Search - Meredith Monk :: Key

Monk's 1965 realization that the voice could have the same flexibility and range of movement as a spine or a foot, and that one could find and build a personal vocabulary for the voice led to this invisible theatre classic. This CD is the re-release of the landmark first recording of Meredith Monk's earliest compositions for voice. The songs that make up Key were composed and performed in a 3-year period between 1967 and 1970, when Monk collected them into this 45-minute invisible theater experience. The songs that make up Key were composed and performed in a three-year period between 1967 and 1970, when Monk collected them into this 45-minute invisible theater experience. Now, 25 years later, the long-playing qualities of a CD make a seamless hearing of Monk's piece possible. Some time in late 1965 I suddenly had a revelation that the voice could have the same flexibility and range of movement as a spine or a foot, and that one could find and build a personal vocabulary for the voice just as one makes movement based on a particular body. I realized then that within the voice are myriad characters, landscapes, colors and textures. From that time on, I began working with my own instrument-trying to discover the voices within it.-Meredith Monk