# Chamber music with vocals but no words?



## DLinesand

Does anyone know of any chamber music where the vocalist does not actually sing any words, but rather a certain syllable like "ah" the whole time?


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## Weston

I don't know of any chamber, which doesn't mean there aren't any. Surely there must be. I've only heard large orchestral works that use it, but I'd like to know the technical term for wordless vocals such as you describe.


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## quack

Usually called a vocalise I think http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocalise


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## Quartetfore

Bachianas Brasileiras #5 was arranged by Villa Lobos for Soprano and Guitar. and there is another arrangement for Piano, Cello and Soprano that I know of.


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## Sid James

Berio did some stuff like this for his wife Cathy Berberian. I think one (or a couple) of his sequenzas is like this, but it might be for solo voice only. I heard some of his things like this but I forget the details.

The list posted by quack on wikipedia has some works known to me. Another I'd add is Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin's Wild Swans concert suite, which includes wordless soprano. But this is with orchestra, not chamber group (as many on the wiki list). Details here: http://www.amazon.com/Elena-Kats-Ch...65891&sr=1-1&keywords=kats+chernin+wild+swans Another one is Vaughan Williams' Symphony #7 'Sinfonia Antartica.'


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## Sid James

How could I forget. This one a prime candidate for this thread. Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures by LIgeti. No words, well there are grunts and howls and other animalistic sounds, but no sounds I'd call words.

This is the cd I got, but its better to both hear and see it rather than just hear it. I guess it must be on youtube?


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## Prodromides

One Morton Feldman CD is devoted specifically to his chamber works for voice with instruments.

"ONLY"










Voice, Violin & Piano






Piano & Voices


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## joen_cph

*Betsy Jolas*: one of the string quartets is in fact a string trio with soprano, 




*Zoltan Kodaly*: Epigrammes for either voice and instruments or instruments only, http://www.classicalarchives.com/work/306354.html

*Arthur Bliss*: Rout, ballet for soprano & small ensemble

*Messiaen*: Vocalise etude & *Ravel*: Vocalise (both soprano with piano)


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## rrudolph

"Breath" by Stuart Smith for glockenspiel and voice. One of his more accessible works.

One movement of John Cage's "She is Asleep" is a duet for vocalise and prepared piano (the other movement is a trio for 12 tom-toms; the two movements need not be performed together). It's one of Cage's earlier "composed" pieces, not in the radical aleatoric style he later became known for. I think there are a couple other Cage pieces like that but nothing's coming to mind right now.


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## Adagietto

I knew of Faure's "Vocalise", and came across the following while looking for a video of it.


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## altiste

One of my earliest works is a Vocalise for Soprano, Vibraphone and String Trio (violin, viola & cello). I have a recording on this webpage here; http://www.nigelkeay.com/vocalise.htm


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## contra7

_Concerto da camera_ op. 11 by Boris Papandopulo, croatian composer. Concerto is written for voice (soprano), violin, flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon and piano.


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