Multiphonic Murmurs: Joan La Barbara Performs Manga Scroll
Aug 3, 2010
As La Barbara and Marclay discussed their respective experiences with the score, audience members examined the performance copy rolled out on a table. Photograph by Tiffany Oelfke
On Friday, July 16, composer and sound artist Joan La Barbara interpreted Christian Marclay’s newest score Manga Scroll. La Barbara spoke about her approach to graphic notation in an Artist Talk earlier that afternoon and after her performance was joined by Marclay for a discussion of the work.
La Barbara has worked extensively with non-traditional musical scores, both in performance and composition. Last fall, she encountered Marclay at a sound check during Performa, and they broached the idea of her interpreting Manga Scroll during his exhibition, Christian Marclay: Festival.
Manga Scroll consists of onomatopoeias found in Manga comics originally published in Japan but translated for the U.S. market. During the discussion, La Barbara said that the main challenge of performing the scroll was interpreting in sound what she perceived visually. Rather than mimicking or reading the string of onomatopoeias, she took the words on the scroll as a cue to emit a sound with a certain timbre, pitch, and duration. For instance, the creak of a door opening could prompt the beginning of a new series of sounds, creating a thematic (and not necessarily sonic) link between word and sound.
La Barbara demonstrating some of the sound decisions she had made through rehearsing. Photograph by Tiffany Oelfke
La Barbara explained that while performing she was at times confronted with several things happening simultaneously at a given spot on the scroll. At those moments, she sometimes chose to perform the “graphic stuff” behind the text, such as a swarm of bees or the remnants of a frog pond—pictorial remnants of the manga comics that Marclay used to create the score.
Because of the scroll format of the score, La Barbara was only able to see a portion of the work at a time and thus was forced to rehearse in sections. She described the performance as a Pandora’s box, in which certain rehearsed sounds were combined with discovered, unanticipated sounds, a combination that ensures every iteration of the performance is unique. Marclay affirmed his interest in the ways his scores evoke different reactions in performers, and looks forward to seeing other artists interpret Manga Scroll over the course of the exhibition.
Joan La Barbara will be revisiting Manga Scroll on Saturday, August 21 and Sunday, September 26. David Moss, Kate Valk and Shelley Hirsch will also be performing this score.
Please join us for weekly Artist Talks during Christian Marclay: Festival.
Schedule of Artist’s Talks and Performances.
By Sophie Cavoulacos, Education Intern