[Column] Meredith Monk──An artist who continued to search for a place before voice became music
Column en Avant-Garde Contemporary Performance Art![[Column] Meredith Monk──An artist who continued to search for a place before voice became music](/../assets/images/column-meredith-monk.webp)
Why does voice become music?
Text: mmr｜Theme: 60 years of avant-garde artists who continued to search for a “voice” before it became a word
Looking back at the history of music since the latter half of the 20th century, there are several individuals who fundamentally reconsidered the very act of singing.
Meredith Monk is unique among them.
She is also sometimes referred to as a singer. He is sometimes introduced as a composer. Alternatively, he may be described as a choreographer, film director, or performance artist.
But no title is perfect.
Because what Meredith Monk has been working on has been an attempt to expand the framework of music itself.
For many years, she has treated the ““voice’’ not as a mere singing technique, but as the most primitive instrument possessed by humans.
laughter. Moaning. Whisper. Breathing. Scream. Humming.
He pushed these elements to the center of music.
The ideas that are now widely recognized as vocal experiments and extended vocal techniques were extremely heretical when she began her career in the 1960s.
However, it was this unconventional nature that would later have a major influence on contemporary music and performance art.
Meredith Monk’s creation journey was not about creating songs, but about exploring ““what is the voice?’’
In the New York avant-garde art scene
Meredith Monk was born in New York in 1942. As a child, he received Dalcroze rhythmic education as part of treatment for strabismus. He himself says that this educational method, which combines music and physical exercise, became the basis of his later creations.
Graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1964.
In New York at the time, art, dance, music, and theater were rapidly beginning to intersect.
John Cage introduced chance, Merce Cunningham redefines dance, Minimalism was emerging.
It was a time when the very boundaries of art were collapsing.
In this atmosphere, Monk seeks a unique form of expression that does not belong to existing classical music or Broadway.
In 1968, he founded the interdisciplinary performance group ““The House.’’ Here, music, physical expression, video, and spatial direction were treated as one work.
At that time, the term “multimedia art” had not yet become commonplace.
Monk was practicing it even before the concept was established.
She didn”t cross genres, but she didn”t have a genre in mind from the beginning.
Turn your voice into an instrument
The biggest reason why Meredith Monk remains in music history is because of her vocal technique.
People who hear her work for the first time are surprised.
There are almost no lyrics in the general sense of the word.
Rather than words with meaning,
“ah” “Uh” “Ha!” “Hmm”
The focus is on vocalizations such as:
However, strangely, the listener senses the emotion and story in it.
Monk focused on the inherent physicality of the human voice.
Voice before language.
Voices before culture.
A voice from before civilization.
I wanted to dig them out.
She treated the voice not as a means of transmitting information, but as a sensation itself.
This idea had a huge influence on later vocal experimental music.
Monk’s music was a rare example of using voice to transcend words.
Birth of Vocal Ensemble
In 1978, Meredith Monk formed Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble.
Here her ideas were further expanded.
By layering multiple voices,
A sound like a flock of birds, sounds like scenery, ceremonial sound,
He created this.
Although similarities with minimal music have been pointed out, her work cannot be explained by simple repetition.
There is the breathing of the body.
There are random fluctuations.
There is a sense of human presence itself.
Therefore, it functions as an organic cycle rather than a mechanical repetition.
Vocal Ensemble’s activities have proven that it is possible to construct a huge acoustic space using just the voice.
ECM and global reputation
In the 1980s, he began releasing works on ECM Records.
ECM is known as a label with a unique aesthetic in jazz and contemporary music.
Monk’s work was very compatible with his transparent recording philosophy.
"”Dolmen Music’’ is known as his masterpiece and influenced many musicians. ([All About Jazz][2])
What is particularly interesting is that she influenced not only the classical world but also the realm of popular music.
In later years, many experimental artists professed their respect for her.
Her expressions were shared across genres.
The ECM era was an important turning point in the spread of Meredith Monk’s art to the world.
Crossing film and stage
Monk’s activities are not limited to music.
His films ““Ellis Island” and ““Book of Days” have been highly acclaimed. ([All About Jazz][2])
Even in her video works, she acts not as a musician but as a general artist.
Screen configuration. physical exercise. space. silence.
All of them are placed with equal importance.
The same holds true for stage productions.
Rather than listening to music, the audience experiences the sensation of entering an environment.
In Monk’s work, the music is not the main character, but the entire experience.
The challenge of opera “ATLAS”
In 1991, he released the opera ““ATLAS’’.
This is very different from regular opera.
It’s not story-centered.
There are no heroes or villains.
The theme is the journey itself.
human migration. expedition. A yearning for the unknown.
These themes are depicted through abstract images and music.
Monk deconstructed the opera format and presented new possibilities.
In that sense, ATLAS occupies an important position in the history of experimental opera in the second half of the 20th century.
"”ATLAS’’ is not an opera that tells a story, but a work that depicts human imagination itself.
Influences on many artists
Meredith Monk’s influence is wider than you might imagine.
Not just contemporary musicians.
Experimental electronic music. Ambient. Postclassical. movie music. performance art.
It is spreading to various areas.
In the recent documentary Monk in Pieces, David Byrne, Björk and others talk about its influence. ([Wikipedia][3])
She’s not a trendsetter.
Rather, he can be said to be the person who became the source of reference for subsequent generations.
Many artists did not imitate Meredith Monk, but discovered possibilities in her.
Chronology
| Year | Events |
|---|---|
| 1942 | Born in New York |
| 1964 | Graduated from Sarah Lawrence College |
| 1968 | The House established |
| 1969 | “Juice” announced |
| 1978 | Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble formed |
| 1981 | “Ellis Island” released |
| 1981 | “Dolmen Music” announced |
| 1988 | “Book of Days” released |
| 1991 | Opera “ATLAS” announced |
| 1995 | MacArthur Fellow Award |
| 2003 | Orchestral work “Possible Sky” premiered |
| 2004 | “Stringsongs” premiere |
| 2014 | National Medal of Arts |
| 2025 | Documentary “Monk in Pieces” released |
Why Meredith Monk still matters
Nowadays, music generation and digital production using AI have become commonplace.
Much of music production is completed on screen.
But Meredith Monk’s pursuit was quite the opposite.
body.
Breathing.
space.
Existence.
She transformed the very fact that humans are there into art.
That’s why it never gets old even if times change.
This is because I continued to focus on the most primitive act of uttering a voice.
In this day and age where music has become highly technological, her work sounds rather fresh.
There are still physical fluctuations that cannot be replaced by machines.
Meredith Monk’s art is not a prediction of the future of music, but a record of her continued rediscovery of the fundamental power of the human voice.
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