Roger go to yellow three
A musical experiment in auditory streaming by Christopher Fox and Edward Wickham.
Six characters trapped in a devilish laboratory experiment are given a brief and chaotic experience of freedom ...
Roger go to yellow three… is an original work of music drama developed by Christopher Fox and Edward Wickham and in collaboration with scientists working in the field of linguistics and cognitive psychology. Lasting approximately 25 minutes, the work is intended to explore in the context of live performance the problems of ‘auditory streaming’ – the phenomenon by which single lines speech or music can be comprehended in a complex auditory environment. It also provides the opportunity for the collection of experimental data in a live scenario, and in more general terms to highlight in a humorous and engaging way the social and cultural challenges of hearing in a complex auditory environment.
Listen to a full recording of Roger go to yellow three...
Click for synopsis and text.
The impetus for the project comes from two main sources. The first is the considerable amount of work currently being done by biologists, neurologists and linguists on auditory perception in complex auditory environments. These environments may range from those where certain types of background noise obscure or interfere with a single auditory stream, to those where several intelligible auditory streams are having to be processed at once - in a social context (a dinner party, for instance), or in the work place (e.g. an air-traffic controller). It is hoped that this work will be of particular relevance and interest to the hearing-impaired community, and contribute to our understanding of music perception amongst the hearing-impaired.
This research also has important implications for our understanding of musical perception. In many repertories (the Medieval motet, for example, and many vocal works from the post-1945 avant-garde) polytextual composition is commonplace, and yet the perceptual principles involved in the comprehension of music with many texts operating at the same time has not been interrogated with any particular consistency.
Each ‘staging’ of the work entails both live performance by The Clerks (including Medieval and Renaissance works which introduce to the audience the rich repertory of polytextual music), some introductory remarks and an opportunity for audience feedback. Audiences will be invited to fill in a questionnaire relating to their experience of the work.
Download a PowerPoint Presentation that is used to accompany Roger go to yellow three.
Created with funding from the Wellcome Trust.
Forthcoming performances:
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