HARMONY, DISCORD, REST AND RETURN
Or, I Think Most of It's Probably All Right There, if Only We Have Eyes to See.
More and more, and in fact for my entire life, I've found that what I ponder and eventually factor in to my artistic life is already present in the oversoul. I find these affirmations -- in worlds scientific, academic, mythic, natural, quotidian -- well after I've discovered them on my own perambulations.
Certainly in my work as a voice actor I've known well (was born knowing) how to harness the energy that is sound to influence my hiring and those listening to the work. In coaching I have often "stopped tape" to point out a sound, often no longer than a second or two, that is the power driver behind the piece, or where it breaks and fails. It's all in there. I can hear it all. Sound manifested in voice work is my moveable feast.
On the dialect side, the same is true: sound is energy made audible. I hold my hands out to my clients, as though I'm holding palmsful of water from Ponce de Leon's fountain, and say "Words are dove-shaped clay vessels, holding sound; they take flight, form a pattern and from this, we extract meaning."
Our job is then to identify the pattern and give it its song -- the meaning emerges as a consequence of this work -- and from it all comes organic, joyous sound that lives fully in the speaker's body, and is received fully in the listeners' bodies as well.
This is a living truth I plucked from the branches above, in the trees where the songbirds live, and though I'm always astonished to discover this, it is rucksack and dog to me; my comfort and candle, to know that barefoot and rambling through fields and orchards, the job is to simply walk on, reach up for the fruit, and let it fall into your dove-shaped hands.
From the little vid that inspired these thoughts:
"Matthieu offers a map of emotional affects through the overtonal and reciprocal thirds and fifths. Pah, the overtonal fifth, is Sun energy. Mah, the reciprocal fifth, is Moon energy. Gah, the overtonal third, is Compassion, and Khomal Dah, the reciprocal third, is Passion. There is one combination of tones that is almost bizarre in its affect. The alternation between Gah and Khomal Dah, the overtonal and reciprocal thirds. Thirds have a drama in them. A kind of grain or current, almost as if you could detect the five against four working itself out in the fluids and membranes of the ear. When you flip that energy, you are flipping your inner life." -- Adam Neely quoting W.A. Matthieu, talking about the incredible key change from G major to Cb major in All By Myself, specifically as sung by Celine Dion.
NOTES: Adam and Adam’s mom’s discussion can be found here.
“Energy is sound made audible.” What an affirmative and thoughtful article. Thank you.