Bonnie Barnett returns to the downtown Houston tunnels for Another Under Houston Humming
What is a HUM?
Bonnie Barnett created the HUM in 1981, with a small, acoustic vocal event in San Francisco. Since then, she has staged dozens of HUMs across the United States, including one in the downtown Houston tunnels for the New Music America Festival in 1986. A short verbal score, or list of instructions, outlines the process of breathing, humming and singing, all in a harmonious major tonality. Anyone can participate in a HUM – no musical or vocal technique or experience is necessary. There will be instruments at the HUM, playing the chord, so no one has to worry if they are in tune or not.
About Bonnie Barnett
BONNIE BARNETT, vocalist, composer and improviser, resides in Los Angeles. She appears on two DICE compilation CD’s and has three releases on Nine Winds Records, including the 2006 “Trio For Two”, a duo with bassist Ken Filiano. Her 2011 CD release, “In Between Dreams”, with her quartet, was released by pfMentum. She has been exploring the texts of Gertrude Stein, Jean-Paul Sartre and others, and also delights in improvising faux text.
Barnett developed her Tunnel Hum Project in 1981, in San Francisco, where the first Hum took place as part of the New Music America Festival. Since then, she has produced over 80 Hums, including 1986’s “Under Houston Humming”, which was part of Houston’s New Music America Festival. Other notable Hums include 1985’s “Auto Hum”, for car commuter participation in Los Angeles, broadcast live over Pacifica station KPFK, the “Santa Monica/Paris Humming (Murmurant)” event, which linked live singers in those two cities via videophone technology, and a series of Millenium Hums in London as part of the Sacred Voices Millennium Music Village Festival. Her documentary, “The Tunnel Hum Project” records Hums that took place from 1984 through 1992, and is released on DVD. “Tunnel Hum 1984”, which used satellite technology to mix singers in three cities for an hour-long live radio broadcast, is now released as a CD.
