Sonnet 66

for voice, electronics, incorporating American Sign Language

Full Video

by Ty Bouque, New York 2025

Sonnet 66 reimagines Shakespeare’s poem through a performance that brings together voice, electronics, and embodied gesture. The work unfolds as a dialogue between sound and movement, examining the poem’s themes of injustice, exhaustion, and moral collapse through a focused audiovisual structure.

A central feature of the piece is its use of American Sign Language (ASL) as an integral musical layer. Working closely with a sign-language interpreter, Yue designs each gesture to interact with the vocal line in rhythm, pacing, and meaning. This creates a visual counterpoint that offers an additional mode of presenting the text, allowing the poem to be “heard” and “seen” at the same time.

The electronic design introduces multiple layers of vocal material—warping, distorting, and reversing selected phrases to suggest fragmented memory and the inevitability implied by repeated words such as death. An invisible cello, inspired by The Emperor’s New Clothes, functions as a metaphor for power, illusion, and sound without a visible source. The staging also includes a mirror positioned at a specific angle, allowing only certain audience members to clearly see the performer’s gestures after they turn away. This selective visibility serves as a commentary on social privilege and unequal access to information. Through these real and imagined elements, the work creates a shifting space in which perception and memory are continuously reframed.

Text

Tir’d with all these, for restful death I cry,
As, to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm’d in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honour shamefully misplac’d,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgrac’d,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall’d simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill.
Tir’d with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

• Table Setup & Imaginary Cello Concept
A table is placed in front of the performer, either to the left or right, depending on their preference, with a recommended height between thigh and waist level. A string instrument bow is placed near the edge of the table, leaving the center empty to imply an invisible cello. The performer uses the bow to enact cello-bowing gestures along the imagined instrument.

• Performer–Mirror Interaction
A standing mirror is positioned behind the performer on either the left-rear or right-rear side. Its angle should be set so that audiences in specific seating areas can observe the performer’s movements through the mirror.

• Choreographed Facing & Visual Alignment
When the performer turns toward the mirror, they should face it directly, creating a clear reflected view of the gesture work for the designated audience area.

The signing must align precisely with the indicated vocal part, and in the section that occurs with the “Violoncello with actions,” the gestures should be repeated according to the rhythmic structure of the sound materials.