Samita Sinha

Cipher
by Samita Sinha
Produced by MAPP International Productions

A staged music work for solo voice and electronics, Cipher is a journey through a sonic landscape. Utilizing her practice of “bodysound”—uniting voice, physical gesture, language, and space into potent articulations from raw utterance to speech to song—vocalist and composer Samita Sinha asks is it possible to create a “native” tongue, a contemporary pidgin that gathers and refracts multiple languages, worldviews, and temporalities? Sinha explores this question using the “nonsense” sounds of tarana—a genre of song in Hindustani classical vocal music invented in the 13th century that mixes Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit syllables said to encode mystical meanings. In three parts, Cipher passes back and forth among formless expression, traditional Indian song, and southern blues, creating a contemporary soundscape that weaves together tones, moods, and languages.

Cipher is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by PICA in partnership with the Moss Arts Center, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and REDCAT. For more information: www.npnweb.org.


Saturday, October 11, 2014, 6:50 p.m.
My Take Talk
Melissa Schwartz
Location TBD
Free

Saturday, October 11, 2014, 9:30 p.m.
Post-Show Discussion 
with Creators of Cipher
Cube
Free


Program Notes

 

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