Author Topic: NOT AVAILABLE (Project of the Week for 20th of March)  (Read 2854 times)

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CheerfulHypocrite

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Pathway One (part one of two)
« on: April 02, 2017, 12:04:26 pm »
Pathway One: Edweena
Quote from: Civility
Civility1:
Compatriot into commonplace neuter is a gracious tiara
A strand and a whirring and a broken wit(er)'s panther;
It's causing easy ought to just leave a mainframe alone
But when a fume has shrunken sleet where do you throw the brow?


(The megalith that's been spoken to's a fragrant little tiara
it's open and was known to need tortilla oxide rock.)

Civility opens Pathway One by announcing something that, at first look, appears to be nonsensical. Unlike French, English has variable length syllables. Which means the metre of the original work will not be the same as that of the final work. A problem that is overcome, technically, by the use of variable speed tapes.

Having understood the constraint of Jean Lescure (1912-2005) as applied to dictionaries, ND Senada applied it to the building blocks of lyrics. Largely disguised by the use of wind-like instruments and generally complex rhythmic work, the original lyrics are compressed and distorted in order to be effective Building Blocks. Senada gave distortion of the temporal form of the Work equal prominence. A technique that would be found to have incredible utility in Third Reich 'n; Roll where the materials of Rock and Roll would become the building blocks of a sustained and satirical analytic deconstruction.

The sustained Dadaism of Third Reich 'n' Roll could have garnered state sponsored retailation in Senada's homeland; but, Not Available would certainly have been seized and destroyed as entartete kunst. Which is the contrast of what happened to Franz Kafka (1883-1924) - who became Not Available - in distinction to Herman Hesse (1877-1962) and Hans Fallada (born Rudolf Wilhelm Friedrich Ditzen; 1893-1947). Not Available was created to disappear.

The ambiguity of the production schedule of Meet The Residents, Not Available and Third Reich 'n' Roll highlights a central preoccupation of later works: the Tryptich. God In Three Persons and the Mole Trilogy reiterate the idea but Senada and the Residents exploit an incredibly subtle notion of Tryptich in Not Available by spreading the exposition of Not Available over Time. Both Meet The Residents and Third Reich 'n' Roll seem to wings to the central piece of Not Available. In life, this central vacuity becomes the enduring puzzle of  the question: who are they? Yet, the answer is clear: they are Not Available.

Senada, in understanding Lescure, was not simply appropriating the literary ideas of Oulipo and littérature potentielle. Littérature potentielle is, "the seeking of new structures and patterns which may be used by writers in any way they enjoy," which is central to Not Available by creating a Work that is enjoyed by the creators and then forgotten. This - for modern, recorded, music - is a new structure. It is the structure of potlatch production. With an inherent economic contradiction, the Residents acknowledge by using variable speed recording to transform:

Quote from: Civility
(The megalith that's been spoken to's a fragrant little tiara
it's open and was known to need tortilla oxide rock.)

into

Quote from: Civility
(The matter that's been spoken to's a fragrant little thing
 It's open and was known to need a token diamond ring.)

Because both are equally effective building blocks. A tortilla oxide rock is, undoubtedly, a more poetic expression - and less scheming - than a token diamond ring. The sophistication of the Theory of Phonetic Organisation goes beyond simply substituting, say, a saxaphone for a drum. Senada had foresight in the methodological innovation of creating Blueprints for such works as Pollex Christi where people collaborate "im bau der eigenen häuser". A phrase that had resonance, in 1936-1937, with the term "heimat" - then commonly used to point towards a house being a home and a home being part of a homeland. Senada was not simply giving a catalogue of construction elements and instructions to assemble them.

The Blueprints were not simply a passing reference but a deep cultural idea. In 1861, Alphonse Louis Poitevin (1819-1882), a French chemist, found that ferro-gallate in gum is light sensitive. Light renders ferro-gallate an insoluble permanent blue. Poitevin coated paper and linen with ferro-gallate and the blueprint process was born. Poitevin is hardly regarded as central to photography, but his innovations underpinned the mass production of photographs. The use of gallate allows Senada to wallow in the cultural significance of phytochemicals derived from Oak Trees or from the Bitter Apple of Near to Middle and Far Eastern Mythology.

Blueprints, for Senada, are the key to a form of autochthonous paradise construction. Architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) did not simply construct houses but also the infrastructure and contrivances by which characters were made to fly through the air in the midst of spectacular explosions of light and fireworks during religious events. The Chiesa di San Felice (Felix Church, Tuscany) was one such place where Brunelleschi created machinery Ingegno del Paradiso that supported the miraculous presentation of an Annunciation spectacular. The machinery was, likely, destroyed during the Republic of Savonarola. Yet, the notion of Blueprints as going beyond merely being a catalogue of parts for assembly is even present with Brunelleschi. Senada follows in this tradition.

The Blueprint for Not Available was not merely a set of instructions for assembling a sonic experience but also the motivator for inventing the Cryptic Corporation. The Cryptic Corporation follows in the tradition of the Latin word for body, or a "body of people". Emperor Justinian (reigned 527–565), recognized a range of corporate entities under the names universitas, corpus or collegium. These included the state, municipalities, private associations, religious cults, burial clubs, political groups, and guilds of craftsmen or traders. The Cryptic Corporation became Senada's means to gather together  "distinct species that are erroneously classified and hidden under one species name" - a term used by Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) the Biologist whose important role in brokering and acquiring the Walter Rothschild (1868-1937) collection of bird skins - which was being sold in order to pay off a blackmailer - gave Senada the ideal Blueprint element for permitting the Residents to fulfil the Theory Of Obscurity by being within a Corporation with internal standards of potlatch and external standards of commerce. Thus ensuring that the existence of the Work could be forgotten by simply entrusting it to the Cryptic Corporation


Quote from: Young Goal
Young Goal2:
Investing speedwell without a plaything;
Confusing gravestone with outer speedwell.

Again, the actual Blueprint for the Work is being used in a dual manner: to forward Phonetic Organisation and also the Theory of Obscurity. The Speedwell is a recurrent ships name. A Speedwell transported Pilgrims with the Mayflower in 1577; a second Speedwell transported Quakers, in 1656, to the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the Governorship of John Endecott, they were deported; in 1791 a ASpeedwell arrived in New London Connecticut with 74 surviving slaves out of the 95 who left Senegambia. The Speedwell Whistle is an incidental reference to the Obscurity of Henry Arthur Ward (1899-1908) whose whistles left him known only to a few people despite them being widely used by police forces. Once again, Senada utilises the concept of the Blueprint and the substitution of bricks to develop a strong theme that will recur in other parts of the Work.
Speedwell is, in addition to being shipping, a kind of plant of the genus Veronica. Ultimately, Veronica derives from the ancient Greek: Berenice. The Ancient Macedonian form an Attic Greek meaning "bearer of victory". Berenika was a priestess of Demeter in Lete. Coincidentally the birthplace of Andon Dimitrov (1867-1933) co-founder of The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. For Senada's generation, the cause of self determination - and the Balkan Question was of critical importance. Yet, Bernika and Dimitrov contribute something far more fundamental. Speedwell is not merely a medicinal plant but the pseudonym of such people as Ronnie Spector (born 1943 as Veronica Bennett). Senada was doubtlessly aware of Austrian born Romanian Poet Veronica Micle (born Ana Câmpeanu 1850-1889) and the nature of the Hero in mythology: heros change their name.

Thus Margaret Smik changed her name to Peggy Honeydew. The Honeydew is not only a delicious melon but a Township, established in 1926, in Northern California. It is this systematic blurring of identity that underpins all the Early Work. Not simply making identities difficult to pin down momentarily, but ensuring that active effort is required to sustain the sealing of meaning that Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) attributes to the exercise of power. The last person and most powerful person to explain a word, exercises power to seal and so fix the meaning of the word. Senada uses this to incredible effect by simply ensuring that the systematic and progressive deformation of the building blocks of language - as derived from Lescure - enables the Residents to be in a permanent Heroic state.

Peggy Honeydew had her name changed and thus became eligible for Heroic status. This is a constant technique pioneered in Not Available. The transition from Meet The Residents to Third Reich 'n' Roll is mediated by the plethora of alternate names provided in Not Available. The possibility of ever knowing if Residents have precise and personal identities is literally beaten out by the polyrhythms of Pathway One: Edweena.

Quote from: Civility
To please the brooch you frown the seize,
Communication distillery and billow the lairs;
And if explicit megaliths naught,

Extend the guffaw -- but dowse't get caught.
Now Upstart Remus,
Upstart Remus,
where have you been we say

(We saw the entree of Upstart Miasma and turn into into today).

But now they say there's ruff no more for such a fun fruit wireless

The Motorik beat - that 4-4 beat often used by krautrock bands made a significant appearance in 1974. The term means "motor skill" in German. Motorik was pioneered by Jaki Liebezeit (1938-2017), drummer with Can while Klaus Dinger (1946-2008) of Neu!, called it the "Apache beat". In one section of Autobahn Motorik appears. The lyrics of Autobahn are in German: "Wir fahren fahren fahren auf der Autobahn" which, in  English translation becomes: "We drive drive drive on the Autobahn". This chorus has been claimed to be a mondegreen for the English phrase: "Fun fun fun on the Autobahn". This apparent reference to the 1964 Beach Boys' song "Fun, Fun, Fun" was dismissed by Wolfgang Flür while Ralf Hütter was accepting. Any certainty about the reference would have highlighted the mixing techniques being developed by The Residents during the recording of Not Available.

In Not Available the mondegreen - the misheard lyric is adopted as a way of mutating the original text to a final text. This is an adaptation of the Jean Lescure methodology but with a tighter integration of Lyrics and Music. Psychologically, humans interpret their environment, in part, based on experience making what is expected more likely to be percieved than things outside of everyday experience. An unfamiliar stimulus for a familiar and more plausible version is the brain's way of coping with reality.

Jimi Hendrix, for example, is heard to say kiss this guy instead of kiss the sky. This technique is used in the Civility narratives in a new and compelling way. An example from folk music is "The Golden Vanity", containing, "As she sailed upon the lowland sea" in the English version. Immigrants carried the song to Appalachia, where the term lowland sea transformed over generations from "lowland" to "lonesome". The Original and final Lyrics of Not Available show this process happening in a much compressed time span. The reverse cases, where nonsense phrases become meaningful also occur; for example:

Quote
"Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wooden shoe"

becomes

Quote
Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy.

The technique works because of the existence of oronyms - homophonic phrase pairs. The Four Candles sketch, - also known as The Hardware Shop is a sketch from The Two Ronnies first broadcast on Saturday, 18 September 1976 on BBC1. Written by Ronnie Barker under the pseudonym of Gerald Wiley. This illustrates the same techniques built into a conversation which appears to be a series of misunderstanding but becomes, on close analysis, a collection of mondegreens and oronyms and forced mondegreens. The same technique is used in the 2010 track Mondegreen by Yeasayer on Odd Blood where intentionally obscure lyrics delivered hastily, force the brain to fill in the spaces.

Not Available also uses technology - specifically the technology of tape cutting and variable speed tape to tape - in order to reengineer the Motorik-like 4-4 beat into the more accepted time signatures. This not only obliges the Listener to constantly substitute more plausible interpretations for words but gave the illusion of the Work being something other than 3-3. The complex technical achievement was accompanied with complaints of muddiness about the sound. The remastered compact disc version lost the poor sound quailty and so removed the radical, original mondegreen forcing mix. The only trace of the original technique is found in hints of Autobahn in some sections. This, again, forces the human brain to fill in the spaces.

Which is where the techniques of Phonetic Organisation, when used with skill, results in something new. Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) wrote Difficile lectu using similar techniques. Ostensibly Dificile lectu is a Latin.

Quote
Difficile lectu mihi mars et jonicu difficile.

ostensibly translates as

Quote
Mars will have a hard time reading difficult Ionian.

Which appears to be both ungrammatical and mystical nonsense. However, when delivered with a strong Bavarian accent, the phrase is an oronym of

Quote
Difficile  leck du mi im arsch et jonicu difficile.

Which woul be rendered, in translation, as kiss my arse. The single word jonicu, when rapidly repeated - as in the canon section of the piece - sounds like cojones. Thus the entire piece becomes a vulgar joke: "it is hard to kiss my arse and balls it is hard". Which appears to have been the way Johann Nepomuk Peyerl (1761-1800) delivered it in a Bavarian accent around about 1786-1787. This kind of ribaldry was, self evidently, not unknown to the musicologist Senada whose wanderings in the Bavarian Woods let to his meeting with Philip Lithman. Senada may have even seen the original musical manuscript stained with champagne and almost illegible. To do this, Senada would have needed to have access to the estate of Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) and his collections of manuscripts - which was not impossible given the nature of the Arts Communities in the years 1930-1940.



« Last Edit: April 02, 2017, 12:49:13 pm by CheerfulHypocrite »
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