Clara Olivares 1/4 : ISiS (Ircam’s Singing Synthesizer)
When composer Clara Olivares started her artistic research residency at IRCAM in the summer of 2024, she had just finished working on the composition of her opera Les Sentinelles, with a libretto by Chloé Lechat (which premieres on April 10-13 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris). Quite naturally, this opera served as a stepping stone to her residency project, which focuses on voice and is based on the software ISiS, a command-line application for singing synthesis that was developed by the Sound Analysis-Synthesis team, at IRCAM.
Clara Olivares' interest in the voice is certainly not apparent from her previous works at IRCAM. Back in 2020-2021 when she was studying in IRCAM’s Cursus program, she found an interest in the manufacturing of glass percussions, from the glass-blowing process to the exploration of the instruments’ resonance via a transductor fixed on the skin of a kettledrum. In 2022, she made her first attempt at composing a Concerto, for French horn, ensemble and electronics, as a commission for IRCAM and the Ensemble intercontemporain.
To better understand Olivares’ choice for her residency, one has to look at her early days, back when the voice was her “preferred instrument”. In fact, to get in Mark Andre’s Composition class at the Conservatoire of Strasbourg, she had written a miniature piece for 16 voices, which Andre encouraged her to submit to the Conservatoire’s Choirmaster. The Choirmaster then asked her for another, and another one – a request which then turned into a proper commission. Gradually, her composition for voice became more confident and natural and started drawing the attention of her fellow singers, for whom Olivares then wrote exam pieces. This “vocal bath” led to the writing of her first chamber opera, Mary, in 2016-2017, at the end of the second year of her Master’s degree.
Clara Olivares © Amandine Lauriol
“During my studies, my approach to voice was rather intuitive. Composing for my fellow musicians was naturally making me strive to highlight their respective assets, but did not necessarily push me out of my comfort zone or made me question the instrument, even less disrupt it”, explains Clara Olivares. “When I left to go study for my PhD at UC Berkeley, I wanted to take a break from working on voice in order to focus on instrumental and orchestral writing instead.”
The vocal asceticism to which she subjected herself during this American period allowed her to get a fresh start and go back to it with renewed creative freedom. Her assiduous study of instruments led her to consider the voice as just another kind of instrument, that can be disrupted at will. This is the approach she adopted when writing Sentinelles. In this opera for two singers and an actor, Olivares explores every vocal form, from the theater to singing performances, including Sprechgesang – which serves as a common means of expression shared by all the protagonists. Following this experience, she decided to undertake an artistic research residency focusing on the application for singing synthesis ISiS.
But why this software in particular? “Each software program has its specific purposes and processes. In the case of ISiS, its operating logic rather matches my own musical thinking, with its accumulation of layers”, observes Clara Olivares. “The program draws from a vast library of vocal samples, of which it explores every combination to generate melodies. However, ISiS is still in its development stage – which is another motivating factor for the composer.
“Working on a program which is still being developed allows you to be part of it. Usually, when you are working on a production, you can make suggestions regarding the parameters of a plugin to achieve a specific artistic vision, but you are not really a part of the action. We usually never have the time to truly get involved in it. This residency provides me with the opportunity to engage in a productive and stimulating exchange with the scientists who work there.”
What remains to be known is, what direction Olivares wants to go in. “I feel like it is too early to tell. What is certain, is that operatic writing has nourished my creative thinking. The first step therefore would be to explore all the possibilities offered by this application, and notably its capacity at accurately imitating the human voice – especially the different parameters of vocal expressiveness. From there, we could then use ISiS as a supporting tool for composition; make it sing my own pieces, and interpret my work with different styles and voices. We could also try to improve and define even more its processes so that the sound rendering is satisfying enough to be used in a concert setting.”
At a later stage, the composer imagines using the software in its limited modes, even outside its original purpose.
“ISiS has been created to imitate the human voice, to recreate its variations, nuances, timbre, sharpness, etc. as accurately as possible. But how can we invent non-human voices from there? Trying to imitate what already exists is great, but flirting with the limits, exploring what the tool was not originally made for, could multiply the possibilities for play and writing, and maybe even create the unconceivable. Exploring ISiS’ ability to generate non-singing voices, screams or breathing sounds could be very interesting as well – anything that the application has not been created for.”
Another aspect to explore is the interface. At the moment, operating ISiS necessitates either to go through a module in the software Max, or to write command lines in a console (as it is a command-line application).
“The ISiS team is already working on the development of a simple graphic interface in order to make it more fluid, intuitive and easy to use, so that it would not present any technical difficulty for a composer who is not familiar with coding. Naturally, I am happy to participate in this project, starting by sharing my own experiences”, concludes Clara Olivares.
Interview conducted by Jérémie Szpirglas