Sonic Notes - Moving Towards Sonic Theatre
Our Approach:
What we're examining here is not a 'device' to do something, nor are we attending a birth that has little impact., This is, I believe, the emergence of a very old art form (stories told in the dark) into a full-blown artistic representation of the 21st century. People underestimate the role of sound in "The Talkies" - In film mixing we have usually two or three 'reels' of film, and 72 different tracks for Sound. All film-mixers know that the route into the heart is not through the screen itself - it's sound that directs the eye, it's sound that holds the consciousness in thrall as dreams evolve. The surround that any good film mixer aims for, is the sonic surround - which is the royal road to the visceral - the movement of the inner skin, the fascia - and all parts of the body.
Thanks to Gary R. Snyder for his Washington Fields Photograph, and his much missed wisdom as we discusses the nature and the winds of sound.
Sonic Environment:
Many film tracks are dedicated to the ambient sound - things we don't hear (usually) such as, the room tone, the pulsing of pranic echoes, the hiss of a radiator. if we place a drama in the fifties, we may add the cutting in and out of a distant furnace. In the 60s - the hum of fluorescent lights, - and that's done to maintain the base of sonic investigation, the placement of the 'I' - the listener in a 'real' space.
So, in film post-production, great attention is taken in having a constant background ambiance which creates in, and of itself, reality. In film, once you start listening for this we hear it. Listen in Radio drama, however and you won't hear it. Lazy ears and perception on the part of writers and directors in this field make this so much thinner than it demands to be.
We begin with an approach designed to sharpen our perceptions, to make of radio drama - true excellence. That old saying "The good is the enemy of the best" is true. This is not an exercise in being 'able to do' something - this is a path to highest excellence.. I'll go on about this when we get to the actual training, and, naturally, the development of pedagogical approaches is for constant attention.
A RE-BORN ART FORM:
This is the preamble to learning more and more about what was, only twenty years ago, a dying art form - and that has, because of the Internet, become a vibrant form and one that may become, in my opinion, 'the' new art form of this age. What may be achieved within the new technology is amazing.
The sound of the universe evokes what becomes sight. There is nothing that Sonic Drama cannot do equally as well as Visual drama - our roots are in the older tradition of drama told in the dark through sound.
SONIC THEATRE: is born through the inner and outer ear.
We're conscious of is only a very small portion of the actual incoming vast panoply of sensory surround, so we're following nature when we go to sonic realms for our perception. Sonic drama & comedy is already in a place that visual drama rarely travels - the realm of hearing, vibration, placement and location in an internal geography for the enfolding of the perceived universe.
With my background in film mixing, and having grown up in a oral tradition - I have to say that Sonic Theatre is, in current practice, only touching the surface of what it could do. I also sense this has a deeper layer in pedagogical terms. As an example, our attention moves away from the visually perceived structure of language. .
That's good, as anything may be created by the voice and for the ear - and as the language and production develops, more discrete clues than the eye follows will emerge. The hand will lead us, and the mind will follow and eventually guide.
Currently, the approach to sighted-versions of sound-based drama ignores much of the source material for acting in this medium - and that's contained in the roiling of sounds struggling to be born from pure emotions, seeking the translation into 'meanings' realm'
The Pre-pandemic ear of this century had locked our voices, plugged our ears, and kept us and the sounds of Nature apart from one another. Voices were suppressed, the tonal ring-offs are filtered out in this culture’s view of what's proper. Our current Pandemic era has given us back our hearing. The extra degree of quietness on the streets, the slowing of the ever-constant construction. And the people leaving homes every day to go somewhere to work, and taken away the simple sonic joys of a natural neighborhood. Use your pandemic ear, listen, turn on your phone; record it. Even more importantly we start to stay still & listen.
The world will write itself through your ears.
The sonic work being discussed here needs a keen ear so we may prevent the kiss-of-death in 'proper' acting; the suppressing of sonically-carried emotion & the pretended rage of melodramatic screaming of those who have forgotten what the world truly sounds like. We are all of us now, becoming writers trained by the pandemic.
Spread the word in sound.
What we're examining here is not a 'device' to do something, nor are we attending a birth that has little impact., This is, I believe, the emergence of a very old art form (stories told in the dark) into a full-blown artistic representation of the 21st century. People underestimate the role of sound in "The Talkies" - In film mixing we have usually two or three 'reels' of film, and 72 different tracks for Sound. All film-mixers know that the route into the heart is not through the screen itself - it's sound that directs the eye, it's sound that holds the consciousness in thrall as dreams evolve. The surround that any good film mixer aims for, is the sonic surround - which is the royal road to the visceral - the movement of the inner skin, the fascia - and all parts of the body.
Thanks to Gary R. Snyder for his Washington Fields Photograph, and his much missed wisdom as we discusses the nature and the winds of sound.
Sonic Environment:
Many film tracks are dedicated to the ambient sound - things we don't hear (usually) such as, the room tone, the pulsing of pranic echoes, the hiss of a radiator. if we place a drama in the fifties, we may add the cutting in and out of a distant furnace. In the 60s - the hum of fluorescent lights, - and that's done to maintain the base of sonic investigation, the placement of the 'I' - the listener in a 'real' space.
So, in film post-production, great attention is taken in having a constant background ambiance which creates in, and of itself, reality. In film, once you start listening for this we hear it. Listen in Radio drama, however and you won't hear it. Lazy ears and perception on the part of writers and directors in this field make this so much thinner than it demands to be.
We begin with an approach designed to sharpen our perceptions, to make of radio drama - true excellence. That old saying "The good is the enemy of the best" is true. This is not an exercise in being 'able to do' something - this is a path to highest excellence.. I'll go on about this when we get to the actual training, and, naturally, the development of pedagogical approaches is for constant attention.
A RE-BORN ART FORM:
This is the preamble to learning more and more about what was, only twenty years ago, a dying art form - and that has, because of the Internet, become a vibrant form and one that may become, in my opinion, 'the' new art form of this age. What may be achieved within the new technology is amazing.
The sound of the universe evokes what becomes sight. There is nothing that Sonic Drama cannot do equally as well as Visual drama - our roots are in the older tradition of drama told in the dark through sound.
SONIC THEATRE: is born through the inner and outer ear.
We're conscious of is only a very small portion of the actual incoming vast panoply of sensory surround, so we're following nature when we go to sonic realms for our perception. Sonic drama & comedy is already in a place that visual drama rarely travels - the realm of hearing, vibration, placement and location in an internal geography for the enfolding of the perceived universe.
With my background in film mixing, and having grown up in a oral tradition - I have to say that Sonic Theatre is, in current practice, only touching the surface of what it could do. I also sense this has a deeper layer in pedagogical terms. As an example, our attention moves away from the visually perceived structure of language. .
That's good, as anything may be created by the voice and for the ear - and as the language and production develops, more discrete clues than the eye follows will emerge. The hand will lead us, and the mind will follow and eventually guide.
Currently, the approach to sighted-versions of sound-based drama ignores much of the source material for acting in this medium - and that's contained in the roiling of sounds struggling to be born from pure emotions, seeking the translation into 'meanings' realm'
The Pre-pandemic ear of this century had locked our voices, plugged our ears, and kept us and the sounds of Nature apart from one another. Voices were suppressed, the tonal ring-offs are filtered out in this culture’s view of what's proper. Our current Pandemic era has given us back our hearing. The extra degree of quietness on the streets, the slowing of the ever-constant construction. And the people leaving homes every day to go somewhere to work, and taken away the simple sonic joys of a natural neighborhood. Use your pandemic ear, listen, turn on your phone; record it. Even more importantly we start to stay still & listen.
The world will write itself through your ears.
The sonic work being discussed here needs a keen ear so we may prevent the kiss-of-death in 'proper' acting; the suppressing of sonically-carried emotion & the pretended rage of melodramatic screaming of those who have forgotten what the world truly sounds like. We are all of us now, becoming writers trained by the pandemic.
Spread the word in sound.
