Voicing Thelxis: Kulning, Lulling and Siren Song as Practices of Vocal Attraction

Abstract

Spinning from the charm of voice as acknowledged in the Ancient Greek mythos of the Siren song, this voice-based practice-research contributes a new sub-field of voice studies. The myth of the Sirens’ irresistible song suggests that attraction (and enchantment, charm etc.) can be performed through voice.

Most studies on vocal attraction in performance are opera-based and solely written from the listener’s perspective. Following the suggestion that voice is co-shaped between the voicer and the listener (Thomaidis, 2019), my research is the first study to investigate the co-creation of attraction from a voice practitioner’s perspective, and using an ecofeminist lens. While the opera scene is at the centre of discussions on vocal attraction, most references to attractive vocal power are found offstage in stories. Analysis of this literature reveals theorisations of the attractive force of voice as mostly ‘leading astray’, often in nature and especially through women’s voices, creating an ideological association linking attractive female sound with danger, an important aspect of patriarchal culture (Carson, 1995).

This patriarchal portrayal of voiced women’s attraction as misleading has edged itself deep into history and the imaginary, limiting its configuration, and this has had severe repercussions. My project endeavours to disrupt this mis-imagining by asking where non-patriarchal listening to women’s vocal attraction might lead us. What else is there to learn from our surrender or resistance to different versions of vocal “pulling”? Which phenomenological aspects of the voicing of attraction can practice-research unveil once taking voicer, listener and environment into account?

My vocal exploration is framed by the Ancient Greek concept of ‘thelxis’ (θέλξις), translated as ‘enchantment’ (and ‘charm’, etc.). Greek poets used this term to describe the powerful effect mythological figures and admired public speakers had on their audiences. Examining vocal ‘thelxis’ through archival research, ethnographic fieldwork and embodied experimentation, this thesis is structured around three practice-research projects that span different cultural contexts, and that all centre around vocal practices associated with women:

1. Interspecies vocal attraction in the practice of Kulning, a Nordic tradition of herding-calling.

2. Intergenerational vocal attraction in the practice of lulling an infant.

3. The creation of attraction in practical iterations of the Siren song myth, focusing on changing parameters within the Ancient Greek myth towards ecofeminist paths.

Combined, these three projects perform a crucial act of re-storying that extends women’s ‘thelxis’ towards its greater potential: celebrating ethical practices of voicing ‘thelxis’ that are attuned to the earth.