Human voice and instrumental voice: an investigation of voicelikeness

This artistic research concerns the relations between the human voice and instrumental sound, seen from an embodied and performative point of view. During the research process, I have been investigating the relations between native language and instrumental sound, looking for possible similarities between the timbre of the musicians’ spoken voice and that of their string instruments, through a series of recordings and music performances.

As previous studies confirm, there are strong links between music and language, two phenomena that originated during the same evolution time in human history. This topic requires an interdisciplinary approach, visiting other domains such as anthropology, language acquisition, and music psychology.

The artistic component consists of five multidisciplinary performances, each exploring under different angles the research question: which relation is there between human voice (seen in a complex combination of body and language expressions) and instrumental voice?

This research opens up innovative views in the fields of human voice, native language and music–making with voices, string instruments, music technology, and other art forms (expanded cinema, dance, performance art). It includes bodily aspects that have been traditionally not considered (especially in music), and explores the multiple relations of gesturality and embodiment in acoustic and virtual spaces.

Paola Livorsi is a doctoral student in the Arts Study Programme at the MuTri Doctoral School

Keywords: human voice, native language, string instruments, timbre, embodiment, performance, space