...most of Us... (2018)
for solo voice (any type)
Premiered by Rose Hegele
The innate physical system of the performer acts as a fingerprint, a unique set of physical features that fundamentally embellishes performed sounds with identifying information. All movements made by a body are influenced by the body itself and therefore the existing physicality of the performer is largely responsible for the quality and feasibility of a given expression.
Recent studies suggest that individual performers can be consistently identified solely by observed physical variations in “motion and timing parameters” occurring during performance. These performance hallmarks are the result of “non-deliberate, subjective and consistent motion variations…which [have] been shown to be sufficient to accurately identify a performer above chance level. Such variability is influenced by both biomechanics and cognitive factors in both space and time.” With these identifying motion variances being “non-deliberate” yet “consistent” it is apparent that innate physical and/or cognitive attributes influence resulting physical (and by extension sonic) performance in a fundamental, pronounced, and observable manner. These attributes are so strong that the resultant physical idiosyncrasies result in the detection of an individual identity, one that is not consciously pursued, but rather expressed through the activation of organic psychophysical programming. An aspect of the self communicated through a unique form of failure.
The complexity of …most of Us…, arrived at through abstracted notation and parametric polyphony, requires a perceptual virtuosity of the performer as well as a new method of interpretation. The performer’s adaptation to this complexity defines the resultant sounds whose characters are noticeably changed by the performer’s momentary psychophysical state.