Globalalia.

Abstract

Voices in 26 languages were collected from the airwaves, and cut into over 8300 spoken syllables. These were organized in a database and then used to create a series of 20+ short movements each exploring the possibilities of one (or two) syllabic types. Formally, a musical abstraction of the (literary) frame-tail (a story in which other stories are told).Each syllabic type is derived from the sequence of events in the 'frame-tail'which begins the piece and recurs from time to time, and at the end.Commissioned by Folkmar Hein, director of the electronic studio, TU, Berlin. DVD publication on '50 years of TU Berlin', by Electronic Music Foundation,USA.