The International Phonetic Alphabet's chart of consonants is organized into rows and columns, manner of articulation and place of articulation. Some cells of the chart are grayed out, meaning that it is impossible to pronounce a consonant in that manner at that location in your mouth (you can't trill a hard /g/, for example). For this project, I got to thinking about these language sounds that are forever just out of reach. The score consists solely of instructions for pronouncing five of them, including “close and re-open the glottis without stopping airflow” and “pronounce /t/ and /k/ simultaneously.” These instructions can be assembled by the performer as they see fit. I made the recording from pre-recorded clips of my own voice, combined and modified in ways that approximate how I think these consonants could sound. A live performance of failed attempts to execute the instructions could be equally interesting.
astrid hubbard flynn (b. 1999, they/them), from Saint Paul, Minnesota, is a composer, flutist and noise-maker whose mediums range from staff notation to electronics to text-based and graphic-based improvisation. astrid is currently on leave from a B.A. in Music at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where they have studied composition with Kristina Warren, Shawn Jaeger and Eric Nathan. Outside Brown, they've also studied with Libby Larsen, Abbie Betinis and Edie Hill. As a music educator, astrid has designed discussion sections on popular music, facilitated introductory aural skills lab sections, and helped organize concerts through Brown's student-run composer organization, Fermata. astrid's music has been performed by professional ensembles such as Minnesota's Zeitgeist, New York's YarnWire and Switzerland's Kukuruz Quartet, and at summer festivals such as Minnesota's Source Song Festival and Maine's Atlantic Music Festival.
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