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

Lead Research Organisation: Birmingham City University
Department Name: ADM Birmingham Conservatoire

Abstract

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?

Planned Impact

Augmented Vocality offers unparalleled opportunities for engagement with early medieval languages, music technology and music performance. The project's varied, accessible outcomes (as described in the Pathways to Impact) facilitate engagement with areas of knowledge that have often been difficult to access from outside academia. Key beneficiaries include those with specific interests in the project's three main strands of languages and literature, technology and music. However, engagement with any strand of Augmented Vocality will invariably result in contact with one or more of the project's constituent fields, further broadening the project's interdisciplinary outreach.

Augmented Vocality will provide intelligent, academically-rigorous audio databases for people who want to hear the sounds of Early Irish and Old Norse. The freely available, online databases will allow these language to be heard and studied in far greater detail than is currently possible with the often inaccurate, variable-quality amateur recordings that exist on platforms such as YouTube. The existence of YouTube recordings, and the popularity of television series including Vikings (2013-19) and the Netflix series The Last Kingdom (2015-), point to widespread interest in the cultures and languages that predate modern European states. Exhibitions such as the British Museum's Vikings (2014) and Celts: art and identity (2015-16) further highlight a popular fascination with early cultures, while also drawing attention to the ways in which institutional engagement with these cultures has tended to focus on visual art and literature rather than on recreation of the spoken word. The online audio databases of Augmented Vocality will make the sounds of Early Irish and Old Norse accessible to audiences beyond the relatively small number of university specialists. In addition to amateur linguists, historians and students, further beneficiaries of the audio databases (described in detail in the Pathways to Impact) include actors, and those involved in the heritage and tourism sectors.

Following the creation of audio databases of linguistic corpora, the development of new vocal processing software tools will be of particular interest to both amateurs and professionals engaged in software development and experimentation. New software developments will be presented at ICMC and NIME. The project will also serve as a template for developers who want to work on new software in response to specific collections of sounds. As Augmented Vocality's software tools are incorporated into the freely available Integra Live software, they will become available to the growing community of Integra Live users spread around the world (as evidenced by more than 30,000 downloads of Integra Live since 2010). Current users of Integra Live, who will benefit from software developments, include music and performance students, sound engineers, and amateur and professional performers.

Performers will also benefit from Augmented Vocality's musical compositions, which will be freely accessible to all via the project's website. For students of singing, the compositions' use of languages other than English will develop familiarity with the International Phonetic Alphabet. The compositions will also help performers to become accustomed to live electronics, empowering them to work with new technology. Live performances of the compositions, initially by project partners Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (Birmingham), BIT20 Ensemble (Bergen) and Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble (Belfast), will make musical outcomes accessible to regular concert-goers and new audiences in the UK and abroad.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Title Birmingham Contemporary Music Group concert 
Description On November 6th 2022 the world premieres of Co-I Edmund Hunt's "The Waking of Angantyr", for counter-tenor, large ensemble and live electronics, and "Bright Land of Wave's Flame", for counter-tenor, double-bass and live electronics - both on Old Norse texts, were performed by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. In both works the live electronics were performed by RA Joe Wright. The concert was conducted by Finnegan Downie Dear, and the counter-tenor was William Purefoy. The "Illusions" concet was part of BCMG's 2022-2023 season. The concert was preceded by a pre-concert talk chaired by BCMG's Artistic Director Stephan Meier, with the participation of the conductor and composers Edmund Hunt and Richard Baker, whose works were also performed in the same concert. 
Type Of Art Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact Bringing to general concert audiences two new musical compositions that recontextualise old medieval texts in contemporary performance setting with live electronics as the result of applying the Augmented Vocality research methodology. The concert was attended by 64 people. Comments were very favourable. Talking about "Bright Land of Wave's Flame" a member of the audience and former BCMG's artistic director said that "the piece for counter tenor and double bass is the most beautiful piece I've ever heard". A video recording of the concert has been used in several workshops and seminars (please see Engagement Activities section)The Guardian newspaper published a review of the concert: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/07/bcmg-downie-dear-review-cbso-centre-birmingham. 
URL https://www.bcmg.org.uk/event/illusions
 
Title Break No More My Heart Today 
Description "Break No More My Heart Today" is a music composition for soprano baritone, ensemble of six instruments and live electronics written by Co-I Edmund Hunt in collaboration with RA Joe Wright for the electronic part. The piece is 15 minutes long and sets to music Early Irish texts taken from "Loinges mac nUislenn" (the Exile of the Sons of Uisliu), a dramatic story from the Ulster Cycle of tales. Recordings of words and text excerpts from this anonymous cycle are used as the basis for the composition and further electronic processing of the sounds. The world premiere was performed by Elizabeth Hilliard (soprano), Rory Musgrave (baritone), Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble and Joe Wright (live electronics) at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen's University Belfast, on the 28th of October 2022. 
Type Of Art Composition/Score 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact One public concert performance of Break No More My Heart Today in Belfast in October 2022. Several workshops and seminars to present the work and the research methodology underpinning its development. A professional video recording of the Belfast performance has been used to present the work to workshop and seminar audiences. 
 
Title Bright Land of Wave's Flame 
Description "Bright Land of Wave's Flame" is a music composition for counter-tenor, double-bass and live electronics written by Co-I Edmund Hunt in collaboration with RA Joe Wright for the electronic part. The piece is 5 minutes long and sets to music text excerpts from ses verses from "Gísla saga Súrssonar", a medieval Icelandic saga in Old Norse. Recordings of words and text excerpts from the text are used as the basis for the composition and further electronic processing of the sounds. The world premiere was performed by William Purefoy (counter-tenor), BCMG's Phoebe Cheng (double-bass) and Joe Wright (live electronics) at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham, on the 6th of November 2022. 
Type Of Art Composition/Score 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact One public concert performance of "Bright Land of Wave's Flame" in Birmingham in November 2022. Several workshops and seminars to present the work and the research methodology underpinning its development. A professional video recording of the Birmingham performance is also available. 
 
Title Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble concert 
Description Concert of the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble including the world premiere of "Break No More My Heart Today" by Co-I Edmund Hunt, for two singers, ensemble and live electronics (provided by RA Joe Wright), performed by the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen's University Belfast on 28th October 2022. The soloists were Elizabeth Hilliard (soprano) and Rory Musgrave (baritone). The concert, part of the ensemble's 10th anniversary season and curated by Greg Caffrey, Hard Rain's Artistic Director, included works by Irish and Scottish composers engaging in different ways with the Gaelic sound world. 
Type Of Art Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact Bringing to general concert audiences a new musical composition that recontextualises old medieval texts in contemporary performance setting with live electronics as the result of applying the Augmented Vocality research methodology. The concert was attended by 50 people. After the concert there were questions and interest from other Irish composers who were present at the performance and belonged to CMC, the Irish organisation for new music. Several audience members asked questions about the languages used in the piece and said that they would like to read more of this literature as a result of the performance. A video recording of the concert has been used in several workshops and seminars (please see Engagement Activities section) 
URL https://www.hardrainensemble.com/season22-23
 
Title The Waking of Angantyr 
Description The Waking of Angantyr is a music composition for counter-tenor, ensemble of sixteen instruments and live electronics written by Co-I Edmund Hunt in collaboration with RA Joe Wright for the electronic part. The piece is 15 minutes long and sets to music text excerpts from "The Waking of Angantyr" (Hervararkviða), an Old Norse poem from the Hervarar saga. Recordings of words and text excerpts from the text are used as the basis for the composition and further electronic processing of the sounds. The world premiere was performed by conductor Finnegan Downie Dear with William Purefoy (counter-tenor), the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Joe Wright (live electronics) at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham, on the 6th of November 2022. 
Type Of Art Composition/Score 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact One public concert performance of The Waking of Angantyr in Birmingham in November 2022. Several workshops and seminars to present the work and the research methodology underpinning its development. A professional video recording of the Birmingham performance is also available. 
 
Description Creation of a searchable audio database of Early Irish and Old Norse words. The dataset includes more than 1,400 words and 9 poetic texts in Early Irish, and more than 3,000 words and phonemes and 9 poetic texts in Old Norse. All word samples are recorded twice by both female and male actors.
Development of several vocal analysis tools and live electronics processing tools to explore the characteristics and the potential for musical use of the speech samples in the database.
Creation and public performance in concert of three new musical compositions for singers, ensemble and live electronics setting to music Early Irish and Old Norse texts.
Exploitation Route The methodology that we developed to record, analyse and repurpose the speech samples for artistic creation can easily be adopted to explore other linguistic corpora, both in the context of ancient languages and contemporary endangered languages.
Sectors Education

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

URL http://integra.io/augmented-vocality
 
Description Public performances of new musical works composed using the research methodologies developed as part of the project took place in Northern Ireland (Belfast) and England (Birmingham) in late 2022. The performances were part of the annual concert season of two established new music ensembles, Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and introduced the findings of the Augmented Vocality project to new audiences. Public seminars and workshops presenting the outcomes of the research have been given in the UK, Ireland and Norway, involving students from five different institutions.
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

 
Title Augmented Vocality Archive 
Description Open access online dataset of audio recordings of Old Norse and Early Irish phonemes, words and texts. The dataset includes in excess of 4,000 phonemes, words and texts in Old Norse, and 3,000 in Early Irish. All the words in the database have been recorded by both a female and male voice for both languages. A web interface developed by RA Joe Wright allows for easy access and search of all the audio recordings in the dataset. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The archive is a new resource for students and scholars of medieval languages, and as such is being promoted by the project partners. The online archive will be integrated with other resources (online dictionaries) by staff of the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic at the University of Cambridge. 
URL https://integra.io/AugmentedVocalityArchive/index.html
 
Description Artistic collaboration with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) 
Organisation Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution We provided BCMG with two new works for singer, ensemble and live electronics composed by Co-I Edmund Hunt; and the expertise of RA Joe Wright to develop and perform the live electronics of the piece. The two pieces were respectively ''The Waking of Angantýr', for countertenor, large ensemble and live electronics, and 'Bright Land of Wave's Flame', for countertenor, double-bass and live electronics. Co-I Hunt took part to a pre-concert talk to introduce the new piece on the occasion of its world premiere in Birmingham.
Collaborator Contribution BCMG curated the 'Illusions' concert and presented it on 6 November 2022 as part of their 2022-2023 season, featuring the two new works composed by Co-I Edmund Hunt. Artistic Director Stephan Meier hosted a public talk with the featured composers before the concert.
Impact Performance of two new compositions by Co-I Edmund Hunt based on Old Norse texts: 'The Waking of Angantýr', for countertenor, large ensemble and live electronics, and 'Bright Land of Wave's Flame', for countertenor, double-bass and live electronics.
Start Year 2020
 
Description Collaboration with the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at the University of Cambridge (ASNC) 
Organisation University of Cambridge
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We established an interdisciplinary collaboration with ASNC's
Collaborator Contribution to complete
Impact Multi-disciplinary collaboration involving medieval languages, linguistics, music composition and music technology. 1. Selection of Early Irish and Old Norse texts to be set to music in new compositions 2. Creation of a corpus of Early Irish and Old Norse phonemes, words and texts to constitute the Augmented Vocality archive 3. Supporting and advising the professional recording by actors of the Augmented Vocality archive 4. Organising two public seminars at the University of Cambridge as part of the ASNC Graduate Seminars series (23.05.2022 and 31.01.2023) 5. (in progress) Developing a linked resource that connects the Augmented Vocality archive with ASNC's online linguistic resources (dictionaries, etc.)
Start Year 2020
 
Title ?pnF?nR - Dataset on Alveolar Rhotics from Sud-Oranais (Berber language) 
Description Between 2015 and 2017, I carried out several fieldworks in Sud-Oranais (Algeria). Hence, I have created this web-app, made with Shiny, in order to share a sample of my data and make my work available to the scientific community. The development of this interface follows on from my thesis that I achieved at INALCO: Linguistic description of endangered Berber varieties of Sud-Oranais (Algeria) - A dialectological, phonetic and phonological study of the consonantic system. The purpose of this web application, called ?pnF?nR, is to offer an interactive signal processing of a phonetic corpus on the alveolar rhotics. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2018 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact Adaptation of the original ?pnF?nR tool to the corpora of Old Norse and Early Irish speech samples of the Augmented Vocality project 
URL https://zenodo.org/record/3363051
 
Title Norse2DynamicFilter 
Description Developed by RA Joe Wright in SuperCollider, Norse2DynamicFilter can take a list of words from the Augmented Vocality Archive (available at https://integra.io/AugmentedVocalityArchive/index.html) and translate the list into a a dynamic filter based on Praat analyses of the formants present within each word. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2021 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact The software is available to the public on github. 
URL https://integra.io/norse2dynamicfilter-augmented-vocality-composing-tools-2/
 
Title Partial Playground 
Description Partial analyser/resynth patch developed in Max by RA Joe Wright as a development tool to support Co-I Edmund Hunt's compositional process. The patch is based around IRCAM's iana~ external from MaxSoundBox. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2021 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact The software is publicly available on github. 
URL https://integra.io/partial-playground-augmented-vocality-composing-tools-1/
 
Title Songeriser 
Description "Songeriser" is a computer program developed by Research Assistant Mohamed El-Idrissi implemented to generate a new sonic output by fusing a music sample and a spoken word/text sample. This new approach is based on AI, and specifically using Generative Adversarial Network and Transfer Learning to combine the audio features of both input sources and create hybrid sonic results. "Songeriser" has been used in Augmented Vocality by matching the Old Norse and Early Irish speech samples with relevant music samples chosen by the composer, and then comparing the results to select those that presented the most interesting musical characteristics. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact The software tool has been used so far only by the project team, and in particular to enrich the music composition workflow. 
 
Title TextGridShiny - Create interactive annotation interfaces for speech with R and Shiny 
Description TextGridShiny allows to read TextGrid files, from the software PRAAT, and to display annotations describing representations of sound recordings. In addition, it is possible to interact with the created visual annotation by adding tiers and labels. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2018 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact Web application interface updated in 2022 to work with the speech samples in Early Irish and Old Norse created as part of the Augmented Vocality project 
URL https://zenodo.org/record/3364654
 
Description Cambridge ASNC Graduate Seminars - Augmented Vocality: Exploring Early Medieval Literature Through Sound 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Workshop on Augmented Vocality's research delivered to the students of the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge, as part of the ASNC Graduate Seminars. The talk introduced the students to the methodology developed to select, analyse and process recording of medieval texts and the project outputs so far.
A lively debate ensued. Cross-disciplinary impact was facilitated by musical examples/excerpts played during the workshop, with some of the audience questions about musical processes and ideas developed as part of the research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/currentstudents/graduates/graduate-seminar.htm
 
Description Maynooth University - Augmented Vocality: Exploring Early Medieval Irish Literature Through Sound 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact As part of the Department of Early Irish, Maynooth University, and in the context of the Maynooth Early Irish & Celtic Studies Research Seminar Series, Co-I Edmund Hunt ad RA Joe Wright delivered a workshop to postgraduate and undergraduate students focusing on the Early Irish texts and related research outputs of the project so far.
Cross-disciplinary impact was facilitated by musical examples/excerpts played during the workshop, with some of the audience questions about musical processes and ideas developed as part of the research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/early-irish-sean-ghaeilge/maynooth-early-irish-celtic-studies-rese...
 
Description RBC Composers Seminar - Edmund Hunt 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact As part of the Composer Seminar series of the Compoasition Department of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, on 6 December 2022 Co-I Edmund Hunt led a seminar aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students introducing the three new works that he composed as part of the Augmented Vocality research project, outlining the research-led process that underpinned the writing of the pieces.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description RBC Public Research Seminar by Dr Edmund Hunt 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact As part of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's Public Research Seminar Series, Edmund Hunt, CO-I on the Augmented Vocality project, delivered a seminar on Tuesday 30th November 2021, 3.30pm-5.00pm, online. The title of the seminar was "Twenty-first century music for a twelve-hundred-year-old voice: text, technology and (un)translatability", presenting his research on how to engage with Old Norse and Early Irish texts and vocal sounds in the context of contemporary music composition with electronics. The seminar was recorded.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/prs-dr-edmund-hunt-30-11-2021
 
Description RBC Public Research Seminars - Augmented Vocality: From Early Medieval Poetry to Composition and Performance with Technology 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact On 28 February 2023 Co-I Edmund Hunt, Co-I Simon Hall and RA Joe Wright gave a presentation on the outcomes of the Augmented Vocality research project as part of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's Public Research Seminars series.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/prs-edmund-hunt-simon-hall-joe-wright-28-02-2023
 
Description Seminar at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire - The Voice in Electroacoustic Music: Text, technology, and Augmented Vocality 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact A seminar delivered to RBC music technology students as part of the Music Technology Seminars series by Co-I Edmund Hunt, Co-I Simon Hall and RA Joe Wright, focusing on the new voice processing technologies developed as part of the research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description UCL Workshop- Augmented Vocality: Recomposing the Sounds of Old Norse 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Hybrid workshop delivered at University College London's Department of Scandinavian Studies, School of European Languages, Culture and Society - Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry (SELCS-CMII), as part of their Medieval Scandinavia Seminar Series, on 10 February 2022. The PI Lamberto Coccioli, Co-I Edmund Hunt, RA1 Mohamed El-Idrissi and RA2 Joe Wright all took part in the workshop presenting the research outcomes of the Augmented Vocality project so far. Coccioli and El-Idrissi took part remotely, while Hunt and Wright attended in person in London.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.ucl.ac.uk/european-languages-culture/events/2022/feb/medieval-scandinavia-seminars-augme...
 
Description University of Cambridge - Augmented Vocality Screening 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact On 31 January 2023 Co-I Máire Ní Mhaonaigh hosted a screening of two Augmented Vocality concert performances to the students of the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge. Both Co-I Edmund Hunt and RA Joe Wright took part in the presentation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://twitter.com/Department_ASNC/status/1620084723967229954
 
Description University of Cambridge - Composers Workshop Series: Edmund Hunt 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact As part of the University of Cambridge's Composers Workshop series, Co-I Edmund Hunt, RA Joe Wright and counter-tenor William Purefoy presented the research outputs of the Augmented Vocality in a highly interactive way, engaging with the audience and showcasing the vocal processing tools developed to support the composition of Hunt's new works.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.mus.cam.ac.uk/events/composers-workshop-dr-edmund-hunt
 
Description Workshop at Maynooth University - Augmented Vocality: Exploring Early Irish Poetry through Musical Composition and Electronics 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact A workshop with composers and vocal students of the Department of Music ast Maynooth University in Ireland. Co-I Edmund Hunt introduced his works setting to music Early Irish texts together with singer Elizabeth Hilliard, who premiered Hunt's composition "Break No More My Heart Today" and RA Joe Wright. Excerpts from the composition were performed, and various vocal processing tools were presented to the students, whop were able to interact with them.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Workshop at the University of Bergen: Augmented Vocality: using Sound to Develop Practice-Based Approaches to Old Norse Poetry 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Co-I Edmund Hunt and RA Mohamend El-Idrissi gave a workshop on the Old Norse linguistic aspects of the project at the University of Bergen. A lively debate with students and professors ensued. Various aspects of Old Norse pronunciation were discussed, with firmly held and quite diverging positions from different members of the audience on the 'correct' way to pronounce Old Norse.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.uib.no/en/rg/medievalphilology/154751/augmented-vocality-using-sound-develop-practice-ba...