Sound Poetry: I. History of Electro-Acoustic Approaches II.

Connections to Advanced
Electronic Technologies
Author(s): Larry Wendt
Source: Leonardo, Vol. 18, No. 1 (1985), pp. 11-23
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1578088
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 Sound Poetry:
I. History of Electro-Acoustic Approaches
II. Connections to Advanced Electronic
Technologies
Larry Wendt

Abstract-The author surveys the history of text-sound composition and its relationship to sound poetry. He
describes some styles of sound poetry performance and examines the aesthetic and practical features of the
technology used in sound poetry. The author also discusses the use of technology in his sound poetry.

I. HISTORY OF ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC temporaries to the Dadaists also became

temporary music organization in Stock-
APPROACHES known as sound poems.
holm which had been in existence since
1933. In the early sixties, Fylkingen was Ideally, the term 'sound poetry' would
Background History
reorganized to include artists workingdescribe poetry which emphasized
For some time, I have been building
with artforms other than music [4]. acoustical properties rather than the
microprocessor controlled devices for the
The Fylkingen text-sound composers meaning of words, i.e. the conventional
production of sound poetry. These devices
produced a number of collaborative relationship between sound and semantics
manipulate vocal material in a variety of works referred to as 'borderline trans-
in poetry would be reversed and the
ways in order to isolate arid accentuate its connotations would accentuate the
gressors'. These were bits of instrumental
sonic properties. My main intent is to
theatre and "happenings with musical,poem's sonic, rather than semantic,
discover the unobserved sonic com-
qualities. This definition is descriptive
linguistic and pictorial elements, etc." [5].
plexities of even the most common and
This work was similar to the horspiel orrather than prescriptive since there are
pedestrian modes of speech and thereby
radio play work being done on Germansome sound poems which are texts more
create greater acoustical resources radio
for the
and work which the British than poems, as well as a host of other
poet. I see my work as a continuation of
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) varieties. sound With each group of works there
the research started by linguistic artists
effects studio had done in the earlyis sixtiesa unique set of properties related to the
during the 1960s [1].
in England with such poets as Brion acoustical manipulation of speech. The
Documentation for a history of sound
Gysin, Ernst Jandl and Bob Cobbing term [6].
'sound poetry' has become a catch-all
poetry is paradoxically both hard to find
There were also several other poets term for a very open-ended art form
and overly abundant. Much of this
producing a similar kind of electro- whose vague definitional boundaries are
material is published in limited editions acoustic literature such as Francois
a result of its cross-disciplinary heritage.
by small or handmade presses, many of When acoustical literature was re-
Dufrene, Henri Chopin, Bernard
them in Europe [2].
Heidsieck [7], and the Flemish poet Paul
discovered in the fifties, its practitioners
Around 1967, Bengt Emil Johnson and
de Vree [8]. In America, production ofoften had no knowledge of their
Lars-Gunnar Bodin of Sweden coined the
precursors. This newer work often
electro-acoustic literature began some-
term text-sound composition to describe what later with the works of Jackson disposed of even the idea of a poem using
their work and the work of others they
MacLow [9], Charles Amirkhanian [10] any text available-a play, for example,
believed were creating a new art "which
and John Giorno [11]. or a story or even a flyer found on the
expresses feelings, values and conceptions
street-as substances to be manipulated
The productions of the Fylkingen text-
of life which are characteristic for our
for their acoustical underpinnings. With
sound composers had a surface similarity
own time, and this means that it is often
new forms of technology, electricity was
to both older and contemporary electronic
stamped and partially created by the new
music pieces, but they also explored a
introduced into this art form, which made
technology ..." [3]. Johnson's and Bodin's
grey area between music and poetry. it substantially different from the earlier
work was a linguistic art form which used
These works were different from either literary experiments. Even artists who did
electronic and tape techniques to expand not use electro-acoustics in their sound
art form-they were acoustical artifacts
the expressive capacities of the human that could not be described as either poems were often influenced by the
voice. They were among a group of
music or literature. Although the term sounds produced by these methods.
Swedish intermedia artists connected to
'sound poetry' had been used previously During the sixties and early seventies,
Fylkingen, a government-funded con-
to describe similar work [ 12], the termpast
did works and ways of working with the
sonic aspects of language were re-
not accurately relate to the new text-
Larry Wendt (text-sound composer and electronic
technician), Music Department, San Jose State sound compositions. The Dadaist
discovered in the archives of the
Dadaists, the Italian and Russian
University, Washington Square, San Jose, CA originators of the term loosely envisioned
95192, U.S.A.
sound poetry as "poems without words" Futurists, and other experimentalists.
Manuscript solicited by Carol Law. These early linguistic, 'oddities' or
[13]; however, some of these compositions
came to incorporate words. Acoustical 'jokes', as they had been derisively
Received 27 April 1984.
writings by precursors and con- defined by narrow-minded critics, were

Pergamon Press Ltd.

Printed in Great Britain. LEONARDO, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 11-23, 1985 11
0024-094X/85 $3.00+0.00
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re-examined in the more serious light In the 1950s a heretical splinter group of
broadly be called sound poems are more
made possible by the liberating effects of common now than the festivals. Lettrists known as the Ultralettrists

the new media technologies. Linguistic extended the Lettrist vocabulary to

artists discovered complex historical and include amplified vocal sounds. Their
intricate artistic ties connecting their Sound Poetry Performances work had a raw, improvised vitality to it.
work with these earlier efforts. These Sound poetry performances have moreThe most active proponent of this
in common with other intermedia per-
artists thus developed a clearer theoretical method was Francois Dufrene who
understanding of their own works. This produced over seventy works which he
formance styles evolving since the 1950s
than with the activities of conventional
gave rise to a very expressive and varied called crirythmes. These were vocal
art form which could not be described in poetry readings, since a sound poem electro-acoustic
is improvisations often
any clear fashion. Text-sound compositionperformed rather than merely read out superimposed a few times on tape. They
is just one of the more well-known termsloud [15]. Vocalizations are projected off were often composed spontaneously, and
used to describe the technological aspects the page as a theatrical gesture and their Dufrene refused to use any score or text
of this work and to isolate it both byexistence as an acoustical event is the for these individual expressions of his
history and connotation from sound essence of the work. The 'text' for such own voice [19].
poetry performances can range from a formalIn England, Bob Cobbing developed a
An international festival of text-sound sort of notation similar to music notation technique of reading visual scores which
composition was organized in 1968 byto absolutely no text at all. has had a wide influence on sound poets
Fylkingen, in which practitioners from Many people who work in sound in that country since the fifties. For
France, England, Germany and Sweden poetry produce visual poetry as well. The Cobbing, a text has visual and acoustical
held a 3-day performance of works at thevisual aspect of language parallels its elements which can be explored in
Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm. sonic aspects in that both are non- performance as a kind of dance [20].
The festival was designed to present semantic, concrete dimensions of language Cobbing's 'new' symbols produced by
material which would not be allowed at a [16]. Since written words signify certain multiple typed letters or the deformations
conventional poetry reading or a concert acoustical sounds, the alteration of the created by a mimeograph machine which
of contemporary music (such as an visual aspects of language can also signify was not "operating properly" provide a
electronic or tape music concert). Though a parallel acoustical alteration. Such message which can be interpreted and
several sound poetry festivals had visual differences can be formal and quite realized, much like the forgotten words in
occurred in the world before 1968, this precise or they can be subjective and other cultures which were incorporated
was the first one to deal exclusively with improvisational. into their rituals [21]. An example of one
works utilizing modern technological The early acoustical poetry of the of Cobbing's texts is 15 Shakespear-Kaku
developments in the manipulations of Italian and Russian Futurists and the (1972), a page of which is shown in Fig. 1.
vocal material, hence its title, the Dadaists made use of alterations in

International Festival of Text-Sound typography to indicate acoustical in-

Composition. In this first festival, papers terpretations. These notations were
were presented and seminars were held limited generally to such things as using
about relevant linguistic-artistic research.
Invited performers had access to the
letter size to indicate dynamic range,
spaces to indicate pauses, boldness for
D _I

Electronic Music Studio of Sweden to emphasis, falling letters for falling

produce new works, and records contain- pitches, etc. Many of the visual aspects
ing some of this work were published were meant to be interpreted subjectively.
[14]. In the forties, the French Lettrist A'
Partially as the result of the financial movement developed a type of sound
difficulties inherent in such a festival, the poetry which made use of numbers to
seventh festival held in London in 1974 indicate a particular vocal sound and had
shifted its emphasis from technological ato sort of dictionary or vocabulary of
unassisted vocal manipulations. The title sounds made by the voice. Poems were
* a,

of the festival was also changed to Sound composed using this vocabulary and
I)
Poetry. At that time 'sound poetry' often borrowed forms of musical notation

became accepted as the term to describe as well [ 17]. By such means, a poem could
all aspects of this kind of work. When be performed the same way that it would
subsequent festivals were held in Toronto be read. Many of their poems were
in 1976 and then New York in 1980 many performed by speaking choral groups.
features of music and performance art Since the Lettrists' work, other formal
were also included. The term 'sound experiments in sound-poetry notation
poetry' continued to be expanded to have been attempted [18]. However,

G
include almost anything orally linguistic many of these experiments have been
which could be found in historical or limited to the works of their originators.
Sound
modern literature, music, theatre, etc. As poets are highly individualistic,
a term defining a festival, sound poetryand a subjective approach to notation is Fig. 1. One of
has lost its precise quality. Festivals generally
since the rule. The use of formal Shakespear-k
notational
the 1980 12th International Festival of procedures seems to con- 1972). This vi
tradict the idea that sound poetry is an point for a vo
Sound Poetry have modestly attempted to
can also act a
focus on particular aspects or areas ofattempt
this to break away from the con-
The fragmen
art. Poetry readings, concerts andstraints
per- the written word has placed upon variety of ele
formances which include pieces thatpoetry.
can can be super

12 Wendt, Sound Poe

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 The notes for the 1974 tape realization
of this piece are as follows:

... voice in the next room,

voice heard through the static
on the radio transmitter. Not
clear enough to hear exactly
what is being said, but a voice so
urgent that we have to listen, to
work with it, to wait beside the
receiver with pencil and paper
for the 'message' to get through,
but not now the neat phrases of
Heurtebise, Cocteau's car radio
wrecked on the dump [22].

For Cobbing, the text is the starting

point which generates the work [23]. He
and his colleagues have used materials
other than traditional texts for scores as
well. For example, The Konkrete
Canticle, a sound poetry performance
group which included Cobbing, Paula
Claire and Bill Griffiths, often performed
a work of Paula Claire's called Stone
Tones (1974) in which rocks were passed
among the performers and 'performed' as
a result of their feel and appearance [24].
A photograph of Cobbing and Griffith
performing this piece is shown in Fig. 2.
Claire has also composed other pieces
generated from texts made from bark
rubbings, vegetable materials, electronic
circuitry designs, microphotography, etc.
Another English sound poet, Clive
Fencott, has been working with extended
writing forms for several years to
generate visual acoustic works. His The
Legends of Jack O'Kent (1976), written
while he was an active participant of
Cobbing's Experimental Poetry Work-
shop [25], is a retelling of a legend told to
him as a child by his grandfather about a
stone throwing contest between the Devil
and a Welsh legendary hero known as
Jack O'Kent [26]. English and Welsh
words distilled from several texts related
to the legend were handwritten, typed
and juxtaposed with other visual material
to produce several pages of text. Some
had the linear 'top-to-bottom' words and
letters. A few pages resembled tombstone
rubbings (see Fig. 3). These texts wereFig. 2. Bob Cobbing and Bill Griffiths performing a rock in Paula Claire's Stone Tones at the 1978 11th
International Sound Poetry Festival, Toronto, Canada. The rock acts as a three-dimensional graphic
then used for performances which had
score. Irregular patterns upon the rock's surface as well as the rock's shape, weight and feel provide
both elements formally derived from the cues for vocal and gestural realizations.
worded text and improvisational in-
terpretation of the visual aspects of thehairdressing manual used in the 1930s. For other sound poets, the text may
text. With aid of computer programmer and have an ambiguous role or even fade from
Fencott's performances of his texts saxophonist Stephen Moore, Fencott has existence, as with the work of Francois
ranges from highly rhythmic readings ofused a small home computer to transform Dufrene. For another French sound poet,
the words to paroxysmal cries and wildlythe actual letters of the text into a wide Bernard Heidsieck, the text is a reference
gesticulating movements. Over the years variety of visual forms. A computer orpoint or 'a jumping-off' ground, as it is
he has developed a wide pallet of vocal video display and slides showing thesefor the English sound poets. But unlike
gestures and an intense theatrical transformations are used in performancefor the English, Heidsieck's text is
attention to his texts. Fencott is currently as texts and scores for both vocal and "nothing more than a simple score" [27].
working on an extended performance muscial interpretation (see Fig. 4). Improvisational
Here aspects are not the result
novel titled The Manual of the Permanent again Fencott uses a text to generate of some 'message' hidden in the visual
both
Waver, which he generated from a formal and improvisational structures. appearance of the texts but of the

Wendt, Sound Poetry 13

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 ?:. ^.:C- : -. .

'., ^ .r: ? ,
rw~~~~
,. :^ ;....-"
"'-'"...~r ~"
r ~.~'

....

"
F: :`'` ?"
;P
?r?
\?

?- `uu.?

4 ''.,..

Fig. 3. Examples of 'worded' and 'unworded' texts taken from Clive Fencott's T
image) are composed from a variety of found and written texts concerning a W
(left image) has been generated from stone rubbings suggesting old tomb stone
to the legend, such stones were thrown there in a contest between Jack O'
vocalizations during performance.

surprises producedthey by tend'simultaneous'

to perform a poem in a choral recorded environmental sounds in his
readings of a text by one speaker, reading by multiple speakers, something pieces. These almost always have an
produced by recorded superimposition. the French poesie sonore never do in urban origin: the sounds of the Parisian
While the English may use simultaneous performance. Metro, a taxi driver's radio, a child's cry in
recordings of a single voice in a piece, Heidsieck makes occasional use of the street, etc. Since his work is mostly
concerned with the quality of life in an
ultra-urban environment, his use of such
acoustical artifacts augments the
ambiguous feelings of terror and fascina-
tion which he appears to have for such a
life. Though Heidsieck uses non-semantic
sounds in his pieces, his sound poetry is
almost always semantic in nature. He
twists the subtleties of the French spoken
language in ways which are difficult for
the non-Parisian to understand, although
the acoustical structure of his pieces can
be universally appreciated. As is often the
case with sound poetry, his work
combines regional or specific linguistic
attributes with an international appeal.
Heidsieck's works cannot be experienced
by the mere act of reading the text, they
have to be presented acoustically by his
own voice. His pieces are highly
individualistic and are unique expressions
of his personality and voice. Heidsieck
believes that artists are revealed by their
Fig. 4. One of the text-scores from Clive Fencott's and Stephen Moore's The Manual of the Permanent
Waver, Episode 3. It has been generated with the aid of a computer program which pieces and should
manipulates the not 'hide' by having
their
visual aspects of worded texts. The resultant visual realization of the text then provides work
cues for performed
both a by others. Although
vocal and a saxophone improvisation. notational systems imply that a particular

14 Wendt, Sound Poetry

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work could be performed by someone
other than the artist, to Heidsieck the il y a autour de Vaduz des Slovaques
text suggests a particular interpretation il y a autour de Vaduz des Magyars
il y a des Slovenes
Which requires the use of multiple
recordings of his own directed reading. il y a des Ligures
The text is just a preliminary sketch for des VWnitiens
the piece; the real score or meta-text is the des Italiens
finished tape. In performance the tape il v a des Provenyaux
provides him with the real cues for il y a des Savoyards
timing, enunciation, dynamic control,
theatrical realization, etc. The dormant il y a tout autour deVaduz des Lorrains
written words of the text are reactivated des Alsaciens
by squeezing out their acoustical juices in il y a autour, autour de Vaduz,
structures provided by recordings. il y a des Polonais
However different Heidsieck's use of il y a des Grands-Russes
texts is from the English poets', he does il v a des Ruthcnicns
make occasional use of the visual aspects
il y a autour de Vaduz des Tziganes
of his texts in performance. His work
Vaduz (1974), for example, is a poem tout autour de Vaduz des Ukrainiens
composed of repetitive lists of the races of tout autour de Vaduz des Montdcngrins
the world (see excerpt in Fig. 5). A tout autour de Vaduz dces Roumains
photograph of a performance of the work tout autour de Vaduz des Serbes
is shown in Fig. 6. Heidsieck recites the
et il y a autour de Vaduz des Scrbo-Croates
poem as he unfurls a long single roll of
paper on which the text is written. A
il y a des Mactdoniens
recording of several readings of the text is il y a autour de Vaduz des Albanais
played simultaneously. The recording il y a des Grecs
becomes more complex as the piece et des Siciliens
progresses: the number of his different des Toscans et
readings on the tape increases and tape cles Sardes
echo is used to increase the density of the des Nefoussas et des Berbderes
recordings. The piece ends with the il y a des Andalous autour de Vaduz
sounds of a large crowd applauding,
shouting and whistling.
i v a des Espagnols
il v a des Catalans
Heidsieck has been working for the
past couple of years on a set of 26 pieces II y a autour de Vaduz des Basques
which he calls Deriche Le Robert. Each tout autour de Vaduz des Occitans
piece represents one of the 26 letters of the et des Auvergnats
alphabet and is inspired by the listings in
the French dictionary Le Robert. In the il y a tout autour de Vaduz des Franqais
realization of these pieces, he intends his
tout autour de Vaduz des Bretons...
performances to fit the texts "like a
Fig. 5. Excerpt of Bernard Heidsieck's Vaduz. From Poesie Sonore Internationale (see R
glove" [28] and to reveal concise slices of
text provides a simple score only and is not meant to provide information about voca
life, as many of his pieces do. The pieces
gestural movements. Such details are worked out with a recording which is played sim
make occasional use of props (such during
as a the performance. The tape therefore acts as the real source of cues which
telephone and a desk for an office scene) conventionally find in a visual score.
and a certain amount of theatrical
movement. Heidsieck's delivery is very
voice
intense and in these particular pieces hein real time. Sound poetry is working
meant at places like the Columbia
to be experienced, not trapped in a
often tightly clutches the typewritten University Center for Computing
record,
pages of text and shakes with intensity as tape or rare radio broadcast. Activities [29] and L'Institut de
if he might self-destruct in a loud In the late sixties and early seventies, Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/
explosion at any moment. The use of tape most artists who wanted to perform their Musique [30].
in the performance also increases the work electro-acoustically were limited to The technological approach has gen-
tensions of the reading. As with most of performing with tapes or to treating the erally been rejected by sound poets for
Heidsieck's work, these pieces are self- voice with microphones and amplifiers aesthetic as well as economic reasons.
contained short plays with a dynamic only. Many sound poets examined Many of the sound poets have become so
energy all their own. extended vocal techniques which had involved in the acoustical aspects of
Although there are many different become more accessible as a result of speech that they have little use for an
ways in which artists perform sound electronic explorations and couldexpensive be technology to produce what
poems, several serious problems with produced without the unreliability, weight they believe they can already do with the
attempting to perform electro-acoustic and expense of complex electronicunaided gear. voice. I believe the quest,
however,
works tend to recur. Along with the more When these sound poets 'went acoustic' in is to find out what unknown
obvious pitfalls of expense and equip- the mid seventies, most research into aspects of the voice can be captured by
ment failure there is the problem of a lack expanding vocal resources electro- electro-acoustics while keeping the price
of equipment which can manipulate the acoustically was left up to the musicians low and the reliability factor high.

Wendt, Sound Poetry 15

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 My intention was to build a voice-
manipulating computer which would
offer the widest variety of flexibility yet
would not be too difficult to transport to
a performance. I was aware that by using
the small eight-bit microprocessors avail-
able to me at the time I could never
approach the quality of sound which
could be produced at a typical computer-
music studio. My resources were modest
so I limited my system design to building
small circuits inexpensively, as a self-
taught mechanic might built parts for a
hot rod. In California's San Francisco
Bay Area, there is a vast support structure
of electronic specialty shops, surplus and
computer 'flea markets' or 'swap-meets'
where one can obtain new and used
computer parts at low cost. Building
digital devices for artistic purposes has
become a not-so-uncommon practice, a
folk art of sorts [31]. Sound poets have
often experimented with second-hand
technologies and misused them for their
own purposes.
I am reminded of the French sound
poet Henri Chopin whose work developed
a few years after complex tape recorders
had been constructed in the French and
German electronic-music studios in the
early fifties. These new tape recorders had
multiple tape heads, complex tape paths,
revolving heads, and other special
devices. Chopin, by contrast, stuck
matchsticks in the erase heads of his old
worn out second-hand tape recorder,
poked his fingers in and out of the tape
path, and otherwise molested the
machine to produce his multilayered
poesie sonore pieces. Rather than study-
ing the methods developed on profes-
sional machines he found unique solu-
tions to compositional problems on very
basic equipment. Though the majority of
Chopin's work is a non-semantic variety
Fig. 6. Bernard Heidsieck performing Vaduz at the 1978 lth International SoundPoetry Festival. The of sound poetry, his work is difficult to
text is written on a long sheet which is unrolled during the performance to provide a dual function of text define as a kind of music. It is rather
and prop.
something individual to Chopin's
character and personality. His work may
II. CONNECTIONS TO ADVANCED permutations to build up multilayered have lacked the clean or pure sound of
ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGIES structures of choral polyphonies, repeat-some of his electro-acoustic predecessors
Practical Considerations and Electro- ing voice patterns and producing retro-but his bouillabaisse of vocal micro-
Acoustical Aesthetics grade (backwards) speech and pitch particles [32] and acoustical parasites
change are examples of non-real-time certainly had the emotion and richness of
manipulation of speech.
In 1979, after several years of working a highly developed art form. Through his
with tape methods, I started experiment- I found that real time manipulation of bricolage methods he duplicated several
ing with small microprocessor circuits asspeech was generally limited to tape echo, techniques which had previously been
a possible means of manipulating speech which is rather uninteresting in its simple done on more expensive equipment [33].
material in real time which would have form and requires heavy and expensive When his old tape recorder was no longer
equipment for more interesting effects. functional, it took him some time before
the flexibility of tape manipulation. Non-
real-time tape manipulation could Real time analog synthesizer techniques he could get the sounds he wanted from
achieve some effects not easily produced could be used either for modulating his brand new replacement.
on conventional analog synthesizers in (adding to) or filtering (subtracting Raw or crude sound manipulations
real time. Isolating fragments of speech,from)-here too, the complexity of the such as those developed by Chopin are a
shortening or increasing their durations,effect was proportional to the weight and part of sound poetry aesthetics. This
linking them together in a variety ofcost of the equipment. rawness can be viewed as a result of

16 Wendt, Sound Poetry

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circumstance, exhibitionism, inexperience, whole could produce a variety of sonic the Western Frontier in America as
or the attempt to mask bad art with bad environments when fragmented. I was compiled in the far distant future. In this
noise; but it can also be seen as a rejection also interested in finding different ways of way, history and quasi-historical details
of the limits which producing a pure generating fragmented texts to read as would be compressed together like layers
sound puts on sound poetry, perhaps well as in studying more obvious speech of leaves and twigs which fall each season
because the concept of a pure sound patterns. I wanted to show that an and are mixed by earthworms. I collected
might have more to do with music than ordinary word said in performance could a variety of found texts about the lives of
with sound poetry. The area between create a particular view of the world the famous Western heroes Wyatt Earp
distortion and intelligibility appears to be through sound. and John 'Doc' Holliday from conven-
a valid sound-poetry subject. What we I have used my digital equipment tional historical accounts and from their
have in sound poetry is the barbarian (described in Appendix A) in one modern Hollywood retellings. I then
approach to art as Matthew Arnold configuration or other for the production 'mixed' these texts with the aid of a
conceived it [34]. In this approach, and performances of my pieces since computer randomizing program (a sort
language is treated in a highly individual
1979. I still use as well several old tape of digital earthworm effect) along with
and brutal manner to release it from themanipulation techniques for the produc- other texts describing the frontier dentistry
centuries of complacency and aesthetics tion of my pieces. My philosophy has technology used by Doc Holliday and a
which the written word has placed upon always been to use whatever is available text about new photolithography
it. The written word, the foundation of for my work; generally this means techniques used in the Silicon Valley of
our modern culture, has castrated the modifying existing equipment or building Santa Clara (where Wyatt Earp had a
power of the spoken word. Much of something I cannot afford to buy; cattle ranch around the turn of the
written poetry elicits about the same kind
distorting its functions to fit my needs. I century) to construct a particular kind of
of response as a daily newspaper. often deal with hardware that barely integrated circuit known as a bubble
Barbarian art, though, is an art in danger; works; I collect objects from various memory. The irregularly sized fragments
it is always on the verge of falling into a sources, customize them in some fashion of texts produced by this method were
morass of unintelligible anarchy and and juxtapose them with other bits and then used to generate a text which began
crankiness. But it is only by taking such pieces of things. I generate the texts that I with a very fragmented visual structure
chances that artists can also produce use for my pieces in the same way: found (see Fig. 7). The piece ended with the
exciting, vital and alive art. texts and other refuse are combined fragmentary paraphrasing of an obscure
As pointed out earlier, sound poetry is together and rewritten. In this way, both
South American Indian frog myth which
difficult to define and there is always the content and process become integrated in
I thought might have had a North
somewhat incorrect tendency to identify my work. American variant. The relationship
it with one of the more established arts One of the first works in which I madebegan with similarities to Cobbing's work
such as poetry or music. In America, and ended with similarities to Heidsieck's.
extensive use of my digital equipment was
sound poets are often grouped with a set of performance pieces titled Part of the point of the piece was to
experimental musicians. Sound poetry is Earthworm (1980). My intention with this
deconstruct and reconstruct several texts
therefore examined with many of the from the same material to imitate the
work was to produce a set of pieces that
same critical tools used on music. Since could be performed a variety of ways
transformation of a myth from one
the turn of the century, assumptions from a single text. Thus, I could work out
variant to another. The chaotic mixture
about the aesthetic viability of a musical different techniques for using my voice-
of well-known and very obscure personal
piece have been increasingly connected manipulation system in performance to references made the text interesting
with the complexity of its formal learn what was practical. I had done tapeenough for me to want to perform it a
processes. As the use of current techno- pieces since the early seventies and began
variety of ways.
logies became more prevalent in the doing real-time performances of my work After working out several technical
sound arts, the aesthetics of formal in 1978. Since most of my performance problems with Earthworm I determined
complexities shifted to become an pieces had been 'live' versions of my tape
the minimum configuration of equipment
aesthetics of the complexities of tech-pieces, I found it hard to do a necessary for the performance. I found
nological process. Thus the idea that theperformance of a particular piece more
that it was most effective to make only
best way to do a piece was to use the mostthan a few times. Performing thesesubtle
works changes in the real-time sound text
complex technological process currently so piece;
was like trying to reconstruct a tape that the words would be more or less
available became a widely held belief. Thesuch an activity seemed pointless since I
intelligible, since minor sound effects
narrowness of this approach can lead to
had already solved the problems were
whicheasier to control. More elaborate
an over-specialized way of working which
made me want to do such a piece manipulations
in the of fragmentary texts would
eliminates other ways of thinking andfirst place. But creating performance have been difficult to control successfully
eventually distances the work from the pieces with limited life spans led while
to theI was performing the texts. I started
human experience. Ultimately a pieceproblem of developing equipment, since on a series of tape pieces which
working
must exist on its own and the methods there was never enough time to find wereout
experiments with mixing fragmented
used to produce it should become what worked. Producing pieces which texts with more narrative elements. The
invisible.
could be performed a number of different
processes which were more difficult to
ways appeared to be an answer to bothperformof were recorded on tape. My
Applications of Digital Sound these problems, and my intention was was to be able to produce a mix
intention
Manipulation in Text-Sound Compositionrealized with Earthworm.
of manipulations so that it would be
The particular sonic effects I became Earthworm was a long text which I had to distinguish the performed
difficult
interested in while developing equipmentgenerated around the theme of "The manipulations from those which were
involved the fragmentation of speech. ItWest." I wanted to produce a documentrecorded.
was intriguing to me that a word whichwhich would have the appearance of What is Man? (1981) was my first
had particular semantic sense while some fragmentary text ostensibly about
attempt in a set of works which I later

Wendt, Sound Poetry 17

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 'world-class technology'. This led me to

j _ d-
.< C
<V~21
_?r- -xz--s l S--
- " _-:'o 4ct3Ct
- I
think of several parodies about visiting
sewage plants, high technology and the
quality of life in San Jose.
cc_ o( sx6eob&a )-i'c ^ 0-< ^-- t The title of my piece What is Man?
came from a religious pamphlet published
su5orj ^ i he Co -.- er 2 zx3 On' ? t < - by a local fundamentalist church. Parts of
the text of the pamphlet were 'mixed' with

-.1 < ,Soio ^. c) e a > ^t s ^^..^ my earthworm computer program along

with material taken from a bulletin
published by the San Jose-Santa Clara
Pollution Control Plant explaining the
workings of their world-class waste
', 'I Ir e* - e - \ o -< < treatment plant. The generated text was
-eet Of
.C S -' , hc >tj ^ ec 's
_)nSe-
then edited for readability and several
readings were made, modified heavily by
my digital equipment, and superimposed
upon one another on tape. In per-
>- f formance, I began reading the text from a
^ ^l o2^jI b O^ s .b ).cr I podium like a minister with very subtle
processing to yield a dark, primarily
-ay - ., _|
inexplicable
> 0 ^ 1 1 ^ ^ l - ^ 0 ^ " 0 '1 1 5 0 ^ " '" ^ ^man
^ and 5 *lecture
i The on
- existence. the meaning of
text ended with
-9 ~ '-~ ~ T A _c - ' - _ -.I .-
the phrase "What is Man?" On the tape,
the word "what" was repeated several
times in a digital loop and transformed/
replaced by the sound of ducks quacking
Fig. 7. A page from Earthworm, a text-score
and then geese by Larry
honking. Wendt
The honking
No.6, guest-edited by Mike Crane (San Francisco:
sounds were mixed with Romax, 198
a recording I had
provide cues for electro-acoustic realizations. The visual score en
made in a large reverberant cathedral of a
which can be read in a variety of ways depending on the electro
procession of carhorns celebrating a
wedding in the streets outside. I mani-
pulated this recording to give it a sort of
called World-Classthe time I began
Technology This the
choral was
cosmic work.
honking The
sound. During the the
to be a whole set of satirical
mayor of San Jose parodies had invited
performance, I also manipulated the the Qu
about living and ofworking
England in to San
visit Jose,
phrase the
"what is man?"city's
with my voicesewag
treatment
California. The title came from plantmanipulation
a as storya equipment
prime example
to change it into
what
that I read in the had made newspaper
local San Jose a leader in around
a crude honking sound. The pitch and
duration of this sound were controlled by
the amplitude and the length of the words
I was reading. The piece ended with my
controlling the honking sound with a
'squeaky' duck toy.
Another piece of mine in this series was
Broken Crystals (1983). A photograph of
a recent performance of this work is
shown in Fig. 8. In this more conventional
story I play the part of a man working in
Silicon Valley, California, who fails at his
job as a grower of bubble memory
crystals. Flies start hatching out of the
crystals, and the whole bubble memory
market collapses after the President of lhe
United States orders the bombing of
Silicon Valley with toads to get rid of the
flies. In performance, I played a dense
tape containing environmental sounds,
some of which were processed by my
equipment. This tape was an acoustical
ground or background which provided
me with the cues and timing for reading
the text. The actual text was mostly
memorized and had little practical
functionsystem
Fig. 8. Larry Wendt performing Broken Crystals with his digital vocal manipulation in the at
performance.
the Real-time
manipulation
PHONE II Festival, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France, 1984. The equipment of my voice was limited to a
can function
both for vocal manipulation and as a visual prop. (Photo: Francoise Janicot).
low-level retrograde effect. This mixed

18 Wendt, Sound Poetry

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with other digitally manipulated readings which a clock might say) within a formal The human voice is still a largely
on the tape so that it was difficult to structure. The device was constructed so untapped reserve for the artist. Using this
distinguish what was being done in real- that it could be plugged into a sound kind of digital sampling technology on
time and what was on tape. I usually system and turned on. It would then the voice provides a wide palette of
counted some objects such as paper clips produce a piece [35] and turn itself off. Iacoustical-emotional colors which can
during the entire piece. The piece ends sent this device to a performance which be
I used by either the musician or the poet.
with the protagonist being so exhausted could not attend as a sort of sound-poet- believe these digital techniques can give
I
by his job that he is now counting paper in-a-box. I have intentions to expand thisvocal manipulation an immediacy that
clips in Lodi, California. (See Appendix B often is lacking with other electro-
device to include some kind of motor
for the full text of Broken Crystals.) acoustic methods. With these techniques
control to produce a real robot sound
In composing this work, as well as the poet can mold a human utterance into
poet which would dance as it speaks.
many of my other story-like pieces, I Another device I have constructed and a sound object limited in form only by the
began with a collection of sounds which I used is a text-to-speech synthesizer whichimagination, allowing thought to become
have accumulated over a period of time. allows one to use a keyboard to type textssound and sound to become thought.
These sounds can be mere recordings of which the synthesizer attempts to say.
One such study of mine using this device
natural events, they might be electronically REFERENCES AND NOTES
processed from natural sounds, or was Starting From Maya (1984). The text
1. A good analysis of the technological
occasionally they might be purely 'syn- for this piece was an excerpt of
aspects of text-sound composition and
thetic' in origin. They all have some transliterated Mayan writing. I typed the the historical significance of electro-
feature which I have found 'peculiar' or text into the text-to-speech synthesizer acoustic poetry can be found in Nicholas
interesting and to which I have associated and it pronounced it with English Zurbrugg, "Marinetti, Boccioni and
Electroacoustic Poetry: Futurism and
some fragmentary idea about a text. It is phonemes to generate nonsense words. I
after", Comparative Criticism: A Year-
generally easier for me to find texts for then rewrote the texts several times, book, Vol. 4 (Cambridge: Cambridge
sounds rather than the reverse. In this gradually replacing the nonsense words University Press, 1982).
regard, my technique parallels somewhatwith the real words and phrases which the 2. In 1978, 1 compiled a general bibliography
the use of visual artifacts by the English sounds reminded me of. I made two including an extensive listing of record-
ings published to that date. This was
sound poets: however, acoustical arti- variations on the texts and the two
published in The Poetry Reading, eds.
facts have a narrower application at this resulting synthesized voices were super- Stephen Vincent and Ellen Zweig (San
level of composition in that they are only imposed upon one another in a sort ofFrancisco: Momo's Press, 1981) pp.
useful to me as 'text generators'. This question-answer catechism. 328-344. The pioneering Master's thesis,
process also categorizes me more as a My most recent configuration of Stephen Ruppenthal, History of the
Development and Techniques of Sound
writer rather than a musician. equipment for my performances is quitePoetry in the Twentieth Century in
After gathering enough of these ideas portable and I can handle it along withWestern Culture (San Jose, California:
to generate a story, I usually write a rough personal luggage by myself. I have used itDepartment of Music, San Jose State
version of a text. I then arrange the for local performances and have also University, 1975) is still one of the best
sources of information available in
sounds I have collected on a recording in taken it to Europe for performances
English on sound poetry history. The
the order in which they relate to the text. there. Though it is fairly compatible with only book-length history of sound poetry
Additional acoustical materials (accen- most of the audio systems I have which has been published so far is Henri
tuated peculiarities of the original encountered while travelling, more work Chopin, Poesie Sonore Internationale
(Paris: Jean-Michel Place, 1979). A
material, processed spoken text fragments, has to be done in order to get the best
shorter general history in English can
etc.) are used to give the recording audio results with widely varied systems. also be found in the article, Stephen
dimension and balance. The completed More critical, however, is the problem of Ruppenthal and Larry Wendt, "Vocable
tape then provides an acoustical structure controlling several complex events during Gestures: A Historical Survey of Sound
by which I revise the text, taking a performance; my system is much easier Poetry", Art Contemporary No.9 (San
Francisco, 1977). The most extensive
advantage of the previously unrealized to use if I am manipulating someone
recorded anthology of sound poetry to
acoustical features. The completed tape else's voice during a performance or using date isfutura, Poesia Sonora compiled by
may then provide me with additional it in a non-real-time studio situation. Arrigo Lora-Totino (Milan: Cramps
ideas on how I might perform the work. Presently I am working on a vocabulary Records, 1979). This seven-record set
I have also used these digital sampling of effects which can be selected during the also contains a large booklet with
historical and biographical notes trans-
techniques on tape pieces which focus on performance with a minimum of physical lated into English. This collection,
just a few effects and which function as movement or thought. I am also however, lacks representation from
studies for me. They are less developed exploring other means of system control America, Canada and Sweden. The
such as touch-sensitive film. Some kind of record 10 + 2:12 American Text Sound
versions of the composition technique Pieces ed. Charles Amirkhanian
just described and usually focus on a speech recognition device is ultimately
(Berkeley, California: 1750 Arch Records,
particular acoustic or semantic process. needed here, such as key words which 1975) is an out-of-print American
In this regard, I have also been interested could trigger particular effects. By also anthology which can still be found in
in hardware which can synthesize speech adding pitch and amplitude sensing [36], several record shops in the San Francisco
Bay area.
rather than just reproduce it from digital one might be able to develop some sort of
3. Bengt Emil Johnson, "Fylkingen's
sampling. Recently, I constructed a emotional sensing device which would Group for Linguistic Arts and Text-
device from inexpensive talking clock respond to the particular way a text was Sound Compositions", FYLKINGEN
parts which was a five-voiced random performed. International Bulletin 2.1969 (Stockholm:
number speaker, each voice being pro- The construction and use of this kind FYLKINGEN, 1969) p. 13.
4. An examination of the Fylkingen facilities
grammed to turn on and off in a particular of hardware has allowed me to deal with
of the late 1960s with photographs and
pattern. This configuration resulted in a the smallest aspects of vocal articulation biographies of the individuals there at
device which could produce random with an awareness and flexibility I could that time can be found in Bengt Emil
words (within the finite set of words never achieve with tape techniques alone. Johnson, Sven Hansell and Harvey

19
Wendt, Sound Poetry
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 Matusow, "Fylkingen", Source Vol. 4, 1930s when Eugene Jollas discussed sertation for English Language and
No. 2 (Sacramento, California: Com- various aspects and published the poetry Literature, Ann Arbor, Michigan: The
poser Performance Editions, 1970). of such writers as F.T. Marinetti, Kurt University of Michigan, 1980).
5. Johnson [3] p. 14. Schwitters, Teo van Doesburg, Hugo Dick Higgins, A Dialectic of Centuries:
6. These BBC experiments can be found on Ball, Hans Arp, Tristan Tzara, etc. in his Notes towards a Theory of the New Arts
the tape Brion Gysin, The Brion Gysin archtypal little magazine Transition. (New York: Printed Editions, 1978).
Show "Where is that Word" (Dusseldorf: Jollas made the literal translation of the Performance in Postmodern Culture,
S-Press Tonband Verlag, tape 32) and on term "Lautgedichte" as it appeared in the eds. Michel Benamou and Charles
the record Bob Cobbing, ABC in Sound Dadaist poet Hugo Ball's diary, "Flucht Caramello (Madison, Wisconsin: Coda
and Ernst Jandl, Sprechgedichte (London: aus der Zeit" and published "Hugo Ball: Press, 1977).
Writers Forum, 1969). Sound Poems" in Transition No. 25, Fall Open Poetry, eds. Ronald Gross and
7. Francois Dufrene was the first to (Paris: Shakespeare and Co., 1936). George Quasha (New York: Simon &
explore electro-acoustic techniques13. for
Hugo Ball, Flight Out of Time, ed. John Schuster, 1973).
the production of sound poetry. A Elderfield, trans. Ann Rains (New York: 17. See La Poesie Lettriste by Jean-Paul
collection of his works can be found on Viking Press, 1974) p. 70. Curtay (Paris: Editions Seghers, 1974).
three cassettes titled Oeuvre Desintegrale 14. A total of eight record anthologies were See also "LETTRISME: Into the
(Antwerp: Guy Schraenen, 1976). He published by Fylkingen from 1968 to Present" Stephen C. Foster, ed. Visible
also wrote a detailed essay on the history 1978: No. I Stockholm Festival 1968 Language, Volume XVII, Number 3
of sound poetry, "Le Lettrisme et (RELP 1049), No. 2 Stockholm 1968 (Cleveland, Ohio: Visible Language,
toujours pendant". Opus International (RELP 1054), No. 3 Stockholm 1969 1983).
No. 40-41 (Paris: Editions Georges Fall, (RELP 1072), No.4 Stockholm 1969 18. One such example can be found in Ernest
1973). A small record of examples, (1073), No. 5 Stockholm 1969 (RELP Robson, Prosodynic Print: an Ortho-
L'Antonomatopek I, edited by Dufrene 1074), No. 6 Stockholm 1970 (RELP graphic Way of Writing English Prosody
was co-published with the article 1102), No. 7 Stockholm 1970 (RELP (Parker Ford, Pennsylvania: Primary
(Dufrene died on 12 December, 1982). 1103), and Text-SoundFestivals-10 Years Press, 1975).
Henri Chopin, among other works, (RELP 1010). 19. "Le Lettrisme et toujours pendant" [7].
published the first review in France There are literally thousands of sound Gil J. Wolman and Jean-Louis Brau
(1958) for audiopoems with his Cinquieme poems, many of them significant, which were also important figures in the
Saison (nineteen numbers from 1958- have never been pressed as records. Many Ultralettrist activities. Greil Marcus, a
1961). He also did the first international are circulated as small edition cassette writer of criticism on rock and roll music
review for sound poetry with his Review publications or privately owned tape has pointed out to me in correspondence
OU (thirteen numbers from 1964-1972). duplications from the master recordings. the involved relationship between
Eleven records were also published in Since a complete listing of works Wolman and Brau and the cultural roots
particular issues of OU and they contain produced after 1969 does not exist, it is of the English punk movement, which he
works from the original practitioners of difficult to grasp the actual material discovered while working on a book
electro-acoustic poetry. Chopin's most being produced. Some indication of the about punk. There is much which could
recent record of his own work is Poesie enormity of the field can be calculated, be said about the sound and aesthetic
Sonore (Brussels: IGLOO IGL 013, 1983). however, from the material collected similarities between these two groups.
Bernard Heidsieck was also an early until 1969. A "very incomplete" list of a 20. Bob Cobbing, "Music for Dancing,"
originator in this area beginning in the few hundred text-sound pieces can be Stereo Headphones No. 4: ed. Nicholas
late fifties. Early recordings of his works found in the Fylkingen Catalogue of Text- Zurbrugg (Suffolk, England: Zurbrugg,
can be found in Poemes Partition D2 + D3 Sound Compositions, ed. Sten Hanson 1971). "Both visual poetry and sound
Z, two records and a book (Ingatestone: (Stockholm: FYLKINGEN, 1969). This poetry incorporate elements of rhythm.
Collection OU, 1973) and Partition V, six list can then be augmented with the titles One can move inwardly to a sound poem
records and a book (Paris: Le Soleil Noir, of several hundred other sound poems or interpret it in outward movements or
1973). Heidsieck's most recent record is P extracted from the International Electronic dance. One can, by empathy, enter into
Puissance B (Verona: Edizioni Lotta Music Catalog compiled by Hugh Davies the spatial rhythms of a visual poem, or
Poetica, 1983). A recent publication of (New York: GRM/Independent Elec- can give it full muscular response. So
photographs of poets in performance has tronic Music Center, 1968), which is a both sound and visual poetry are steps to
been produced by Heidsieck's wife, listing of almost all electro-acoustic the arena. Visual poetry is the plan,
FranCoise Janicot, which contains many works produced in this century until sound poetry the impulse; visual poetry
examples of sound poetry performances, 1966.
the score and sound poetry your actual
Poesie en action (Loques a Nepe: Paris, 15. There have been several anthologies of music for dancing."
1984). visual poetry published since the sixties, 21. Bob Cobbing, "An Approach to
8. Some of Paul de Vree's pieces from the some of the more general ones include: Notation" in Bob Cobbing & Writers
sixties can be found on the cassette, An Anthology of Concrete Poetry, ed. Forum, Peter Mayer, ed. (London:
Poemi audio-visuali (Bresca: Edizioni Emmett Williams (New York: Something Ceolfrith Press, 1974) p. 38. As Basil
Amodulo, 1970). Else Press, 1967). Bunting put it (Agenda, Autumn/Winter
9. Several cassette recordings of Jackson Concrete Poetry: A World View, ed. 1973) '... history points to an origin that
MacLow's work have been published by Mary Ellen Solt (New York: Indiana poetry and music share in the dance that
the New Wilderness Foundation in New University Press, 1967). seems to be part of the makeup of homo
York. See also The 8-voice Stereo-Canon Visual Poetry Anthology: 133 poets sapiens, and needs no more justification
Realisation (11/25/73) (for Kathy Acker)- from 25 countries, ed. g.j. de rook or conscious control than breathing.
August 1973-of the 'Black Tarantula (Utrecht: Uitgeverij Bert Bakker Den Notation is not an essential for
Crossword Gathas' (Dusseldorf: S-Press Haag, 1975). exploration along these lines, but it does
Tonband Verlag, No. 33). Tecken: Lettres, Signes, Ecritures, eds. have its uses. It performs the same sort of
10. Charles Amirkhanian, Lexical Music Roberto Altmann, Ann-Marie Bjorklund, function as the verbal/diagrammatic
(1750 Arch Records: Berkeley, 1979). Eje Hogestatt and Elisabeth Liljadahl representations of an American-Indian
11. John Giorno has done many anthologies (Melmo, Sweden: Tryckerigruppen, ritual chant/dance, for example.
of recorded poetry under his Giorno 1978). Speaking of this, Jarome Rothenberg has
Poetry Systems label. In 1983, he Bob Cobbing and Peter Mayer, remarked that it is 'all poetry, all poet's
published his 15-year anniversary Dial-A- Concerning Concrete Poetry (Writers work' for in Navajo experience poetry
Poem LP, You're a Hook (New York: Forum: London, 1978). and music and dance haven't suffered
GPS 030, 1983). The earliest record of 16. Further examinations of language- separation."
his own poetry was Raspberry, Porno- orientated performance art can be found 22. Mayer [21] p. 13.
graphic Poem (New York:Intravenus in the following: 23. Mayer [21] p. 13. "These notations seek
Mind, 1967). He is now publishing poetry The Poetry Reading [1]. to stimulate rather than dictate. Often,
video works as well. Ellen Marcia Zweig, Performance the first spontaneous reaction is the best
12. The term 'sound poetry' has been in Poetry: Critical Approaches to Con- guide to procedure; though experience
English vocabularies at least since the temporary Intermedia (Doctorate Dis- does bring increasing potential for

20 Wendt, Sound Poetry

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 successful interpretations. They may also of the project. His universe is closed and Digital sampling synthesizer-This is a synthe-
be used as scores for tape-recorder/ the rules of his game are always to make sizer which has the capability of recording a
electronic studio treatment." do with 'whatever is at hand', that is to sound digitally and then playing it back. This
24. Paula Claire, Stone Tones, in Writers say with a set of tools and materials instrument' differs from a strict digital
Forum Folders No. 15 (London: Writers which is always finite and is also synthesizer and an analog (or voltage controlled)
Forum, 1974). Also: Paula Claire, The heterogenous because what it contains synthesizer in that the sounds from a digital
Development of My Sound Poetry, bears no relation to the current project, synthesizer are the results of various mathe-
1961-83. The International Concrete or indeed to any particular project, but is matical operations or algorithms performed by
Poetry Archive Publication No. Two the contingent result of all the occasions the instrument, whereas those from an analog
(Oxford, 1983). there have been to renew or enrich the synthesizer are the results of particular
25. Cobbing's Experimental Poetry Work- stock or to maintain it with the remains characteristics of electronic circuits. Some of
shop has been active in London for over of previous constructions or destruc- the better digital synthesizers allow one to both
30 years. tions." record sound and to generate sound from
26. P.C. Fencott, The Legend of Jack O'Kent 34. Matthew Arnold, "Culture and Anarchy", material and algorithms already programmed
(Toronto: grOnk, 1978). The Portable Matthew Arnold, ed. Lionel into the instrument.
27. Bernard Heidsieck, "Why Poesie Sonore?" Trilling (New York: Viking Press, 1956)
in Kontextsound, ed. Michael Gibbs pp. 531-533. The nineteenth century Electro-acoustic literature-Any language-
(Amsterdam: Kontexts Publications, English critic and poet Matthew Arnold based material which has to be listened to in
1977) p. 9. "Thus the poem with its divided English society into three meta- order to be perceived. It differs from acoustic
perpetual preoccupation with communi- phorical classes: The Barbarians, the literature in that it uses electro-acoustic
cation resolves itself, concentrated itself, Philistines and the Populace. According methods in its production. In earlier electro-
in' the shout, in the phoneme, in the to his metaphorical view of the origins of acoustic works these methods were merely the
chains of phonemes, in the sound. culture, it was the Barbarians who had use of a highly amplified microphone and
Fleeing in this way from the page, and, in "reinvigorated and renewed our worn- simple recording, but most of what can be
a word, having become 'active' again, it out Europe... The Barbarians brought called electro-acoustic literature makes use of
has used those means, the electric, with them the staunch individualism ... and much more complex manipulations.
electroacoustic techniques, which were at that passion for doing as one likes, for the
hand, and which are those of our daily assertion of personal liberty." The Extended vocal techniques-Producing those
sonorous bath." Barbarians became the aristocratic class sounds which the voice can make which do not
28. Bernard Heidsieck, correspondence withof Arnold's society. They were differ-normally belong to the vocabularies of speech
the author, 10 August 1984. The text for entiated from the middle-class Philistines or singing. This is a widely researched area
letter "k" of Derviche/Le Robert has who were wholly occupied "with the which still has unlimited potentials. In music,
recently been published in Lotta Poetica things of itself and not its real self ... it isextended vocal techniques are usually pre-
series 2, Number 10, ed. Anne Guglielmia machinery, and industrial machinery, sented in highly formal contexts which make
(Verona: Lotta Poetica, 1984). and power and pre-eminence and otheruse of commonly accepted emotion-sound
29. Charles Dodge produced a number of external goods, which fill its thoughts, constructs, whereas in sound poetry such
speech compositions at this facility and not an inward perfection", and thetechniques are explored for their linguistic
between 1972 and 1975 which have been working-class Populace, "the raw andfunctionality.
collected on his album, Synthesized half-developed".
Speech Music (New York: CRI SD 348, 35. Numeric Analysis and Invariant TimeFilter-A device which can extract specific
1976). Domains (1984). information from an event which is dependent
30. IRCAM is a facility near the Centre 36. This could be similar to the work done in on its frequency. There are several kinds of
Georges Pompidou in Paris funded music by such people as David Behrman, filter functions such as low-pass, band-pass etc.
largely by the French government to George Lewis and others for the past A low-pass filter, for example, would only
conduct research into the digital produc- several years. George Lewis, for example, allow material to pass up to a particular
tion of music. CHANT is a computer is presently working with a system made frequency, whereas a band-pass filter would
program produced there which can be up of four inexpensive digital synthesizers only allow a particular range or band of
used to synthesize a wide variety of controlled by a small personal computer. frequencies to pass. Another important feature
speech effects. Examples of what can be The computer is also interfaced with describing a filter is its efficiency or Q which is
done with this program can be found on hardware which can sense amplitude and simply a ratio value describing how well a filter
the record, IRCAM-un portrait (Paris: pitch variations from acoustical per-is effecting the frequency it is set for.
IRCAM 0001, 1983), as well as a small formers. The system can therefore
"Soundsheet" published with the article produce musical material as a reaction to Gating-A type of effect which can be likened
by Xavier Rodet, Yves Potard and Jean- what is being performed. to rapidly turning the volume up and down on
Baptiste Barriere, "The CHANT Project: an amplifier.
From Synthesis of the Singing Voice to
Synthesis in General" Computer Music Integrated circuit (IC) -A small plastic or
Journal 8 Number 3 (Cambridge, MA: ceramic package containing a particular
The MIT Press, 1984) pp. 15-31. electronic circuit that is a sort of building block
31. The concept of computer music as being GLOSSARY which can be connected to other devices.
a form of folk music is not new and can be
found described on the liner notes to Analog- an event which has continuous or
Pure sound-A sound of wide dynamic range
Laurie Spiegel's album, The Expanding discontinuous self-similarity as a resultand of timbral
its richness which contains no
Universe (Vermont: Philo Records, own inherent structure. parasitic elements such as inaccurate harmonic
1980). distortions, "hash", or noise interferences,
32. This is Chopin's term for acoustical Amplitude-the intensity of change in an event.accidental noises, etc. Somewhat derisively
material of vocal origins which can be compared to refined white sugar by an
isolated by tape recorder techniques such Bit-The smallest digital element, a sort of acquaintance of mine, though a more generous
as overdubbing and splicing. See "Open slot, which has a binary existence as only twocomparison would be to a rather fine and
Letter to Aphonic Musicians (1)", Henri values such as "on-off', "true-false", "1-0", expensive wine with a rich bouquet and
Chopin, Revue OU No. 33 (Paris: OU, etc. An arrangement of eight of these bits in acomplex aftertaste. If apure soundis analogous
1968). logical row is known as a byte. For an 8-bit to fine wine then a garbage sound is cheap wine
33. Claude Levi-Strauss, The Savage Mind microprocessor, the byte is the basic manipula-with a screw cap for a lid. It is the sound of the
(Chicago: The University of Chicago tive feature of encoding and processing a telephone, the cassette recorder and heavy
Press, 1970) p. 16. "The 'bricoleur' is value. traffic. It is everywhere pervasive in this
adept at performing a large number of modern society of ours and we have become
diverse tasks; but, unlike the engineer, he Digital-The process of breaking up an analog deaf as a result of it. By offsetting the
does not subordinate each of them to the event into discrete packages of information acoustical environment in which it is found,
availability of raw materials and tools according to some external and uniform however, we can hear it as a new sound which
conceived and procured for the purpose process. is unique and vital.

Wendt, Sound Poetry 21

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Real time-A manipulation of an event which
occurs more or less at the same time as the
event. This is opposite of non-real time which
requires time to prepare the manipulation
which is played back at some later time.

APPENDIX A
DIGITAL SAMPLING SYNTHESIS
TECHNIQUES

Though there were some microprocessor-

based voice manipulation systems on the
commercial market when I began my work in
this area. I was not aware of their capabilities.
I built what could be loosely described as a
digital sampling synthesizer. Through the
process of designing such equipment myself, I
had hoped to discover some things which
could expand my art. In this way, my
constructions could parallel my interests and
development as a sound poet.
The digital sampling synthesizers currently
on the market allow the user to record by
digital means a sample of sound which can be
played back at different pitches through a
basically conventional organ/synthesizer key-
board. On elaborate systems score editing
software allows a complex piece to be
produced: the timbre of the recorded sound
Fig. A.1. Photograph of the completed digital vocal manipulation system without mixer or playback
can be manipulated, choralling effects can be
system. The system includes two microprocessors, a special function keyboard, and signal processing
produced with one sound, or multiple sounds hardware.
can be recorded for multiple voicings.
Theoretically one can digitally sample a single
note from a large ancient organ and perform a
Bach fugue producing the same kind of sound difficult-interfacing circuits had to be built windows and a rather large blast furnace in the
but with an instrument which is quite small which took up more space; (4) the standard corner. There were no tools or anything. Just a
(and less expensive). One could also produce typewriter-like keyboard was too large. couple of pairs of rusty fingernail clippers and
musical entertainments from the sounds of Therefore, I constructed an inexpensive a dented Chinese wok with a hole in it.
sheep and chickens with one of these microprocessor system with all the features I At first I spent hours trying to cheer the
instruments. The use of this method has wanted. place up, even putting up posters outlining
invaded the popular music scene and it is being Besides producing tape-recorder effects, my everything from the biochemical mechanisms
used with increasing frequency by such system people also includes a microprocessor con-of the Krebs cycle to atypical Hungarian
as Laurie Anderson and the English pop trolled group filter-amplifier combination which phoneme constructions and a combination
The Art of Noise. allows for signal processing effects similar towhat to do in case of a sneak nuclear attack
Since I began working in this area, a number those one can produce with an analog and/or earthquake done in tastefully chic
of products have become available for personalsynthesizer. These effects include random and black velvet, but it really didn't matter much,
computers which would allow for digitalcomplex filtering effects, 'gating' and panning and I was soon caught up in the excitement of
sampled speech. These devices are generallyeffects. The system is controlled by a small my work. So I really didn't care if my room was
intended for creating vocal sounds for such handbuilt keyboard which has bars of light small and blank, I had this whole empire of
applications as games and often lack the emitting diodes (LEDs) to indicate the crystals before me to seize and to control
software necessary for sound poetry. A poet functioning of the microprocessors, thereby ruthlessly, and anyway, there were always
could write software more applicable to his or eliminating the need for a large cathode ray these promises of a new office with adjoining
her needs but the limited sound quality of these moniter. The use of small pushbutton switches hot tub and personalized racket ball court
devices tempts one to start from scratch on a board allows for the selection of effects: a which was to be built for me in the very near
anyway. sequency of buttons is pressed to allow for future, but it was the crystals which really
more effects than single buttons could
As a result of these considerations, my made my small cell more bearable.
produce. The completed system is quite small
technical starting point was the brute force Yes, it was the art of growing crystals which
approach of building something which would and can be carried in a couple of 35 mm really interested me about the job anyway. I
record a sound into a computer's memory andcamera cases such as those used for shipping had grown crystals since high school though I
cameras by air. Figure A. 1 shows the complete
play it back much like a tape recorder. This never really thought I could make a living at it,
was done by equipment which could samplesystem
a next to a 6-inch ruler. This system is still but, here I was, I can even own my very own
very
small fragment of the sound, convert it into a much a 'work in progress'. A great deal of condominium now. I'd grind up these powders
value to be stored in a microprocessor's software remains to be written for it and some real fine and spread them out real thin, it's a
memory for manipulation, and then reconvert improvements are needed on the hardware. very time-consuming process to be sure with
the value into sound again. Common tape lots to go wrong, but when everything is right,
recorder effects such as echo, tape loops, APPENDIX B it's really great, and there's nothing quite like
splicing effects, pitch changes and retrograde it.
TEXT FOR BROKEN CRYSTALS (1983)
effects can be produced digitally in real time. BY LARRY WENDT I'd been working for the firm about three or
I became interested in these digital recording four months, when I started to have these
effects mainly because they were relatively easy A few years ago, I got this job with problems,
a firm a large number of my crystals would
to produce with my inexpensive personal called Crysteck, out in, you know, the come out all broken; not only were they
computer. I programmed these effects into my valley-the Silicon Valley. They hired me to broken, but all these little flies would hatch out
computer and built some converters to get the grow these little garnet crystals, about, oh, the of them. They'd fly all around in my small
sound in and out. By pressing a particular key size of your thumb. They were to be used in office and get into things, like my lunch, and
on the keyboard, a certain effect would occur making bubble memories. It was a good job, a my hair, and generally mess up an already
to the sound I was digitally sampling. This fine job, a wonderful job, with many great overcrowded situation. I'd come in to work in
consumer-type equipment, however, eventually benefits and large stock sharing options in the mornings and they'd all be there waiting
proved inadequate for my needs for a number bubble technology. for me, pleadingly, with those jewel-dusted
of reasons: (1) it was too large to carry; (2) the When I first came on board there, and that's eyes of theirs, it was getting impossible to get
hardware did not operate fast enough; (3) how they described working there, they stuck anything done, if you know what I mean.
interfacing other devices to this system was me off into this little dinky room with no I had gotten to know some of the other

22 Wendt, Sound Poetry

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crystal growers at Crysteck, we'd often go out Texas put a ban on all the bubble memories The President of the United States declared
during our lunch breaks and sail around the imported from the valley. the Silicon Valley a disaster area and began
Bay a couple of times, and though these Our situation just got worse and worse. using B-52's to drop giant, ugly Cane Toads
growers didn't like to talk about it much, they Pretty soon the flies started to make lewd imported from New Guinea all over the place.
were having problems with their crystals too. comments at us while we worked. We kept But it was never made clear what the toads
There were vague rumors about nervous telling them to leave but they acted like they were suppose to do, they just sort of sat around
breakdowns and heavy drug or alcohol use; owned the place. They would bully and and hung out a lot and fostered the overripe
however, most growers kept quiet about their intimidate the secretaries in the front office tomato look which you so often see now in the
problems. with their demands for more paperclips andshopping centers around in the valley here.
A year went by and the situation intensified thumbtacks. And they'd run around the halls Meanwhile, the bottom dropped out of bubble
and pretty soon the halls of Crysteck were just playing out scenes from their favorite cop memories.
crawling with flies, you couldn't hardly step programs on TV. One day, we all arrived to I've since sold all my stock. It wasn't worth
anywhere without squashing a million or so of work to find the flies playing computer games much of anything anyway. I'm into ordinary
the little buggers, and the flies started to get and listening to rock and roll. memory now, or at least until the Japanese
larger too, and it wasn't long before they were That was the last straw; with that, old man corner the market. After looking around for a
about the size of small geese. Word also started Crysteck came out of his office, livid with rage,long time, I also got a new job last week, this
to trickle in from the other bubble memory fired us all, chained up the doors, and flew off time counting paper clips in the town of Lodi
manufacturers in the valley that they too were somewhere to raise seaweed and never to be up in, you know, northern California. I think it
having a problem with their crystals. And then heard from or seen again. will go better for me this time.

Wendt, Sound Poetry 23

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