A ‘sense of polyphony’: Making sense of the harmonic environment in VoiceLAB’s pedagogical vocal practice

This is a polyphonic piece in three (and more) voices which explores the intercultural and intersubjective ‘embodied in-between of vocality’ through polyphonic singing. It investigates how VoiceLAB’s pedagogical vocal and performance practice cultivates what its creators Aleksandra Kotecka and Tomasz Wierzbowski call a ‘sense of polyphony’. Their approach draws from principles of Iyengar yoga and Georgian polyphony to help ensemble performers cultivate a state of active receptivity and openness to being physically affected through vibration, which is key to developing an intersubjectively experienced sense of polyphony. This is achieved by working with a Georgian approach to harmony called ‘vertical listening’ and by using active images that help translate unfamiliar harmonic principles to performers whose auditory and vocal practices have been shaped by the western equally tempered sound world. Detailed, phenomenologically oriented accounts by VoiceLAB trainees reveal how this approach to polyphony discloses their deeper intersubjective and intervocal entanglements with the human and more-than-human world. It is the deepening awareness of being immersed in a complex sonic environment and recognition of the different relations within this environment that allows performers to find ease and effortlessness in contributing to this world of vibration.