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Ventriloquism is an act of stagecraft in which a person changes his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually an object like puppet or dummy, but in cases of religious ceremony it can be a relic or holy symbol. The act of ventriloquism is also known as the ability to "throw" one's voice. The name “ventriloquism” comes from the Latin for to speak from the stomach, i.e. venter (belly) and loqui (speak).
Originally, ventriloquism was a religious practice. The noises produced by the stomach were thought to be the voices of the unliving, who took up residence in the stomach of the ventriloquist. The ventriloquist would then interpret the sounds, as they were thought to be able to speak to the dead, as well as foretell the future. One of the earliest recorded group of prophets to utilize this technique was the Pythia, the priestess at the temple of Apollo in Delphi, who acted as the conduit for the Delphic Oracle.
The main difficulty the ventriloquists faces is that all the sounds they make must be made with lips slightly separated. For the labial sounds f, v, b, p, and m, the only choice is to replace them with other sounds or letters. A widely-parodied example of this difficulty is the "gottle o' gear,” from the reputed inability of less skilled practitioners to pronounce “bottle of beer.” If variations of the sounds th, d, t, and n are spoken quickly, it can be difficult for listeners to notice a difference. This is a very interesting piece of information because what it means is that the ventriloquist has to visually and in at least 2 ways sonically deceive the audience: 1) visually, to appear not to be speaking, 2) sonically, to make coherent statements using alternate sounds for usual words, and 3) sonically, to make it sound like a voice is originating from another location than himself.
Probably the very first authentic mention in ancient times of ventriloquism is in the First Book of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible, when King Saul goes to the Witch of Endor. In the middle ages, it was thought to be similar to witchcraft, but as spiritualism led to stage magic and escapology, similarly ventriloquism became more of a performance art as it shed its mystical trappings. Interestingly, some mediums may also be extremely talented ventriloquists who use their talent at throwing their voices to hook in suckers and rake in profits by comforting someone in a time of grief. Today talking to the dead has become re-popularized that you can find shows dedicated exclusively to the subject.
Many parts of the world still use ventriloquism for ritual or religious purposes; historically there have been adepts of this practice among the Zulu, Inuit, and Māori peoples. Understanding this you can begin to imagine how certain myths containing talking rocks or trees and even burning bushes might have also been instances of ventriloquism at work. If such was the case we’d have to wonder who it was throwing their voice for the aspiring or reluctant religious leader. Some of the world’s largest religions might have actually begun this way.
The most familiar type of ventriloquist seen today is a nightclub performer sitting on a stool with a wooden dummy on his or her lap. This comedic style of ventriloquism is, however, a fairly recent innovation, which began in the days of vaudeville in the late 19th century. The vaudeville acts did not concentrate on humor as much as on demonstrating the ventriloquist's ability to deceive the audience and his skill in switching voices. To this purpose, many of the performers used multiple figures and switched quickly from one voice to another. No doubt this skill was also used by the ancient practitioners of ventriloquism.
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Marc
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