Academic/Voice Map
Academic work and teaching
Because of his multidisciplinary experience in music, music theatre, voice, sciences and mathematics, Hyytiäinen is a sought after teacher. He has been teaching composers, singers and musicians of other fields at the Sibelius Academy, Universität der Künste – Berlin, in secondary schools and privately. He has spoken among others at the University of Sussex, London City University *** and MusicTechFest London. He is known for being an inspiring, creative and approachable teacher with wide technical and artistic understanding.
Some academic works:
- The doctoral project in DocMus Doctoral School
- Miika Hyytiäinen and Lisa Fornhammar talk in SibA Research days 2019
- Miika Hyytiäinen and Lisa Fornhammar give composition and vocal students workshops on new wocal music 2018 to 2019.
- Mathias Hinke, Miika Hyytiäinen and Caroline Scholz Ott mentor the third season of "Soap-Opera als Musiktheater" , at the UdK-Berlin, 2019.
- Miika Hyytiäinen gives lectures on new vocal music and working in German opera houses, SibA 2018 to 2021.
- Julia Mihály and Miika Hyytiäinen used the Voice Map analysis in Darmstadt Summer Academy in 2018
- Mathias Hinke, Miika Hyytiäinen and Caroline Scholz Ott mentor the second season of "Soap-Opera als Musiktheater" , at the UdK-Berlin, 2018.
- Hyytiäinen talked in Helsinki in the Symposium GENESIS – HELSINKI 2017: Creative Processes and Archives in Arts and Humanities 9th of June 2017
- Mathias Hinke, Miika Hyytiäinen and Caroline Scholz Ott mentor the first season of "Soap-Opera als Musiktheater" , at the UdK-Berlin, 2016.
- Hyytiäinen won the third place in the Falling Walls Lab Turku 2016, science competition
- Hyytiäinen had a video presentation in Voice and Identity symposium in the University of Winchester
The Voice Map Method
The Voice Map method helps the singers and composers communicate with each other. Miika Hyytiäinen has created it in his artistic doctoral studies in Sibelius Academy, University of Arts, Helsinki, DocMus.
Abstract (version 7.8.2020)
The Voice Map is a method that helps the composer and singer to communicate.
Since the Second World War this kind of communication has become more and more problematic and this method provides an effective solution that assists artists today. It consists of two parts: a computer application that makes a graphic analysis of a singer’s voice and an extensive list of questions. The two artists create a common ground, forming the basis of further communication to create new vocal music. The analysis programme is based on the Voice Range Profile, an analytical tool used in voice sciences.
A typical scenario would be an inexperienced composer who wants to write a vocal piece for a certain singer. The Voice Map method is applied. by first doing a computer-aided analysis, which documents the dynamic possibilities and timbres of different areas of the singer’s unique voice and its penetrative quality (singer’s formant). These results are discussed and elaborated with the help of the formulated questionnaire, which then leads to casual conversation and enables the creative process.
The usability of the application is tested in an artistic context. As the developer of the method, I have composed three musical theatre pieces in different phases of development: Voice Box (2017), the general functionality of the program for one singer; Nomictic Solutions (2018), one singer with untypical timbres; and Voice is Voices (2021), the four singers whose voices have subtle differences and similarities. In this study, the main test group comprises classically trained coloratura sopranos, the singers in the first and third projects belong to this group. In the classical Fachsystem, it is seen as a homogenous group, but the Voice Map finds differences between them that can be important for the composer. Also, technical testing with different voice types is crucial. It validated the technical aspect of the analysis program and helped to optimize the [musical] details.
The theoretical section discusses the importance of this kind of communication as well as other limitations of the Fachsystem. In short, an inexperienced composer should compose for a specific singer, not for a Fach or voice type. This claim is supported by examples from the core repertoire.
This doctoral study is part of the Applied Study Programme of DocMus Doctoral School of Classical Music, at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki.
