by Jerry Wong
Meredith Monk - the eclectic vocalist and composer, captivated Taipei audiences with her performances in early March. Monk, with her signature dreadlocks and easy composure, took the stage and sang with a bare minimum of accompaniment. No, not the usual classical vocal recital, but a radical journey through the infinite possibilities of the human voice that evades classification of any sort. Take Insect for example, a piece where Monk launches into rapid, spasmodic bursts of harsh “ah” sounds, resembling a fly or mosquito. Or Descending, consisting of Indian-style ornamentations coupled with low-pitched siren sounds. Also a choreographer and movie director, Monk’s performance talents are showcased with her body movements blending harmoniously with the music - at times stretching her arms out as if calming the audience, at times putting her hands on her waist and dramatically turning her body with a teasing, jubilant facial expression, at times elegantly rotating her joints as if she were an Oriental dancer. However, do not mistake Monk for kitsch art - her vocal technique is truly inimitable, able to handle wide pitch leaps and microtonal inflections alike with exquisite precision. Her refined control over vocal color and vibrato inspired New York Times’ critic John Rockwell to write, “If she wanted to, Miss Monk could have a respectable career in conventional classical music.” She has, however, definitely chosen to take the road less traveled, expanding her technique in innovative ways. In her Click Song, Monk makes a clicking sound with her tongue, superimposed upon a continuous melody originating also from her mouth! The magnum opus for the evening would have to be Madwoman’s Vision, a soundtrack from Monk’s self directed film, Book of Days. The film describes a young girl in Medieval times having apocalyptic visions of our days, but who is ignored by all but one madwoman who shares her vision. The piece starts with a soothing, religious hymn-like melody, moves into dreamlike choral lines, transforms into a senile witch’s incomprehensible murmurings, marches into outbursts of masculine, low pitched “ho” breaths, and finally returns to the starting theme of tranquility. According to Monk, the piece represents an “overview of humanity, with its joys and sadness and love and pains, which allows her (the girl) to ultimately view life with a sense of compassion.” It has been said that Monk’s music has the magic quality of arousing a deep, subjective experience in her listeners. And yes, by the time the performance ended, it was almost as if I’d beheld the Madwoman’s Vision, undergoing intense emotions conjured up by Monk’s world of soundscapes, and eventually emerging with an indescribable joy of being spiritually healed. The Meredith Monk experience is an unique experience indeed, and perhaps the barren and naked expression of the human voice triggers something of the primordial in our souls that is a common language to us all. a
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May 2024
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