The piece opens with a series of mundane yet stylized sounds: coughing, sneezing, throat clearing, and laughter. Berberian treats these involuntary bodily functions as legitimate musical material. The score requires the performer to rapidly switch between vocal qualities, moving from a refined operatic tone to a guttural noise instantly.
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was Berberian's first solo composition. She took the "low-brow" language of comic strip onomatopoeia —words like The piece opens with a series of mundane