ASCAP RADAR REPORT
The following article was
borrowed from
http://www.ascap.com/playback/2005/summer/radar/
diamanda_galas.html
Diamanda Galás:
The Voice Heard 'Round The World
There are few contemporary figures in music that are as
controversial, dramatic and revered as Diamanda Galás - vocal virtuoso,
pianist, composer, performance artist and diva sine qua non. For
over 20 years, Galás and her three and a half octave range have been
inimitable, and she has deeply exposed a range of provocative subjects
that address her familial history and her surroundings through
performance art, operatic masses and groundbreaking theatrical
spectacles. Her intense works are both psychologically haunting and
musically cinematic with her trademark shattering, artful vocal style.
Galás spoke to Playback about her latest project Defixiones,
Order from the Dead, her writing style and the legacy of her works.
PLAYBACK:
Does the theme of your project influence your writing style?
GALÁS:
I think it does. Defixiones has a first line of "the world is
going up in flames." The words are very much an invocation. Plague
Mass was a mass dealing with the AIDS epidemic. The mass
Defixiones deals with the Armenian, Assyrian, Anatolian and Pontic
Greek genocides between 1914 and 1923. The next work I'm doing,
Nekropolis, is another mass with different sections — parts are sung
while parts are invocations, each with many different ways of using
speech. I think it depends on where I am in the particular work itself.
If you know masses from Mozart or all the composers that have done them,
there are many different ways of using the voice in different sections
of the work.
PLAYBACK:
Does the structure come naturally, is it scripted out or do you fill in
parts?
GALÁS:
The truth is that it happens in every way because I'll come up with some
ideas and then discard them. It happens through a combination of the
evolutionary process of performing it, composing it ahead of time and
taking texts from things like the Old Testament or the Koran or from
different books. Defixiones is in 13 languages so obviously each
language demands a different treatment when it's sung than when it's
spoken, and they come from different modal systems. There are different
levels of research on these things. I primarily perform in the Latinate
locations, such as Italy, Greece, Spain, South America and Mexico City,
before 3,500 people. These places still have literary traditions and
still read and know the poets that I'm working with. Composers from the
days of Stravinsky were extremely articulate people and could only
compose as well as they were articulate. I've had a chance in my life to
be involved with important writers and musicians so if I'm not
recognized in my own country, I should hardly consider that unusual.
PLAYBACK:
Focusing on your upcoming September 2005 New York City performances of
Defixiones, you're many years removed from the original creation
of the work. Has it evolved much?
GALÁS:
Only one-third of what I originally composed still exists in the
performance. What is on the record is perhaps one-half of what will be
in the performance. I've composed a lot of new work with original texts,
but also texts by Greek writers like Nikos Kazantzakis and Yannis Ritsos.
PLAYBACK:
It seems as though you are drawn to your projects. By bringing them to
the surface, is it like your own catharsis through broadcasting a
message that forces other people to look at their surroundings?
GALÁS:
Yes, I am drawn to the projects and many of the themes are historical.
As far as Defixiones is concerned, that work has to do with my
father's side coming from the Middle Eastern Greek and Egyptian
cultures. These people do not exist as far as America is concerned,
completely unrecognized in this country. With Greeks, traditionally, one
of our biggest obsessions has been righting wrongs with revenge, but not
in a negative sense — revenge in the sense of being able to avenge the
wrongs so that you can walk down the street with your head up. I was
raised with these stories from my father about the Turks destroying his
family. Once I get involved in a project, it really isn't about me, it
becomes something much greater. There is a need to do research on the
subject and get your facts right — it's not a parlor room drama.
PLAYBACK:
How do you view your work fitting into the history of music, and how
will it live on beyond your time?
GALÁS:
That's the thing I go to sleep with each night. I think about how this
may be the last time that you lie in bed and you have left behind a body
of work that you're proud of. This also plays an important part in
abolishing the potential for disinformation. Those records are out,
those truths have been unearthed, and they cannot be destroyed.
By Jon Bahr
Diamanda Galás' Defixiones, Orders from the Dead premieres in
New York City September 8 and 10, at 8pm. The performances will take
place at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts (3
Spruce St., across from City Hall). Tickets can be purchased at
www.ticketcentral.com or by telephone at (212) 279-4200 (btw.
12-8pm, 7 days a week).
