Emote

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Emote is a music theatre piece for four vocal artists, percussion and video score that uses highly emotional vocal gestures as musical material. It is commissioned by and composed for Maulwerker, one of the few groups in the world with the vocal and emotional range, eagerness to experiment, and stamina to go through it.

In this article published by American Psychologist, the researchers have shown that there are 24 different emotions that human beings can communicate vocally and recognise. This article and the visual map of the emotions have been one of the starting points of the piece. We can laugh, cry, inhale in surprise or shock, or let the air out through our lips in love and seduction. These physical actions are used to build classical musical forms: a trio of emotional inhalations or a fughetta of laughter. Due to the repetition, speed and structuring, the actions lose their original emotionality and take on new, sometimes even reversed, meanings. Laughter becomes mechanistic and scary, crying something humorous and silly. The music in Emote is marked with Soune graphic notation to achieve the physicality of the piece better. This notation developed by Hyytiäinen is also projected as a video in performance. The emotions, vocals and graphic gestures are larger than life, threatening, over-powering and beautiful.

Celeste Dittberner interviewed me for Field Notes: Politisches Lachen und 24 Emotionen

The Maulwerker performers of the piece are Ariane Jeßulat, Katarina Rasinski, Henrik Kairies, Christian Kesten, and the percussionist Matthias Engler. 

Photos copyright Anja Weber. Emotion map copyright Alan Cowen, Hillary Anger Elfenbein, Petri Laukka, and Dacher Keltner (American Psychologist, 2018).

Text and the emotion chart are based on Cowen, Alan & Elfenbein, Hillary & Laukka, Petri & Keltner, Dacher. (2018). “Mapping 24 Emotions Conveyed by Brief Human Vocalization” and Klasmeyer, Gudrun & Sendlmeier, Walter. (2000). “Voice and Emotional States”. 
 

Video Documentation

The score of Emote was presented on the cover of field notes Magazin #38: September/October 2024.


Premiere and further performances

13/9/2024, in Ballhaus Ost, Berlin

14/9/2024, in Ballhaus Ost, Berlin

The project is supported by: 

Other projects: