VSP · Voices of Spanish Poets: Vocal Archive and Experimental Study on Poetry Reading

Voices of Spanish Poets: Vocal Archive and Experimental Study on Poetry Reading

The poets' voice is a cultural heritage that must be preserved, studied, and promoted. It can reveal valuable linguistic and literary insights and can now be explored through experimental and interdisciplinary approaches. The first recordings and studies of original poetry audio date back to the 20th century in French phonetics laboratories. Since then, vocal poetry archives have grown around the world, although the experimental study of these materials—still underexplored—has developed mainly in recent years. In the Spanish-speaking world, while there is a strong tradition of vocal poetry archives, none has been originally conceived or used for experimental research, nor do existing archives offer comparative listening experiences of selected poems to explore variation in poetic reading. Moreover, experimental studies on the reading and listening of Spanish poetry have yet to be conducted, revealing a significant gap in knowledge. Much work remains to be done. To address this challenge, Voices of Spanish Poets (VSP) aims to create the first dynamic vocal archive and conduct the first experimental phonetic and cognitive study of Spanish poetry reading. Using tools from the Digital Humanities and building on experimental research, VSP will develop a unique archive of 20th- and 21st-century Spanish poets, offering an innovative platform for the study and appreciation of Spanish poetry reading. The project will involve phonetic and cognitive approaches to describe the key prosodic features of Spanish poetry reading and its evolution over time, as well as to better understand how poetry is processed during listening, depending on its reading styles. VSP seeks to provide a new digital resource for discovering, exploring, and teaching poetry, promoting a deeper listening and appreciation of the poetic voice. The experimental studies integrated in it will reshape the way poetry reading is received. The project will contribute to the dissemination of this underexplored field of research and open new avenues for inquiry, positioning poetry reading as an international and historically significant cultural phenomenon, while fostering innovation in performance and teaching strategies.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union