Anthropos: Songs of Humanity
We sing from the common well of our ancestors near and far in place and time, from the seeds of anonymous collective song around the Earth. From our shared passion for spontaneous song and the many voices inside and around us that come alive when we travel together into the unknown, breathe, listen, feel and follow.
We began in 2019, exploring and reimagining the roots of singing, before and beyond language, aiming to express many shades of humanity through our voices and sound. Asking ourselves: why did our ancestors sing? can our music, here and now, be fresh and yet ancient, woven with landscapes and stories, with the cycles of Nature?
We acknowledge that the origins of what we now call ‘vocal improvisation’ are in the cellular memory of humanity, in the many musical practices that have been part of the fabric of human life on Earth for thousands of years.
Our pieces are instant collaborative compositions. Our music has resonance, texture, archetypes, play, shifting forms in motion, vignettes of human life. Often when we sing live and everyone’s joining, our songs seem to envelop the space, bridging any separation between audience and performer.
We believe in making music as a process of sharing, rather than a product. We feel enlivened by the beauty and richness of ‘singing with’ rather than ‘performing for’. A reminder of our innate musicality, of the intelligence of the body and of sound’s potential to create community.
Our workshops, Songs of Humanity: The Singing Village, are an invitation to explore the many possibilities of voices coming together in spontaneous music-making. Connecting everyone in movement and song, making fresh, collaborative music, helping to rewild the roots of folklore.
How our workshop relates to a participatory event
As part of our philosophy, at the Singing Village we sometimes blur the boundaries between ‘immersive-participatory performance’ and ‘workshop’.
During our workshops, we guide participants with gentle, open invitations. The collective takes care of the music as an organic process, and all participants can make choices at any moment. Everyone joins in any way they can, as they are.
We introduce our philosophy to participants through vocal play and examples. Our approaches to Spontaneous Collective Song can be adapted to the skills of the participants, from an audience including total beginners to a professional choir, making the music inclusive and accessible for everyone.
Why Now?
Remembering the reasons why humans have sung together and celebrating the musicality present in everyone highlights the value of music as an integral part of life. This feels particularly relevant in these critical times, when the threads of collectivity and our relationship with nature are at stake.
Anthropos: Songs of Humanity seeks to remind our listeners of our primordial connection with music, singing, and the natural world as foundations for healthy community, feeling a part of an intelligence much larger than ourselves.
We hope our music becomes an invitation for everyone to deeply explore what it means to be human and to have a voice.
We Are:
Guillermo Rozenthuler (concept - direction),
Kate Smith, Sylvia Schmidt, Jaka Skapin