Flesh Guitar by Geoff Nicholson

Author:Geoff Nicholson
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Published: 1997-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Performance Notes

Bob Arnold reviews a Jenny Slade gig to cherish

The Psychology Club takes place on alternate Thursdays in a disused missile silo in Kent Audiences are small but discerning. Improvisation is the name of the game; improvisation along with subversion, aural mayhem and cheap guitar thrills.

Last Thursday Tom Scorn and Jenny Slade premiered a new unfilled piece, a work for computer, voice and guitar. There was talk that the pair had fallen out in the past over artistic differences, but on this occasion the hatchet seemed to be well and truly buried.

Scorn has always been as much into language as music, and on this occasion he vocalized while Jenny played her flesh guitar. In front of Scorn was a small computer programmed to create an endless stream of words and phrases, maybe even whole sentences, but using only the letters ABCDEF and G—the letters that correspond to the notes of western music. Sharps and flats were out Scorn was to shout out this computer-generated language and Jenny would play their musical equivalents.

Jenny was free to choose where on the neck of the guitar and in which octave to play the notes. She was also free to decide whether notes were to be plucked, hammered on, pulled off, or played as harmonics. She could also determine the length of the notes, the time signature if appropriate, the degree of attack or sustain, the tone of the guitar, the effects used.

Simple words were obviously easy enough to translate into music notes, words like ‘dad’ and ‘bed’. But some of the longer configurations would clearly be trickier, not only remembering and playing the notes, but also trying instantly to give the notes an intonation, a meaning that corresponded to the content of the language. Fortunately Jenny has always liked a challenge.

The audience settled, the lights went down and Tom Scorn tapped his computer. He peered at the tiny screen for a moment and then started. It was simple enough at first, just shouting out a few apparently random words. “Egad,” he shouted. “Gee! Acel Fab!”

Jenny played the corresponding notes. Then it got a little tougher.

Perhaps remembering his art school background Scorn was heard to shout “Dada! Dada! Dadal Dada!”

Jenny played right along, and then it was as though Scorn were ordering food.

“Egg!” he shouted. “Egg! Cabbage! Egg!”

A misty incomprehension settled over the audience, so Scorn addressed them directly. “Deaf?” he enquired of several members of the front row. “Deaf? Deaf?” and of the last person, “Dead?”

And then he and the computer were off on a continuous, if only intermittently coherent narrative.

“A café. A faded façade. Ed, a cad, cadged a fag. Ada, a deb, faced a bad decade. Bea, a babe, gagged. Abe bagged a cab.”

And then Scorn, or at least the computer, loosened up no end, and the language became, not gibberish exactly, and not meaningless either, but Scorn found himself calling a long stream of unconnected words.

“Abba!” he shouted. “Baa baa. Abed. Abba. Baggage. Fad baggage! A gaff? A badge? AC⁄DC.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.