The chosen text is a passage in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay titled Nature.  The passage contains an interesting concept that he calls the ‘Transparent Eyeball.’  He views himself as one with nature — seeing his own physical body as a part of the earth — diminishing the notion of man-earth duality.  The technical concept parallels the idea by channeling the sounds through ‘primitive’ percussion instruments via surface transducers.  These natural objects (the hand-made djembe from Senegal and the gourd-carved guiro) act as vehicles to project the sonic image.  At times, prerecorded percussion sounds are routed through these 'percussion speakers,' creating the illusion that they are being struck without human mediation.  Also, when the soprano's signal transmits through the 'percussion speakers,' it is as if she is one with those natural elements; sounding directly through the earth.  Ideally, the electronics are executed transparently; forcing the listeners to experience the recitation of the poem as Ralph Waldo Emerson might have.  The irony lies in the fact that so much of the artificial is required to recreate the natural. 

View Documentation / score here

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