Augmented Vocality: Recomposing the Sounds of Early Irish and Old Norse

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Phrases such as 'the early medieval period' and 'the Viking age' are rich in imagery. For many people, these words conjure a mental landscape of swords, helmets, longboats and thatched huts. They form part of a shared cultural imagination that encompasses primary school projects, the historically-inspired fantasy world of Tolkien and popular series such as Vikings (2013-19) and The Last Kingdom (2015-). The legacy of such imagery in European fine arts is both deep-rooted and perennial, a fact that was highlighted by exhibitions such as the British Museum's Vikings (2014) and Celts: art and identity (2015-16). In contrast, the ephemeral nature of sound means that there is no clear legacy of the sonic past. When a language ceases to be spoken its literature becomes increasingly restricted to the scholars and specialists who have learned to read it. The focus shifts from performance and dissemination to translation and discussion. Texts that once existed as sonic artefacts of a vibrant oral tradition become fossilised in the silence of the printed page. The language loses its voice.'Augmented Vocality: Recomposing the Sounds of Early Irish and Old Norse' proposes a novel programme of practice-based research and a methodology to analyse and explore the sounds of early medieval languages. Combining linguistic expertise with sophisticated voice processing technologies the project aims to give new life to early languages and help reclaim the oral quality at the heart of medieval literature. In particular, vocal music composition with live electronics is a powerful tool to develop new insights and reanimate texts from early languages for audiences well beyond the field of literary studies. The project focuses on two languages, Early Irish and Old Norse - both chosen for their particular sonic qualities and the richness of the surviving texts - and comprises three integrated strands:Cataloguing and sampling of words and phonemes from selected texts;Analysing the vocal samples to inform the development of voice processing and live electronics software;Creation of musical compositions for voices, ensemble and live electronics in response to the original sounds and texts.Each strand of the project will result in specific outputs, including:Digital audio databases and sample libraries of Early Irish and Old Norse words and phonemes;Vocal processing software tools adapted to the specific sounds of the chosen languages;Live electronics software to support composition and performance with the vocal source material;At least two musical compositions for one or more voices, ensemble and live electronics;A project website with musical scores, recordings of performances, downloadable software and access to the digital audio databases;Public concerts in partnership with three renowned music ensembles in the UK, Ireland and Norway;Conference presentations and workshops in the UK, Ireland and Norway;At least two peer reviewed journal articles.As an interdisciplinary project, Augmented Vocality addresses the following research questions in the fields of linguistics and music technology, composition and performance:How to design a digital audio database and a sample library of words and sounds from medieval languages?How to develop voice processing techniques to respond to the specific sonic features of the source material?How could words and sounds from a medieval language be used as a resource for musical composition? How could live electronics help illuminate the meaning and the sonic qualities of medieval texts, words and sounds?Is it possible to reclaim the oral nature of a medieval text in a contemporary music performance context?