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A revelation in sound
Meredith Monk marks 40 years of groundbreaking vocals
For The Prague Post March 10, 2005 "I try to make a concert that's like a good meal, with different courses in it, and humor and songs that have a deeper kind of feelings," says Meredith Monk, who is celebrating 40 years of groundbreaking performances and recordings. Monk is a pioneer of extended voice techniques that push singing beyond its previous Western norms. Her approach started with an original intent. "I had the revelation that the human voice could be like an instrument, and I could make a vocabulary built on my own voice," Monk says. "That [method] was right in the tradition of modern dance choreography, where a dancer finds a vocabulary [of movements] built on their own body." In the late 1960s, Monk began training select vocalists to work in ensembles that realized her vision. From her 1970 Lovely Music release Key to her collection of ongoing ECM albums, Monk's signature has best been described by New York Times critic Paul Griffiths as "[singing] as if singing had only just been discovered." Monk's seemingly simple instrumental themes, often marked with repetitive melodies, have sometimes led her work to be filed under minimalism. But that's only a label her music blissfully transcends with a more kinetic and appealing expressiveness. The choice of the human voice as a primary instrument has given Monk and the vocalists she works with the capacity to express a full range of human emotions — grief, happiness, worry, the joy of discovery — with a singular clarity and potency. Unlike the acquired tastes of listening to the outside vocal efforts of Janis Joplin or Yoko Ono, Monk's music is simultaneously challenging and beautiful. Over the past 20 years, Monk's influence has been an open secret among rock vocalists. Singers such as Bjork and 4AD's Elizabeth Fraser, among others, have been audibly influenced. It's no surprise, then, that Monk will be sharing the bill with some rock stars on an upcoming release this spring by the Brodksy Quartet. Moodswings includes her work along with the efforts of Sting, Elvis Costello, Bjork, Richard Rodney Bennett and Errollyn Wallen.
Monk has also taken the stage as a visible 21st-century composer. Her first orchestral piece, Possible Sky, premiered in Miami in 2003. In January this year, her composition StringSongs was given its premiere performance by the Kronos Quartet at Carnegie Hall; it debuted in the UK at London's Barbican in February. Talking about her recent work with the Kronos Quartet, Monk says, "I was struck by how vocal the strings were, even though it's not a breath instrument. The gesture of bowing, and what that sounds like in terms of phrasing, is close to breathing." In her recent instrumental works, Monk has expanded her palette as well, from using "voice as instrument" to using the "[musical] instrument as voice." Monk will be appearing at Archa with her ensemble — Theo Bleckmann, Katie Geissinger and Allison Sniffin — in a program that rotates three singer/pianists with occasional violin and that features a selection of her work from over the years. "I wanted to make a concert where everybody can do more than one thing," Monk says. "Sometimes I'm playing the piano, sometimes Theo's playing the piano, [and] sometimes Allison's playing the piano." The concert is part of an 18-month celebration of Monk's work that includes an intensive performing schedule, an exhibition and two residencies. Anyone who has followed her career knows that the upcoming Archa concert is an event not to be missed. And those who have not heard her work, yet imagined the human voice being capable of possibilities yet unheard, can expect to hear what they have been missing.
Darrell Jonsson can be reached at
features@praguepost.com
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The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
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