Bleak Mids
solo for concertmate 7000, feedback, and texts
This is one of several pieces for viola derived from cutting songs about snowflakes into paper snowflakes and then reading them through one another. This piece utilizes the following texts in performance:
musical instruments want to sound
the stretched skin speaks
and a snare drum speaks
like a membrane or the walls
in the syrinx of the throat of a bird, speaks
is it the bird that sings
or is it the throat?
when human throats sing out
of their own accord
we say the person has a syndrome
I have a syndrome too
I fear my throat will scream
it wants to speak
like a membrane or the walls
in the syrinx of the throat of a bird
I get this feeling often
especially during Contemporary Music concerts
is it the bird that sings or is it the throat?
some humans are said to sing with their throats
the harmonic singing from Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet
is described this way
when I listen to them
I feel like I can hear the wind
singing
while the West privileges being
over non-being
this is not a syndrome for the East
says Chris Marker he speaks
through letters written by Sandro Krasna
the cameraman in the film Sans Soleil
Sunless, Marker speaks with Kransna’s voice
Kransna speaks through Marker’s voice
Marker makes a film using Kransna’s film
Krasna speaks through the synrinx of the narrator
the resonance comes from Marker
who has a cave for a mouth
the narrator speaks the text
she has a flat voice
and there are many images of cats
emu and owls in the film
that vibrates like a string
or a vocal fold
or the walls in the syrinx
of the throat of one of the birds
in the film
if they chose to speak
it would probably be meaningless
it would lack repetition
in the West is privileged
meaning over absence
presence over nonsense
strings without a throat
resonating in the wind
without a body that would reveal
the shape of the wind
ringing like an aeolian harp
but little sound can be heard
unless they are connected to a body
that wants to speak
or one that wants to hear
wind music, uplifting
such music would be breathless
does the bird sing
or is it the throat that sings
it is possible that the bird has little to say in the matter
as when the body of the earth
covered in fog
or when touched by a fingertip
or a cool wind
a body shivers
the wind is close in shape
to a shiver
though it might
last longer
leaving the weeds in the bleak mid-wind
Frosty knows how to seek out moans
white clouds hard as iron within
layer upon layer of earth and stone
red sun, red water
clear and bright
looking to the left:
the snow has fallen
looking to the right
our god, heaven cannot hold him
have you seen that man shuffle across Cold Mountain?
cherubim entered the weed
worshiping night and day
seeking out movement
and breastfulls of milk
and bales of hay
and layer upon layer
of seraphim burn
snow upon snow
clear and bright
long ago
fall down
before Cold Mountain
fall down and adore the ass
the goat the camel and the ox
and any archangels or angels
the cock the beaver and the fox
poor as he who travelling so swiftly
riding a ham so swift
the wise man, he couldn’t remember
he couldn’t return
he gave his heart
but forgot the road
he came here by