I just uploaded the score and necessary files for a composition called Ten Readers. This is a piece that for me is as much a musical composition as it is a theatrical installation and a live-generated poem. In it, ten people sit in a circle with books which they're reading to themselves, and on cue they read single words from the books they are reading out loud.
The composition was done in Rotterdam last year at Words Live, an arts event celebrating the use of spoken language in a wide variety of arts disciplines, and it will be done next on september 16 by KlangForum Heidelberg.
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
4/9/07
Amsterdam, Friday April 13 - 20:30
LECTURES ON
Musical lectures by John Cage and Tom Johnson
with:
Tom Johnson * Joep Dorren
Stichting Perdu
kloveniersburgwal 86, Amsterdam
(020) 422 0542 * EUR 6 / EUR 5
In 1949 John Cage wrote his Lecture on Nothing. In this lecture, Cage introduced his rhythmical techniques. But he doesn't do so by explaining them, but by composing them - only, using words as his material instead of notes.
This was the first work of a new type, the composed lecture: a spoken text that has the properties of a musical composition. A special and perfect fusion of form and content. Some decades after, the minimalist composer Tom Johnson wrote pieces in which text, music and didacticism form a complete unity, among which the Lecture With Repetition (1975) - a lecture on and with repetition, in which the audience is invited to participate.
Tonight, Tom Johnson will present his own work and the actor and musician Joep Dorren will read Cage.
LECTURES ON
Musical lectures by John Cage and Tom Johnson
with:
Tom Johnson * Joep Dorren
Stichting Perdu
kloveniersburgwal 86, Amsterdam
(020) 422 0542 * EUR 6 / EUR 5
In 1949 John Cage wrote his Lecture on Nothing. In this lecture, Cage introduced his rhythmical techniques. But he doesn't do so by explaining them, but by composing them - only, using words as his material instead of notes.
This was the first work of a new type, the composed lecture: a spoken text that has the properties of a musical composition. A special and perfect fusion of form and content. Some decades after, the minimalist composer Tom Johnson wrote pieces in which text, music and didacticism form a complete unity, among which the Lecture With Repetition (1975) - a lecture on and with repetition, in which the audience is invited to participate.
Tonight, Tom Johnson will present his own work and the actor and musician Joep Dorren will read Cage.
1/12/07
CORRIDO & NEO-CORRIDO
Just to add some info on Linh's posts on corridos. Mexican corridos are a mix of cinematography and song—lyrics are strongly visual narrative ridden—the (d)emotional and the political—probably the most famous corrido is "Contrabando y traición" by Los Tigres del Norte—a corrido on a female drugdealer (Camelia La Texana) crossing mariguana ("yerba mala") from Tijuana to California with Emilio (her lover), who once in Hollywood tells Camelia he's leaving her for his real love in San Francisco. Camelia kills the guy. Corridos have a long history—thinking about the Mexican Revolution of 1910 without thinking in corridos is unthinkable—all kinds of corridos exist—migration corridos, comedy corridos, antimperialistic corridos, et cetera—if somebody wants to listen to one of the norteño corrido evolvements, listen to electronic songs like "Bar Infierno" or "Colorado" (composed after "Contrabando y traición") by Fussible or click Hiperboreal—a writer and musician influenced by Italian futurism, Kraftwerk, Norteño / Banda / Tambora—and an expert on Fernando Pessoa—with who I collaborated with the verbal components of "El Fracaso" song. Both this guys are members of the Nortec Collective, based in Tijuana.
1/11/07
Corrido Watch
In an earlier post, I mentioned in brief the corrido phenomenon. To hear some corridos, you can go to this Smithsonian website, Corridos sin Fronteras. Musician Elijah Wald has an amazing page called Corrido Watch, featuring corridos dealing with topical issues such as the horrific murders of women in Ciudad Juarez, a critique of president Vicente Fox, mourning the victims of 9/11 and even an ode to Bin Laden, Alla por Saudi Arabia un valiente hombre nació...
12/31/06
Wanna Beef?
I rap, you rap, who isn’t rapping these days? I just ran into these lines from the Vietnamese-Canadian Chuckie Akenz:
Wanna beef with my clique, we can war tomorrow
And we won't stop frontin' til your chests are torn
'til your faces are scorn, 'til your blood squirts out
'til the moment we break your motherfucking mouth
Lordy, lordy, sups, Chuckie? What’s roiling you? The anthem of gangsta rap is still “Cop Killer,” of course, written by Ice-T in 1991, in response to Rodney King’s beating:
I got my black shirt on.
I got my black gloves on.
I got my ski mask on.
This shit's been too long.
I got my twelve gauge sawed off.
I got my headlights turned off.
I'm 'bout to bust some shots off.
I'm 'bout to dust some cops off.
Cop killer, better you than me.
Cop killer, fuck police brutality!
Cop killer, I know your family's grievin'
(fuck 'em)
Cop killer, but tonight we get even.
I got my brain on hype.
Tonight'll be your night.
I got this long-assed knife,
and your neck looks just right.
[…]
This shit’s been too long is right… Scholar/blues harmonica player Adam Gussow, one half of Satan and Adam, pointed out that the familiar gangsta themes of drugs, guns and cop killing were present on the very first blues record. Written by Perry Bradford, “Crazy Blues” was recorded by Mamie Smith in 1920. Its last verse:
Now I've got the crazy blues
Since my baby went away
I ain't had no time to lose
I must find him today
I'm gonna do like a Chinaman, go and get some hop
Get myself a gun, and shoot myself a cop
I ain't had nothin' but bad news
Now I've got the crazy blues.
Those blues.
Tracing the blues to the late 19th century, Gussow explains:
“1890s saw the coming-of-age of the first freeborn generation of black southerners, a generation that enjoyed an unprecedented freedom of travel (although hemmed in by lynch law and vagrancy laws), a new freedom to determine the contours of one's sexual personhood, and a freedom, too, to live out the violent outlaw identities of mythic "bad niggers" such as Stagolee and Railroad Bill. In the midst of virulent racism and violent repression, the blues emerged out of a creative tension between black grievance and disillusionment on the one hand and black freedom and expressive license on the other.”
There was another American musical genre, developed also in the 19th century, that dealt with issues of white hegemony. The Tejano corrido is much less well-known, however, partly because the songs are in Spanish. Scholar Dan W. Dickey explains:
“Events in Texas between 1836 and 1848 resulted in the colonization of the lower Rio Grande area by white empresarios. The gradual displacement or subjugation of the Mexican people there provided the basis for more than a century of border conflict between the Anglos and the Mexicans. During the struggle against the Anglos, the corrido form developed in the area and became extremely popular. In [Américo] Paredes's words, the borderers' "slow, dogged struggle against economic enslavement and the loss of their own identity was the most important factor in the development of a distinct local balladry."
Fighting a losing battle, they sang of defiance. Here’s a Texas ranger-killing corrido:
Jacinto Treviño
Ya con ésta van tres veces
que se ha visto lo bonito;
la primera fue en McAllen
en Brownsville y en San Benito.
En la cantina de Bekar
se agarraron a balazos;
por dondequiera volaban
botellas hechas pedazos.
Esa la cantina de Bekar
al momento quedó sola;
nomás Jacinto Treviño
de carabina y pistola.
“Entrele rinches cobardes,
el pleito no es con un niño;
querían conocer a su padre,
¡yo soy Jacinto Treviño!”
Decía Jacinto Treviño
que se arrastraba de risa:
“A mí los rinches me hicieron
los puños de la camisa.”
Decía el sherife mayor
como era un americano:
“Ay que Jacinto tan hombre,
no niega ser Mexicano.”
Ya con ésta me despido
aquí en presencia de todos;
si me quieren conocer
los espero allá en Matamoros.
My rough, real rough, translation:
Jacinto Treviño
This makes 3 times
beauty reveals itself;
the first was in McAllen,
then Brownsville and San Benito.
In Bekar’s cantina
a shootout erupted;
shards of broken bottles
flying everywhere.
In Bekar’s cantina
only one was left,
only Jacinto Treviño
with rifle and pistol.
“Come in here, cowardly rangers,
you’re not messing with a kid;
if you want to know your father,
that’s me, Jacinto Treviño!”
Jacinto Treviño tried to stifle
a laugh as he spoke: "To me,
rangers are only suitable
to sew my shirt cuffs."
The sheriff then spoke
as an American: “Jacinto's
too much of a man, there’s
no denying he’s Mexican.”
With this I’ll take my leave
from all those present here;
if anyone wants to find me,
I’ll be waiting in Matamoros.
Corridos are often about real people and issues, crimes, outlaws and murders, but they aren’t necessarily anti-gringos. After Kennedy was assassinated, dozens of corridos were composed in praise of the late president’s ideals. As an outlet for the disenfranchised, however, many corridos remain songs of grievances. Texas billionaires don’t do corridos. Kings, presidents and deciders, no matter how wobbly, speak in slogans. Serfs and slaves sing the blues.
Wanna beef with my clique, we can war tomorrow
And we won't stop frontin' til your chests are torn
'til your faces are scorn, 'til your blood squirts out
'til the moment we break your motherfucking mouth
Lordy, lordy, sups, Chuckie? What’s roiling you? The anthem of gangsta rap is still “Cop Killer,” of course, written by Ice-T in 1991, in response to Rodney King’s beating:
I got my black shirt on.
I got my black gloves on.
I got my ski mask on.
This shit's been too long.
I got my twelve gauge sawed off.
I got my headlights turned off.
I'm 'bout to bust some shots off.
I'm 'bout to dust some cops off.
Cop killer, better you than me.
Cop killer, fuck police brutality!
Cop killer, I know your family's grievin'
(fuck 'em)
Cop killer, but tonight we get even.
I got my brain on hype.
Tonight'll be your night.
I got this long-assed knife,
and your neck looks just right.
[…]
This shit’s been too long is right… Scholar/blues harmonica player Adam Gussow, one half of Satan and Adam, pointed out that the familiar gangsta themes of drugs, guns and cop killing were present on the very first blues record. Written by Perry Bradford, “Crazy Blues” was recorded by Mamie Smith in 1920. Its last verse:
Now I've got the crazy blues
Since my baby went away
I ain't had no time to lose
I must find him today
I'm gonna do like a Chinaman, go and get some hop
Get myself a gun, and shoot myself a cop
I ain't had nothin' but bad news
Now I've got the crazy blues.
Those blues.
Tracing the blues to the late 19th century, Gussow explains:
“1890s saw the coming-of-age of the first freeborn generation of black southerners, a generation that enjoyed an unprecedented freedom of travel (although hemmed in by lynch law and vagrancy laws), a new freedom to determine the contours of one's sexual personhood, and a freedom, too, to live out the violent outlaw identities of mythic "bad niggers" such as Stagolee and Railroad Bill. In the midst of virulent racism and violent repression, the blues emerged out of a creative tension between black grievance and disillusionment on the one hand and black freedom and expressive license on the other.”
There was another American musical genre, developed also in the 19th century, that dealt with issues of white hegemony. The Tejano corrido is much less well-known, however, partly because the songs are in Spanish. Scholar Dan W. Dickey explains:
“Events in Texas between 1836 and 1848 resulted in the colonization of the lower Rio Grande area by white empresarios. The gradual displacement or subjugation of the Mexican people there provided the basis for more than a century of border conflict between the Anglos and the Mexicans. During the struggle against the Anglos, the corrido form developed in the area and became extremely popular. In [Américo] Paredes's words, the borderers' "slow, dogged struggle against economic enslavement and the loss of their own identity was the most important factor in the development of a distinct local balladry."
Fighting a losing battle, they sang of defiance. Here’s a Texas ranger-killing corrido:
Jacinto Treviño
Ya con ésta van tres veces
que se ha visto lo bonito;
la primera fue en McAllen
en Brownsville y en San Benito.
En la cantina de Bekar
se agarraron a balazos;
por dondequiera volaban
botellas hechas pedazos.
Esa la cantina de Bekar
al momento quedó sola;
nomás Jacinto Treviño
de carabina y pistola.
“Entrele rinches cobardes,
el pleito no es con un niño;
querían conocer a su padre,
¡yo soy Jacinto Treviño!”
Decía Jacinto Treviño
que se arrastraba de risa:
“A mí los rinches me hicieron
los puños de la camisa.”
Decía el sherife mayor
como era un americano:
“Ay que Jacinto tan hombre,
no niega ser Mexicano.”
Ya con ésta me despido
aquí en presencia de todos;
si me quieren conocer
los espero allá en Matamoros.
My rough, real rough, translation:
Jacinto Treviño
This makes 3 times
beauty reveals itself;
the first was in McAllen,
then Brownsville and San Benito.
In Bekar’s cantina
a shootout erupted;
shards of broken bottles
flying everywhere.
In Bekar’s cantina
only one was left,
only Jacinto Treviño
with rifle and pistol.
“Come in here, cowardly rangers,
you’re not messing with a kid;
if you want to know your father,
that’s me, Jacinto Treviño!”
Jacinto Treviño tried to stifle
a laugh as he spoke: "To me,
rangers are only suitable
to sew my shirt cuffs."
The sheriff then spoke
as an American: “Jacinto's
too much of a man, there’s
no denying he’s Mexican.”
With this I’ll take my leave
from all those present here;
if anyone wants to find me,
I’ll be waiting in Matamoros.
Corridos are often about real people and issues, crimes, outlaws and murders, but they aren’t necessarily anti-gringos. After Kennedy was assassinated, dozens of corridos were composed in praise of the late president’s ideals. As an outlet for the disenfranchised, however, many corridos remain songs of grievances. Texas billionaires don’t do corridos. Kings, presidents and deciders, no matter how wobbly, speak in slogans. Serfs and slaves sing the blues.
12/16/06
Dickinson / Beuger in Amsterdam
Should you just happen to be in Amsterdam coming Friday, you might want to visit a very special performance at Perdu, where an extraordinary reading of Emily Dickinson will take place.
Dutch-born German Composer Antoine Beuger is the editor of Edition Wandelweiser, a music publisher-cum-international experimental composers network. The music of the Wandelweiser group has been among the most radical of experimental music over the last decade or so, often featuring very long pieces with very few elements, long notes, long silences.
In Amsterdam, together with Sylvia Alexandra Schimag, Beuger will present one of the pieces in his 20-part Emily Dickinson cycle, "Landscapes of Abscence". Each of these works consists of a reading of one of Dicksinson's poems, syllable by syllable, over the course of 100 minutes, with extremely sparse instrumental accompaniment. Reading is done at what might be the speed of writing, or even slower, to stage the work of Dickinson, not as a form of public speaking, but primarily as a private working enterprise, the concentrated writing of messages to absent partners - and the extreme time-frame puts performer, text and listener on the edge of disappearing themselves into time and poetic work as such. The Amsterdam performance will be of Landscapes of Absence 2 for voice and flute, a setting of Four Trees - upon a solitary Acre -
Text-pieces are among the the important concerns for quite a few composers affiliated with Wandelweiser. Also on the Wandelweiser site, check out some of the experimental writings and text performance scores of Gottfried Wanner (1944-2006)
Perdu: Kloveniersburgwal 86, Amsterdam. Friday, December 22, at 20:30 (doors open at 20:00). Entry 6 euro.
Dutch-born German Composer Antoine Beuger is the editor of Edition Wandelweiser, a music publisher-cum-international experimental composers network. The music of the Wandelweiser group has been among the most radical of experimental music over the last decade or so, often featuring very long pieces with very few elements, long notes, long silences.
In Amsterdam, together with Sylvia Alexandra Schimag, Beuger will present one of the pieces in his 20-part Emily Dickinson cycle, "Landscapes of Abscence". Each of these works consists of a reading of one of Dicksinson's poems, syllable by syllable, over the course of 100 minutes, with extremely sparse instrumental accompaniment. Reading is done at what might be the speed of writing, or even slower, to stage the work of Dickinson, not as a form of public speaking, but primarily as a private working enterprise, the concentrated writing of messages to absent partners - and the extreme time-frame puts performer, text and listener on the edge of disappearing themselves into time and poetic work as such. The Amsterdam performance will be of Landscapes of Absence 2 for voice and flute, a setting of Four Trees - upon a solitary Acre -
Text-pieces are among the the important concerns for quite a few composers affiliated with Wandelweiser. Also on the Wandelweiser site, check out some of the experimental writings and text performance scores of Gottfried Wanner (1944-2006)
Perdu: Kloveniersburgwal 86, Amsterdam. Friday, December 22, at 20:30 (doors open at 20:00). Entry 6 euro.
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