David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


03 October 2008

Mauricio Kagel : before and after "1898" (December 24 1931 – 18 September 2008)

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"In the context of this unwritten chronicle, the vocal entries in 1898 underline the prevailing “Yes” and “No” malaise with an explicit text covering every conceivable nuance: both carefree and obsessive, whistling, singing - but with the mouth closed -, and laughter which is both liberating and despairing.

And here the composer is again confronted with questions which are also relevant to his current work. When one looks at yesterday with today’s eyes, is one not also tracing the future?"

Mauricio Kagel
August 1998
(translation: Richard Toop)

(More ...
including 'A Response to Kagel’s notes re: 1898' by eldritch Priest)

Tony Coulter played Kagel's 1898: 1st Movement and several of his other works on his penultimate program at wfmu. To hear these go to the playlist for that show and click on the Pop-up Player.

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/28711

While there check out other wfmu programs, as well as their massive audio archive. Stochastic Hit Parade with Bethany Ryker is a favourite at bLOGOS/HA HA

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/HP

You might be interested in this upcoming performance :
Sunday, October 12th, 10pm - Midnight: JACK Quartet plays Xenakis
For the first time since the show began, the Stochastic Hit Parade features a live performance of Xenakis' stochastic music. What's that you say? By definition, a stochastic process is one that is unprovable by theory....random, in other words. Xenakis (an architect, composer and all-around genius-type) used computer algorithms, game theory and algebra to generate random sequences of notes. The JACK string quartet comes to WFMU's studio to perform all four of Xenakis' string quartets, including St/4-1,080262, one of Xenakis' emblematic stochastic works.