PROBES #29
In the late nineteenth century two facts conspired to change the face of music: the collapse of common practice tonality (which overturned the certainties underpinning the world of art music), and the invention of a revolutionary new form of memory, sound recording (which redefined and greatly empowered the world of popular music). A tidal wave of probes and experiments into new musical resources and new organisational practices ploughed through both disciplines, bringing parts of each onto shared terrain before rolling on to underpin a new aesthetics able to follow sound and its manipulations beyond the narrow confines of ‘music’.
This series tries analytically to trace and explain these developments, and to show how, and why, both musical and post-musical genres take the forms they do. In PROBES #29 composers turn to nature, not as pastorale but as concrete musical resources. We look at animals, vegetables and one or two minerals as they are directly incorporated into musical works, as leading voices: there are birds, wolves and whales, obviously, but also less cuddly creatures, plants, cacti, rocks and stones. We also consider some of the motives and ideologies at work, and hear minerals make sounds that are hard to credit.
Musical references
01 Gregorio Paniagua, ‘Anakrousis’, 1978
02 MGM lion
03 Olivier Messiaen, ‘Chronochromie’ (excerpt) 1960
04 Jim Fassett, ‘The Symphony of the Birds’ (excerpt), 1960
05 Einojuhani Rautavaara, ‘Cantus Arcticus’ (excerpt), 1972
06 Hatebeak, ‘Seven Perches’, 2015
07 Caninus, ‘Brindle Brickheadz’, 2004
08 Hollis Taylor, ‘Owen Springs Reserve 2014’ (excerpt), 2017
09 Sybil Glebow, ‘Cello and Wolfpack 1’, 1982
10 Phillip Kent Bimstein, ‘Pasturale’ (excerpt), 1990
11 Jim Nollman, ‘The Lesson’, 1982
12 David Rothenberg, ‘Whale Music’, 2008
13 Bob clears his throat
14 Squeak
15 Wildebeest, pig, mouse
16 Bernie Krause & Human Remains, ‘Fish Wrap’ (excerpt), 1988
17 Flight of the Bumblebee
18 David Rothenberg and Timothy Hill, ‘Chirped to Death’ (excerpt), 2013
19 Wind in grass, trees, crickets
20 John Cage, ‘Branches’ (excerpt), 1976
21 Chris Cutler, ‘Echinopsis Mamillosa’ (excerpt), 2009
22 Cornelius Cardew and Scratch Orchestra, ‘The Great Learning, Paragraph 1’ (excerpt), 1969
23 Christian Wolff, ‘Stones’ (excerpt), 1968-71
24 Philip Dadson, ‘An Archaeology of Stones’ (excerpt), 1995
25 Pinuccio Sciola, Sounding Stones, 2010
26 Friedemann Dahn, ‘Aura’ (excerpt), 2012
27 Hannes Fessmann, unidentified track
28 Tan Dun, ‘The Map’ (excerpt), 2002
29 Gregorio Paniagua, ‘Anakrousis’, 1978
30 X-Ray Spex, ‘Oh Bondage! Up Yours!’ (excerpt), 1977
Curated by Chris Cutler.
2021. All rights reserved. © by the respective authors and publishers.
Transcript
Transcript of PROBES #29, curated by Chris Cutler.
In PROBES #29 composers turn to nature, not as pastorale but as concrete musical resources. Chris Cutler looks at animals, vegetables and one or two minerals as they are directly incorporated into musical works, as leading voices: there are birds, wolves and whales, obviously, but also less cuddly creatures, plants, cacti, rocks and stones. We also consider some of the motives and ideologies at work, and hear minerals make sounds that are hard to credit.
Auxiliaries
In this new PROBES Auxiliary by Chris Cutler, composers and performers expand their classical, contemporary, avant garde, jazz, rock, electronic and installation art vocabularies by incorporating real or virtual collaborations with wildlife, soundscapes, insects, amphibia, birds, whales and wolves. And we learn what a whale has in common with a nightingale.
Pastoral V.2
This layered 60 minute DJ set by Jon Leidecker underlines the history of those classic works of electronic and concrète music which sought to mimic and extend the voices and sounds of our pastoral landscape.
Auxiliaries
In this new PROBES Auxiliary by Chris Cutler, Beethoven is reorchestrated with power tools and a variety orchestra partners with canteen equipment while radios, gramophones and telephones explore their new vocation as performing instruments, and become the subjects of formal composition.
Transcript
Transcript of VARIATIONS #1. Transition, curated by Jon Leidecker.