Adaptation – 2023
Adaptation is an exploration of the musicality of speech using the electric harp. Speech has often been applied to the creation of experimental music. However, previous works seek to replicate vocal phrasing using extended techniques on the harp, such as finger damping and pedal slides, and some use electronic filtering to recreate vowel sounds. However, I was interested to analyse the pitch intervals and rhythm of speech using Sonic Visualiser to then replicate these phrases using the harp’s naturally speech-like timbre.
I used samples of mother’s speech as the source material due to the musical nature of infant-directed communication, which is often slower and has more exaggerated phrasing. In developing this project I became interested in pitch and rhythm correlations found across types of phrases. Therefore, through analysing the sonic qualities of various phrases, as demonstrated in Fig. 1, I was able to identify patterns in the sonic ‘direction’ of phrases intended to, for example, question, encourage and appraise. I then experimented with splitting these phrases and subverting the expected direction or arc of the phrase, through exchanging the final segment with that of a contrasting phrase.
Figure 1 – Demonstration of phrasing analysis
In analysing the phrases I found that there were often many pitches evident in each syllable, so layered multiple samples of the harp to attempt to recreate the sound. I also used my Boss ME-80 multi-effects pedal to apply real-time effects to the harp to alter the sound slightly; I found that the fast attack of the note pluck added an unnatural quality for speech replication, as words are not necessarily punctuated at the start like this. I therefore used the expression pedal to control the volume of the harp, which enabled me to punctuate the sound in a way that matched the mother’s speech.
After listening to the same series of phrases on repeat I noticed they progressively sounded more musical and my brain started to seek musical resolutions in the phrases cadences. I therefore integrated repetition into the piece to re-introduce familiar phrases in slightly different ways, extending their perceived musicality. I also interweaved segments of the source material so that listeners can hear these phrase patterns in their original form, emphasising the musicality of the mother’s speech.
The piece is to be listen to with headphones.