Meredith Monk on Singing

Some quotes from Meredith Monk's interview with Frank Oteri on NewMusicBox:

There was one day sometime in 1965 when I realized in a flash .... that the voice could have the kind of fluidity and flexibility of the body, say, like the articulation of a hand.  That the voice could be an instrument and that I could make a vocabulary built on my own voice the way I had in movement.

[My music] starts from the center of the body, and then it goes from there. So that's already this visceral way of thinking of the body and the voice: a kinetic way of singing. ... There is a relationship between the vitality of the voice and the freedom of the body, not having to necessarily jump around in space but working with the unfettered use of the whole body. I like to call it the dancing voice and the singing body. I think that relationship makes for a much more lively kind of singing all around.

I feel that the voice can do anything that a synthesizer can do. Until I stop being utterly fascinated with the human voice, I feel that I'll pretty much stay with the voice.

I keep trying. I like to put myself in risk situations. I don't like to say the word "like" because the process is sometimes incredibly painful, but it's more this idea of trying to start from zero as much as possible. And it's being able to tolerate hanging in the unknown for a while. Because otherwise you're just repeating what you know already. ... Flailing about for a while, and that's why my ensemble's so patient, because they see me flailing about, trying to find what I know I'm looking for but I don't know what it is. And that's not an easy process, but I think it's the only way that you ever find the mystery. You know, it's really the only way that you get to a renewal of creative energy.

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