The 21st Century Voice: Contemporary and Traditional Extra-Normal Voice (The New Instrumentation Series)

The 21st Century Voice is a unified and comprehensive examination of extra-normal vocal production. This work addresses history, science, and religion and documents a wide variety of compositional and performance trends as it explores the seemingly limitless possibilities of the human voice in the 21st Century.

Arranged into ten chapters according to the functional components of voice, the text is written in a style that makes it accessible to an interdisciplinary audience. Appendices provide the reader with a glossary of terms, representative compositions, and an introduction to the concept of voice science. The study is further elucidated by an audio CD featuring unorthodox samples produced by some of the world's leading vocal practitioners.

By engaging the insights offered by linguistics, acoustics, theatre, as well as electronic and biological sciences, The 21st Century Voice will ultimately unbind the reader's traditional conceptions of vocal potential and enable him or her to undertake an enriched exploration of the voice.

Michael Edward Edgerton is a composer and performer, whose recent compositional activity has to do with acoustics, complexity and nonlinear theory. He has received grants, awards or recognition from The Fifth Dutilleux International Composition Competition; The MacDowell Club; the Paul Sacher Stiftung; the European Union; Meet-The-Composer/Arts Midwest; The American-Scandinavian Foundation; The Kittredge Fund; The National Center for Voice and Speech; The National Federation of Music Clubs; the Institute for Theoretical Biology at Humboldt University in Berlin; and The Michigan State University-Orchestral Composition Contest.