by Jacob Barton
Originally a composer only of music, I have in the last decade become interested in composing not only music, but also social contexts for music, so that music be an input to society (not only an output). In the face of this interest, I note the insufficiency of the typical tried-and-false concert format, which, if I am designing any event to present music, must be added to, compounded with, or completely ignored and contradicted.
It is in this spirit, of tinkering with containers, that our compositional cooperative and instrument library—ODDMUSIC-UC for short—makes its offerings, poses its challenges. On June 27, 2010, two handfuls of experimental musicians and a basketful of audience participated in a guided backyard ‘garden tour’ of oddmusical performances.
Berimbau, fipple pipes, human voice, and boviphonic ohm cannon were among the instruments featured, and each location lent its own microclimactic peculiarities to the particular performance chosen for it. (In Illinois, the ground is not as flat as they say it is, and “green” at the height of summer describes a rainbow.)
Cicadas ceded the noise floor to box fans as the concert migrated indoors, for the electronic instruments: Otonal organ, Lambdoma Starrboard, Chapman Stick, and a few systems too convoluted to be so elegantly named. The temptation to explain the instruments was contagious, while the music and its composition remained curiously unexplained.
Listen to Andrew Heathwaite’s “remem“, as performed on otonal dulcimer and organ by Andrew and myself. Words:
I can do without yr telling me
what I could do without
6 chicken chicken pyre
reflection & action, reflection & —
Is this th conversation I couldn’t have known I wanted to have?
How do I convince you of th fallacy of trying to convince?
I know I’m not convincing enough
4 chicken chicken coop
action & —
Did I wait long enough for me?
Are you going to — ?
Did I already — ?
Did I say that?
What have you done w/ yr words?
What have I done w/ my yr words?
embers & yawning
remem —