Notes from Finnadar SR 9001: Side One 1. Wings of the delirious demon (14:47) Title derived from a poem by Ilya Ehrenburg. No other extra musical references. An entire range of studio techniques applied to transform clarinet sounds used as source material. Composed August through December 1969. 2. Anacolutha: encounter and episode II (8:57) Anacolutha, plural of anacoluthon, meaning a sudden change in grammatical construction. I made this to refer not only to the musical structure, but also to the programmatic intent which is biographical, if not autobiographical. Sound sources: all electronic sounds, various percussion instruments, viola, rubber band, voice, basset horn, etc. Winter 1965. Side Two 1. Interlude II (5:00) Part of a large-scale work, sing me a song of Songmy. NHA-KHE, the Vietnamese poet, first recites a poem of his own in his native language (sleep well, my child,/Out there bombs and bullets are tearing the sky.../ When you wake up.../ and when you are puzzled by... the freshly covered graves,/ I'll blame them on the storm last night...) and at the end one by Fazil Husnu Daglarca, in a translation from the Turkish by T.S. Helman. 2. Prelude No. 8 (3:55) Dedicated to the memory of Edgard Varese. I had started to develop a material (celesta and harpsichord sounds) and prepare the material in the spring of 1965, a few months before Varese's death (a presentiment?). The piece was completed in the early part of '66. 3. Provocations (3:00) Call it "The little demon." Same source material as in Wings: clarinet sounds. The title may have musical connotations: one event, one gesture, excites others into action. It may also have political overtones: it is a companion piece to Hyperboles (both composed in 1971). 4. White Cockatoo (4:20) This is visual study number five after Jackson Pollock. The initial process consisted of putting drips and smears of sound on the "canvas." Four separate recorded tracks were thus obtained, each of a much longer duration than the final length of the peace. An elaborate process of mixing and editing ensued, done according to an outer formal structure that corresponds to my idea of the sonata form: an intro, a brief first scene, a development (the longest and most elaborate section of the piece), no recap, but a coda. '66. 5. Hyperboles (5:12) The title denotes the exaggerated utterances of the piece, and the intent is praise. Tripartite structure, square waves sounding bassoon-like, electric piano (transformed), modified violin sounds (contributing an air of despair). August 1971. Notes from Finnadar SR 9012: The direction, given in the better-late-than-never date of 1973, could have confused Don Quixote; or, depending on his sense of anachronism, he may have found it perfectly logical. As to my own sense of anachronism, viewed by some as pertinent to my whole existence (although I would fail to see it that way), it applies only to what is offered here. The collection covers nearly a decade of my work, a stretch of time in which the windmills were, as always, in full view. There was the matter of taking a direction. The nearest one pointed downward. That's where the safe hiding places are. But the shelter not only proved to be insecure, it was terribly crowded too. And one day, down in the dearth, a down to earth question had to be asked. If it's art for art's sake, then for whose sake is art? The windmills are still there, but Dulcinea is prettier now. Except for the last two Preludes, this, then, is a collection of non-political pieces. Not totally perhaps, as Le Tombeau d'Edgar Poe is clearly an attack on bourgeois mediocrity. It was not for fun and games, but at least out of a quivering consciousness, that I had selected Mallarmé's poem for this precursor of my post-1970 agitprop compositions where the message is entrusted to a more efficient dispatcher than Western Union -- music. Even the desolation in Orhan Veli's words (Prelude No. 12) needed a reasoning, which I think it found in the more pointed sorrow of To Kill a Sunrise and in the imagery of Tract and Session, not to speak of Prelude No. 16 with Nazim Hikmet's words which are also about those who go, but not back and forth. By no means do I disown these early pieces. But if I let them reappear it is less because they received a certain amount of attention (much more attention, indeed, than my more recent, more accomplished and more relevant music; but then, that's the way the windmill wrangles) and there were requests for their availability, than because I think that, by virtue of their classification as "avant-garde" or "progressive" or what have you, they can one day fulfill a function on a broader base of socially redemptive musical aesthetics AGONY (May 1965). In terms of aural- visual correspondence, if this piece reflects the explosive spontaneity of Gorky's painting, then the tribute (to an artist who was expelled by three academies) would be well served. Purely electronic sounds, although the treatment might call for associations with definite or . indefinite concrete material. The extent of transformation the classical studio procedures can bring to whatever is selected as sound source ought to be sufficient to make fanatical adherence to one or the other sound category aesthetically futile. Besides, if musique is not concrete, does it exist? LE TOMBEAU D'EDGAR POE (September thru November 1964). The source material consists only of the voice ofErdem Buri -- his pre-recorded reading of Mallarmé's poem. "Such as into Himself at fast eternity changes him./The poet arouses with a naked sword/ His century appalled not to have known/That death was exultant in this voice so strange!/ THEY, with a vile writhe of hydra once hearing the angel/Give a sense more pure to the words of the tribe, /Proclaimed loudly the sortilege drunk/In the honorless flood of some dark mixture./Of the earth and heaven, enemies, alas!/If with it our idea does not carve a bas-relief/With which to adorn the dazzling tomb of Poe./Calm block fallen down here from an obscure disaster,/Let this granite at least show forever their boundaries/ To dark flights of Blasphemy scattered in the future." (Translation mine.) BOWERY BUM (May 1964) is the piece that occasioned my association with Dubuffet and opened the way to my discovery of his own extraordinary music (of which I eventually made a first commercial edition on Finnadar SR 9002). The visual impetus of the Dubuffet drawing, one of his Bowery Bums, suggested the form, the content, and even the sound source--the sound of a sole rubber band used as a counterpart to the India ink of the drawing. The outer formal character of the piece corresponds to that of the drawing--a seemingly random maze of lines through which appears a human figure, pathetic and droll. INTERMEZZO (December 1964) is so named because it was composed as a diversion between two projects that proved (and to some extent were designed) to be technically and procedurally laborious. I realized it with an improvisatory ease that I did not think was possible in the medium of the classical studio, and in the process gained awareness of the inner workings of an experimental style that certainly existed before me, yet seemed to yield its secrets only to me. The experience repeated itself and acquired .a greater degree of expansiveness in Agony which, along with Intermezzo, remains as my favorite among my earlier tape-music pieces. PRELUDES FOR MAGNETIC TAPE For the purpose of these pieces, a prelude for magnetic tape is no different from an instrumental prelude, provided the term is understood in its 19th century sense, i.e., a short, independent piece in the style of an improvisation. The first twelve preludes were composed in 1966-67. After a lapse of several years I began making new preludes and so far I reached number sixteen. If I keep on composing more of them, they will all be political pieces as Nos. 14,15 and 16 are. In PRELUDE No. 1 the sounds of a piano torn apart for tuning practice are employed. Equal emphasis is placed in both the production and the modification of sounds. The former includes the obtaining of portamenti by means of a tuning hammer, and the latter consisting of amplitude and frequency modulations. This Prelude, along with No. 12, was used by the Jose Limon Dance Company for Ruth Currier's "Phantasmagoria 1975" PRELUDE No.2 is all electronic. It is served by the sounds of a Thomas organ which, as an electrophonic instrument, is far more versatile and interesting than any of the current day synthesizers. The option of modifying the source material is fully utilized. In PRELUDE No. 6 guitar sounds are exclusively employed. The predominant modification procedure is the application of various attack and decay rates to the sound of the open strings revealed at the end of the piece in its original state. The clarinet provides the raw material for PRELUDE No. 9 and the material is subjected to frequency modulation mostly by two simultaneous carrier frequencies beating against each other. The sound source for PRELUDE No. 11 is a rubber band whose rich timbres cannot be fully perceived by the unaided ear but can be captured by sensitive microphones. Throughout this piece the use of modification techniques not directly associated with the tape recorder is kept at a minimum. PRELUDE No. l2 is the only one in the early group that combines the two "opposing" sound categories, the electronic and the "natural" Both meet on a common ground, the tape recorder, and exchange characteristics within the climate of a musical vocabulary not normally associated with experimental music. The quaint voice reading Orhan Veli's (1914-1950) Turkish poem belongs to Gungor Bozkurt to whom the Visual Studies carry a dedication by which she was shortchanged (although she does not feel so) for not only sharing some of the toil that went into the making of those pieces, but all of the privations of a composer's life too. I translate the poem as follows: "We have our seas, full of sun;/ We have our trees, full of leaves;/ Morning till night, we go and go, back and forth/ Between our seas and our trees,/ Full of nothingness." This Prelude and No. 2 were the ones Federico Fellini used in his Satyricon, in versions I had specially ' revised for the film. PRELUDE No. 14 was composed at a time when I was acquiring better comprehension of the essential (but efficiently covered up) function of music: if music can talk and sing, as it does, then it should do so only about what's going on and what's to be done, about (social, political, economic) realities, truths, and actions. Its traditional privilege to remain mute I still recognize, but only if a message is conveyed by way of titles, program notes, performance instructions, etc. Hence the title of this all electronic, all mute Prelude of 1973--Face The Windmills, Turn Left. PRELUDE No. 16 is set to a poem by. Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) whom I regard (many do) as the greatest poet of revolutionary struggles. It is titled "On A Painting By Abidin Dino-The Long March" As I was translating it from the Turkish (not for a musical purpose at first) I imagined a melody in the voice of Janis Siegel (of that extraordinary vocal group, The Manhattan Transfer) whom I had not even met at the time. Eventually I contacted her and asked her to sing it for me. Rarely have I been so right in my conceptualizations. Ilhan Mimaroglu Note: Of the compositions referred to in the above text, Tract and To Kill A Sunrise are released on Folkways, FTS 33441 and FTQ 33951 respectively. Session will be released on a forthcoming Finnadar album. Notes from Finnadar 90104-1: SIDE ONE 1. STILL LIFE 1980 (10:04) for cello & tape CHARLES McCRACKEN, cello 2. THE OFFERING (8:48) for tape with pre-recorded voice. Text by Johann Sebastian Bach. French text from the Boosey & Hawkes edition of J. S. Bach, Musical Offering. Hans Gal, Editor. Used by permission. JEAN DUPUY, speaker. SIDE TWO 2. MUSIC PLUS ONE (10:37) for violin & tape. GABRIEL BANAT, violin. 3. IMMOLATIOM SCENE (6:44) for voice & tape. Poems by Semra Ertan. English versions by Ilhan Mimaroglu. Fragments of Poems by Heinrich Heine (in German & English). DORIS HAYS, singer/speaker. All the selections were composed by llhan Mimaroglu. Music Plus One is published by Seesaw Music Corp., ASCAP. All the other selections are published by Tallapciosa Music, ASCAP. The tape parts were realized in the studios of Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, New York, N.Y. Music Plus One was recorded in 1970 under the Recording-Publication program of the Ford Foundation and previously released on Turnabout TV-S 34429. The present reissue is made by arrangement with the Seesaw Music Corp., sole owners of the master tapes. All the other selections appear on recordings for the first time. Mastered by George Piros, Atlantic Studios, New York, N.Y. STILL LIFE (1980) In a performance of a Brecht play, the loud thumps of the dance beat coming from the discotheque next door were heard throughout the evening...In Bulgaria, Lenin and Coca-Cola were seen side by side, both in neon lights...And in London the house of Karl Marx, now situated amidst porn shops... There is no pictorial reference in the title of the piece, but an allusion to the decaying and anachronistic quality of the contemporary life. Hence still life, here, does not mean nature-morte, but une vie morte. It was a still life in 1980. Still, it was life. It still is-and it still is. Somewhat akin to a passacaglia (but in quadruple meter and not adhering to a recurrent harmonic pattern), the piece follows the outer formal structure of a main theme, preceded by a brief introduction and followed by nine variations, a cadenza and a coda. Except for the cadenza, the tape plays uninterruptedly, while the cello contributes its often agonized song of lamentation. If there is a conflict between the two, it is one of man against man, not of man against machine. But there is more of a conformity between them, an uneasy camaraderie, and a complicity toward the avoidance of responsibility. (One listener aptly described the piece as "a dance party in a concentration camp.") THE OFFERING (1979) The text (in a French translation) is J.S. Bach's dedication of his Musical Offering to Frederick the Great of Prussia. The musical material is based on fragments from Bach's music, including the ones taken from Musical Offering. The diversity of musical vocabularies resulting from the transformation of the material and the complex textures created by superimpositions aim at a stylistic significance which both comprises and exceeds a specific age (J.S. Bach's). The intent is to establish an expressionistic, nightmarish textural quality by which to comment upon the debased condition of those who create music-the beggarly humility of composers at the feet of the holders of money and power, a predicament as timely today as it has always been. Here is an English translation of Bach's text: Sire, With the profoundest feeling of submission, I take the liberty of presenting you a Musical Offering the noblest part of which is by the hand of your Majesty. It is with a respectful pleasure that I still remember your Majesty's gracious condescension when I visited Potsdam, some time ago, in playing on the clavier the theme for a fugue which you commanded me to develop in your august presence, it was my humblest duty to obey your Majesty's command. But I immediately became aware of the fact that, lacking the necessary preparation. It was not possible for me to treat such an excellent theme in a deserving fashion. Therefore I decided to give this truly royal theme a perfect treatment, and then to make it known to the whole world. My project is now completed to the extent of my ability and I have no other intention than the laudable desire to augment, however small that may be, the glory of a monarch whose power and greatness are admired by all in the arts of war and peace, particularly in music. I am bold enough to add this humble request-that your Majesty will condescend to accept this modest work and continue to favor Your majesty's most obediant and humble servant, THE AUTHOR The text is read in a manner representing the process of writing a letter; certain words and phrases are emphasized by repetition- statements that the writer believes would flatter the reader. It is rendered in French rather than in English or Bach's German. Initially I conceived it as a trilingual setting. The first speaker I could get was Jean Dupuy who gave me an excellent reading in French. As I started to develop the piece around his reading I became more and more convinced that the composition would be complete without the German and the English texts and that was how the piece took its course. MUSIC PLUS ONE (1970) By Music, only the tape part is meant-that which has already been conceived and concretized in terms of sound-to which the indefinite and abstract One is added. The latter is represented by what is written on paper. Although commonly referred to as music, it is not music unless translated into sound (by a violinist). In this recorded realization, One has become music, too. Hence the title properly applies to all the other possible realizations which shouldn't significantly differ from the one heard on this record as the system of notation I used is thoroughly conventional. The style, as well, is "conventional," at least in the sense that it reflects my response to a certain brand of conventional violin writing. Alongside my inclination to use the past as the fantasy of the present (not to speak of the present which may often be perceived as its own fiendish fantasy), the fact that the piece was composed to be performed first by a virtuoso of Gabriel Banat's stature also determined the character of the violin part. As to the meaning of this music, One and all, no further word is needed than a reference to the context of the program into which it is placed. That, of course, goes for everything else that's part of this context. IMMOLATION SCENE (1983) (Brunnhilde leaps into Siegfried's funeral pyre. Valhalla is engulfed in flames. The wretched empire of the gods is no more. The ring is cleansed from the curse. A new era of human love dawns.) One day last year (1982), an unemployed Turkish "guest worker" in Germany, Semra Ertan, young woman of 25, set herself on fire in a Hamburg public square. "Shame on all those who made me fall into such a condition" were her last words, while dying in the blaze. Some poetry she had written universalizes her condition. (Rentner, Sozialempfanger, Schwerbehinderte...Pensioner, welfare recipient, severely handicapped...) Follow two Heine fragments. One, in German, is sung: Die Alten, Bosen Lieder, Die Traume bos' und arg, Die lasst, uns jetzt begraben, Holt einen grossen Sarg. The old, evil songs, The wicked, depraved dreams, Let us bury them now; Fetch a large coffin. The other, in an English translation, is spoken. Then, it's the silence of darkness. (The fire that consumed her did not cleanse the world from the curse. The citadel of the demons remains untouched. Evil rules as mightily as ever.) Ilhan Mimaroglu About the performers: GABRIEL BANAT is a member of the New York Philharmonic. He is the editor of Masters of the Violin, six volumes of facsimile reprints of rediscovered works by 17th and 18th century violinist performers (published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich). He gave many first performances of music by contemporary American composers. JEAN DUPUY is a mixed media artist living in New York. He is the editor of a book titled Collective Consciousness: Art Performances in the 70s (published by Performing Arts Journal). DORIS HAYS is a pianist, composer and mixed media artist. In all three capacities she tours Europe and the United States extensively. She recorded for Finnadar an album of Henry Cowell's piano music (SR 9016) and one of piano music by contemporary composers, "Adoration of the Clash" (SR 2-720). An album of her own compositions, "Voicings," is on Folkways Records (FTS 37476). CHARLES McCRACKEN is the recipient of the Most Valuable Player Award from the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. A member of the Marlboro Trio and the Beaux Arts String Quartet, he has been heard with various orchestras, as a guest artist at the White House, in European recital tours and several years' membership with the Galimir Quartet. He recorded for Finnadar Beethoven's (No. 5) and Barber's Cello Sonatas (90076-1).