Saturday's Post

I seem to be falling into a habit, I'll try to fix that tomorrow with a properly timed post.

I often tell myself that I favor simplicity in my music, but I often give myself reason to question that premise.

I'm currently working on a choral piece with text by a writer I've met in my time at UBC. Without getting too detailed, I want to expand on the inherent sounds of the text, as spoken. Counterintuitively, I've complicated everything by translating the text into IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) so that I can be picky about the precise vowels and consonants used. I'll have a huge palate of colours with which to compose.

Despite having a lot of material to work with, I'm trying to figure out a way to maintain the simplicity and cleanness I'm wanting.

I'm noticing an irony:

In the classical world, singers learn IPA and the proper diction so that they say everything properly. The effect is something that sounds nothing like how people really talk.

That is not what I want, so I am taking a largely academic approach to getting a choir to sing like they would talk it... The diction element (at least) would be much easier if I just got a bunch of uneducated schmucks off the street to sing it, but I don't know how pretty it would be.