Sound poetry
Encyclopedia
Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging between literary and musical composition
, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic
values; "verse without words". By definition, sound poetry is intended primarily for performance
.
traditions, the writing of pure sound texts that downplay the roles of meaning and structure is a 20th century phenomenon. The Futurist and Dadaist Vanguards of the beginning of this century were the pioneers in creating the first sound poetry forms. Marinetti discovered that onomatopoeias were useful to describe a battle in Tripoli where he was a soldier, creating a sound text that became a sort of a spoken photograph of the battle. Dadaists were more involved in sound poetry and they invented different categories:
and concrete poetry
, two forms based in visual arts issues although the sound images are always very compelling in them. Later on, with the development of the magnetic tape recorder
, sound poetry evolved thanks to the upcoming of the concrete music movement at the end of the 1940s. Some sound poets used be used by later poetry movements like the beat generation
in the fifties or the spoken word
movement in the 80's, and by other art and music movements that brought up new forms such as text sound art that may be used for sound poems which more closely resemble "fiction or even essays, as traditionally defined, than poetry".
(1914);
A piece performed by Hugo Ball
in a reading at Cabaret Voltaire
in 1916:
Kurt Schwitters
' Ursonate (1922-32, "Primal Sonata") is a particularly well known early example:
The first movement rondo
's principal theme
being a word, "fmsbwtözäu" pronounced Fümms bö wö tää zää Uu, from a 1918 poem by Raoul Hausmann
, apparently also a sound poem. Schwitters also wrote a less well-known sound poem consisting of the sound of the letter W. (Albright, 2004)
Chilean Vicente Huidobro's "Altazor" book (1931), where he explores phonetic mutations of words.
In his story The Poet at Home, William Saroyan
refers to a character who practices a form of pure poetry, composing verse of her own made up words.
, Bob Cobbing
, Ada Verdun Howell
, Allen Ginsberg
, bpNichol
, William S. Burroughs
, Enzo Minarelli, Mathias Goeritz
, and Andras Petocz
.
The poet Edith Sitwell
coined the term Abstract poetry to describe some of her own poems which possessed more aural than literary qualities, rendering them essentially meaningless: "The poems in Façade are abstract poems--that is, they are patterns of sound. They are...virtuoso exercises in technique of extreme difficulty, in the same sense as that in which certain studies by Liszt are studies in transcendental technique in music." (Sitwell, 1949)
An early Dutch artist, Theo VanDoesburg, was another prominent sound poet in the early 1900s.
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
values; "verse without words". By definition, sound poetry is intended primarily for performance
Performance poetry
Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution.-History:...
.
The vanguards of the 20th Century
While it is sometimes argued that the roots of sound poetry are to be found in oral poetryOral poetry
Oral poetry can be defined in various ways. A strict definition would include only poetry that is composed and transmitted without any aid of writing. However, the complex relationships between written and spoken literature in some societies can make this definition hard to maintain, and oral...
traditions, the writing of pure sound texts that downplay the roles of meaning and structure is a 20th century phenomenon. The Futurist and Dadaist Vanguards of the beginning of this century were the pioneers in creating the first sound poetry forms. Marinetti discovered that onomatopoeias were useful to describe a battle in Tripoli where he was a soldier, creating a sound text that became a sort of a spoken photograph of the battle. Dadaists were more involved in sound poetry and they invented different categories:
- Bruitist poem it is the phonetic poem, not so different from the futurist poem. Invented by Richard Huelsenbeck.
- Simultaneous poem a poem read in different languages, with different rhythms, tonalities, and by different persons at the same time. Invented by Tristan TzaraTristan TzaraTristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...
. - Movement poem is the poem accompanied by primitive movements.
Later developments
Sound poetry evolved into visual poetryVisual poetry
Visual poetry is poetry or art in which the visual arrangement of text, images and symbols is important in conveying the intended effect of the work. It is sometimes referred to as concrete poetry, a term that predates visual poetry, and at one time was synonymous with it.Visual poetry was heavily...
and concrete poetry
Concrete poetry
Concrete poetry or shape poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on....
, two forms based in visual arts issues although the sound images are always very compelling in them. Later on, with the development of the magnetic tape recorder
Tape recorder
An audio tape recorder, tape deck, reel-to-reel tape deck, cassette deck or tape machine is an audio storage device that records and plays back sounds, including articulated voices, usually using magnetic tape, either wound on a reel or in a cassette, for storage...
, sound poetry evolved thanks to the upcoming of the concrete music movement at the end of the 1940s. Some sound poets used be used by later poetry movements like the beat generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
in the fifties or the spoken word
Spoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
movement in the 80's, and by other art and music movements that brought up new forms such as text sound art that may be used for sound poems which more closely resemble "fiction or even essays, as traditionally defined, than poetry".
Early examples
Italian F. T. Marinetti's Zang Tumb TumbZang Tumb Tumb
"Zang Tumb Tumb" is a sound poem and concrete poem written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, an Italian futurist. It appeared in excerpts in journals between 1912 and 1914, when it was published as an artist's book in Milan. It is an account of the Battle of Adrianople, which he witnessed as a reporter...
(1914);
A piece performed by Hugo Ball
Hugo Ball
Hugo Ball was a German author, poet and one of the leading Dada artists.Hugo Ball was born in Pirmasens, Germany and was raised in a middle-class Catholic family. He studied sociology and philosophy at the universities of Munich and Heidelberg...
in a reading at Cabaret Voltaire
Cabaret Voltaire (Zürich)
Cabaret Voltaire was the name of a nightclub in Zurich, Switzerland. It was founded by Hugo Ball, with his companion Emmy Hennings on February 5, 1916 as a cabaret for artistic and political purposes. Other founding members were Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck, Tristan Tzara, and Jean Arp...
in 1916:
- "I created a new species of verse, 'verse without words,' or sound poems....I recited the following:
-
- gadji beri bimba
- glandridi lauli lonni cadori..."
- (Albright, 2004)
-
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...
' Ursonate (1922-32, "Primal Sonata") is a particularly well known early example:
The first movement rondo
Rondo
Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...
's principal theme
Theme (music)
In music, a theme is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based.-Characteristics:A theme may be perceivable as a complete musical expression in itself, separate from the work in which it is found . In contrast to an idea or motif, a theme is...
being a word, "fmsbwtözäu" pronounced Fümms bö wö tää zää Uu, from a 1918 poem by Raoul Hausmann
Raoul Hausmann
Raoul Hausmann was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada, his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on the European Avant-Garde in the aftermath of World War I.-Early biography:Raoul Hausmann was...
, apparently also a sound poem. Schwitters also wrote a less well-known sound poem consisting of the sound of the letter W. (Albright, 2004)
Chilean Vicente Huidobro's "Altazor" book (1931), where he explores phonetic mutations of words.
In his story The Poet at Home, William Saroyan
William Saroyan
William Saroyan was an Armenian American dramatist and author. The setting of many of his stories and plays is the center of Armenian-American life in California in his native Fresno.-Early years:...
refers to a character who practices a form of pure poetry, composing verse of her own made up words.
Other examples of sound poets
Later prominent sound poets include Henri ChopinHenri Chopin
Henri Chopin was an avant-garde poet and musician.-Life:Henri Chopin was a French practitioner of concrete and sound poet, well-known throughout the second half of the 20th century...
, Bob Cobbing
Bob Cobbing
Bob Cobbing was a British sound, visual, concrete and performance poet who was a central figure in the British Poetry Revival.-Early life:...
, Ada Verdun Howell
Ada Verdun Howell
Ada Verdun Howell was an Australian author and poet. Born in Beaufort, Victoria, on her father's sheep property, she was educated at Ruytons Girls' School. Her sister was the artist Valma Howell. She lived in New York in the latter part of her life where she wrote most of her most famous works...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, bpNichol
BpNichol
Barrie Phillip Nichol , who often went by his lower-case initials and last name, with no spaces , was a Canadian poet. He became widely known for his concrete poetry while living there in the 1960s...
, William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, Enzo Minarelli, Mathias Goeritz
Mathias Goeritz
Mathias Goeritz - August 4, 1990 in Mexico City) was a well-known Mexican painter and sculptor of German origin...
, and Andras Petocz
András Petöcz
András Petőcz is a Hungarian writer and poet -Life:Petőcz began his career in literary life in 1981. He was the chief editor for over two years of the art periodical Jelenlét ., which was published by the Faculty of Humanities at the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences in Budapest, and soon became...
.
The poet Edith Sitwell
Edith Sitwell
Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell DBE was a British poet and critic.-Background:Edith Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the oldest child and only daughter of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall; he was an expert on genealogy and landscaping...
coined the term Abstract poetry to describe some of her own poems which possessed more aural than literary qualities, rendering them essentially meaningless: "The poems in Façade are abstract poems--that is, they are patterns of sound. They are...virtuoso exercises in technique of extreme difficulty, in the same sense as that in which certain studies by Liszt are studies in transcendental technique in music." (Sitwell, 1949)
An early Dutch artist, Theo VanDoesburg, was another prominent sound poet in the early 1900s.
See also
- Sound artSound artSound art is a diverse group of art practices that considers wide notions of sound, listening and hearing as its predominant focus. There are often distinct relationships forged between the visual and aural domains of art and perception by sound artists....
- Bob CobbingBob CobbingBob Cobbing was a British sound, visual, concrete and performance poet who was a central figure in the British Poetry Revival.-Early life:...
- Angel ExhaustAngel ExhaustAngel Exhaust is a British poetry magazine founded by Steve Pereira and Adrian Clarke in the late 1970s. Andrew Duncan took over as editor in 1992, and by 1993 it was one of the first poetry magazines to appear regularly on the internet.-Editors:...
- Jas H. DukeJas H. DukeJas Heriot Duke was a cult figure in the Australian performance poetry scene. He worked much of his life in Melbourne Board of Works and began writing poetry in 1966. He was influenced by Dada, Expressionism and experimental movements...
- Electroacoustic musicElectroacoustic musicElectroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
- Crosstalk: American Speech MusicCrosstalk: American Speech MusicCrosstalk: American Speech Music is a compilation album of speech-based music by various composers, poets, visual artists and DJs.- Track listing :# "Declaratives in First Person" – 5:04# "Electroprayer 5.0" Crosstalk: American Speech Music is a compilation album of speech-based music by various...
- Line (poetry)Line (poetry)A line is a unit of language into which a poem or play is divided, which operates on principles which are distinct from and not necessarily coincident with grammatical structures, such as the sentence or clauses in sentences...
- Line (music)
Sources
- Albright, Daniel (2004). Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-01267-0.
- Sitwell, Edith (1949). The Canticle of the Rose Poems: 1917-1949, p.xii. New York: Vanguard Press.
External links
- UbuWeb
- Sound Poetry - A Survey by Steve McCaffery
- Text Sound Art: A Survey Richard KostelanetzRichard KostelanetzRichard Kostelanetz is an American artist, author and critic.He was born to Boris Kostelanetz and Ethel Cory and is the nephew of the composer Andre Kostelanetz....
- 10 + 2 = 12 American Text-Sound Pieces The first major recorded anthology of American sound poetry, edited by Charles AmirkhanianCharles AmirkhanianCharles Amirkhanian is an American composer. He is a percussionist, sound poet, and radio producer of Armenian extraction. He is mostly known for his electroacoustic and text-sound music...
for 1750 Arch Records, released on LP in 1975, re-released for CD/download by Other Minds in 2003. - Sound poetry--concrete, abstract, and postmodern.
- List of sound poets with links to audio files
- Sound poetry in french with audio files, Mitocarpe
- "AN ART BETWEEN SPEECH AND MUSIC" By PAUL KRESH; New York Times, April 3, 1983,
- Sound Poetry
- Sound Poetry on 57productions
- "Bring Da Noise: A Brief Survey of Sound Art Sound and The Literary Connection" by Kenneth Goldsmith NewMusicBoxNewMusicBoxNewMusicBox is an e-zine launched by the American Music Center on May 1, 1999. The magazine includes interviews and articles concerning American Contemporary Music, composers, improvisers, and musicians....
, March 1, 2004 - Poesy Planet, Eight Geese