Internas Multitudes revisits my interest in identity as an unstable and contradictory phenomenon, inhabited by “internal multitudes” that coexist, clash, and transform. The piece was created in close collaboration with violist Jing Chen, who expressed a desire to explore connections between the instrument and the voice. This does not result in a literal use of the voice, but rather its evocation: a ghostly presence that emerges from the interplay between formant filters and instrumental gestures.
Here, the viola serves as both a source of noise and resonance for two live electronic processing systems. The first consists of a bank of 15 resonant filters tuned to pitches derived from unstable harmonic nodes. These harmonics, rich in tonal variation, interact unpredictably with the filters, generating a constantly shifting sonic field.
The second system is composed of filters that emulate human vocal formants, spatially distributed to invoke “entities” that surround the viola—sometimes as echo, sometimes as distortion or counterpoint. The instrumental gestures were designed to activate these filters expressively, and include a preparation using a cork sheet between the C and G strings, intensifying the noisiness of the sound and making the filters more responsive.
Beyond timbre, I also wanted to work with the rhythm and intonation of spoken voice. To that end, I proposed a guided improvisation based on the transcription of accents and inflections from recordings of the poem “I Regret Nothing” by Gioconda Belli.
