weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 20
space between her and the bird, until she finally sang
to me all the way across the room, with great presence
and volume. I was humbled by her voice and being the
recipient of her presence. From then on I never ever
heard a ‘wrong note’ again. It was the moment when
singing became a phenomenon, not a form. It became
the manifestation of a transient state of being, a
symptom of life, the muscle of the soul…
“The voice is the muscle of the soul.”
Roy Hart19
Not only are these intervals the most common intervals
in western music, but also dominant in folk and children
songs. Many people I met still sang children’s folk
songs in primary school but wouldn’t continue singing
afterwards.
“Singing: The opening and liberation
of the individual’s potential through
singing, in connecting with the conscious
awareness of the moment in the
Here and. Now. Concentration,
intensity, expression.”
Alfred Wolfsohn 34
A path in itself. In the many years since I have been
teaching voice work I consequently have had it in front
of me hundreds of times in the studio. I lived with it in
its ephemeral nature. What a pleasure to hold space for
it.
My next Caramel was cracked when I met the actor
and playwright Margaret Cameron and choreographer
Deborah Hay.
“So how did I get back to the mobility
that is actually inherent in my (and any)
voice?”
Walli Höfinger
I was part of a research week around the question
of how to teach dance. Deborah had been invited to
lead the research together with Margaret. She started
moving in space saying:
quote
from Henry
Wadsworth
Longfellow’s
Hyperion: "O how wonder is the human voice!
20 Personal
memory
of Christiane
Hommelsheim.
It is indeed the organ of the soul."
Whether I wanted to sound like my favourite pop singer,
whether I heard my voice on a sound recording, I
couldn’t sing in key, and felt repelled from it. Whether I
didn’t like my voice because it sounded too weak, loud,
high, low, nasal… or I had to sing in front of others and
was ridiculed about it. Whatever my disappointment
around my voice was, it kept me from listening to how it
actually sounded, kept me from exploring the qualities
that were already there.
Once I gradually learned to listen to my voice with
an open mind and curiosity, a hidden potential was
unlocked. So how did I get back to the mobility that is
actually inherent in my (and any) voice? Amongst the
steps to work with my voice was to learn how to listen.
Once I started to listen differently, I could learn to work
with what is there and step into my own experience and
authority of my unique voice.
“What if the perception is the dance?
What if where I am is what I need? And what if it is not about
what I need but about asking the question? What if where I
am is what I need?
What if every cell in my body has the potential to get what it
needs right now? Here and gone. No big deal…”20
19 Hart, R. Roy Hart Theatre Archives – Roy Hart created this paraphrase, inspired by a
quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Hyperion: "O how wonder is the human voice!
It isHart,
indeed
the organ
of the soul."
19
R. Roy
Hart Theatre
Archives – Roy Hart created this paraphrase, inspired by a
My own courage to ‘voice’ was buried under cultural and
musical expectations of how I should sound and how my
voice should behave. In school I was encouraged to shut
up rather than to speak out loud and freely. And like
many people I was intimidated to use my voice freely
except for to speak.
34 Wolfsohn, A., Roy Hart Theatre Archives – from a collection of
quotes from Sheila Braggins, one of his students.
Once I learned to be curious about all the nuances and
qualities that could actually be heard in the voice, the
usual evaluations slowly moved into the background, I
20 Personal memory of Christiane Hommelsheim.
38
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