Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.00.1101200138370.15317@panix5.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: Experiments
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:40:02 -0500 (EST)
Experiments http://www.alansondheim.org/hopping.mov (sound only) http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/whynot1.mp3 http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/whynot2.mp3 http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/whynot3.mp3 http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/whynot4.mp3 Azure Carter, voice Foofwa d'Imobilite, voice Alan Sondheim, violin, voice, Khmer tro sau http://www.khmerculturalcenter.org/phlengkar/kcc_trosau.htm The Cambodian tro sau is related to the Chinese erhu; it has two strings tuned a fifth apart, and the bow hair goes between then. The upper side of the hair plays one string; the lower side plays the other. There is no fingerboard; the strings are stopped by touch alone. So these are experiments in voice and bowed instrument - there's a lot of room for improvement, but the results are interesting. My own music is awkward, unbalanced, resonant between the organic and the instrumental body; it tends towards a broken or wounded mastery. My hands attempt what, for me, is impossible - there's always _this gesture_ that falls short, flat, irresolute, noisy. And at times it's as if the piece is in a hurry to end, before the refrain or timbre gives out. And from this comes a mis/shaping, mis/recognition that opens territories of future compression and release. Rather to move on than hold on; rather to move than die.