Re: [NetBehaviour] ~~wards, qin improvisation
thanks Alan On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 2:47 AM Alan Sondheim wrote: > > Qin slows you up by its very nature, I think. Even though I don't (and > can't) play traditionally, it's hard to play fast on a 200-400 year old > instrument... It's a different experience - > > On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, Simon Mclennan via NetBehaviour wrote: > > > Really meditative and great Alan. Enjoyed this. > > It?s a great contrast to your recent acoustic guitar improv pieces which > move differently. > > Simon > > > > Sent from my spyphone > > > >> On 13 Oct 2020, at 15:23, Alan Sondheim wrote: > >> > >> > >> > >> ~~wards, qin improvisation > >> > >> http://www.alansondheim.org/wards.jpg qin > >> http://www.alansondheim.org/wards.mp3 sound > >> > >> I hadn't played the quqin for several months; one has to come to > >> it, I think, at least for me, in the proper state of mind. This > >> is the older of my two instruments, some centuries old, unsigned, > >> originally designed for silk strings. I keep the metal strings > >> tuned low. I try I want (not I desire) to keep to its nature as > >> well. I love this improvisation. There's a slight ringing on one > >> of the harmonics due to the nature of the glass table I use for > >> the qin. The table was originally for packages and down in the > >> lobby of the building we live in. It was being thrown out, and > >> we had another rescue. It's the perfect length. We found an old > >> chair from around 1850 maybe that's the perfect height. Stephen > >> Dydo brought the qin to life. Originally, I asked the luthier > >> Candelario Delgado to make a tuning apparatus which was > >> non-traditional but worked for a long time. Dydo restored the > >> original, including adding two legs which had disappeared a > >> long time ago, before I had it. As I've written before, I found > >> the instrument in New Hampshire at an antique shop for eighteen > >> dollars. When I left the proprietor asked what I wanted that old > >> board for. I improvise only on it; I don't read qin notation. I > >> listen a lot to qin music, I've know qin players, including Fred > >> Lieberman, who was partly responsible, I think, for introducing > >> the instrument to the United States. He told me I'd never learn > >> to play it. Stephen Dydo has been amazingly generous and helpful > >> and I've learned to play it. I have to add, not all the way up > >> the scale, and my right hand fingers don't hold the traditional > >> postures. I have to also add I've had it for half a century and > >> we accommodate each other. The improvisation is called 'wards' > >> because it's inwards, outwards, upwards, downwards, forwards, > >> backwards, but mainly in wards. Any relationship to asylum wards > >> is coincidental, hopefully, enjoy. The Album Stephen and I did > >> together for ESP, Dragon and Phoenix, issued by ESP-Disk, is > >> available online. It's described and can be purchased at > >> http://www.espdisk.com/5019.html . Thank you! > >> > >> ___ > >> > >> ___ > >> NetBehaviour mailing list > >> NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org > >> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > ___ > > NetBehaviour mailing list > > NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org > > https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > web http://www.alansondheim.org/index.html cell 347-383-8552 > current text http://www.alansondheim.org/xp.txt > ___ > NetBehaviour mailing list > NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org > https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > ___ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
Re: [NetBehaviour] swansong
Hi Max, I didn't really think of it as a gladiatorial chamber - not sure what it was, fortification perhaps? In any case of course in London. I imagined people going up and down the stairs. Azure and I went both recent times to all the Roman sites we could find; I'm fascinated by the almost geological occlusions they represent. I've also stayed near the Lutece arena when I've been in Paris, by the way. It also was a bus depot at one time. The swans, like a Japanese painting of a certain period, at the edge of the void, where all creation sooner or later sleeps, however not so peacefully perhaps, nor ever waking up - best, Alan On Sun, 18 Oct 2020, Max Herman via NetBehaviour wrote: I like these images Alan! A gladiatorial chamber like a cistern of bloodletting, and an angle of gravel with resting sinuosity: rivers and ancient might. They remind me of the trip I made to Europe last May and June, which to me is now most halcyon of the world before what we have now, a crown of consequences, lysis, and death down to the first molecules of our frames. At the time I was very interested in the then-upcoming solstice of summer 2019, and how it might relate to stone circles, pantheons, and the indigenous medicine wheel (viewed from an internally and externally European afar). In Paris we stayed on the Rue de Boulangers with a view from the third floor of the Ar?nes de Lut?ce, closed today for Covid-19, seen in fragments through green branches. One could imagine it soaked in blood, or pageants and music after enormous banquets, but also now mainly for football and reading, beautiful in the sun or the rain. Rivers of that summer were the Arno and Seine, accompanied by the bays and hillside streams of the picturesque Cinque Terre, and then of course later back home by the Mississippi. I can't remember any birds at all, even at the gardens of Luxembourg, but there must have been some. Another rocky arena in Nice, and the rocky beach too which had a lovely green-blue color to swim in. I'm sure I must have seen pigeons and seagulls on the trip, and wish I had seen fish, but I can't remember any of either specifically which makes me a little sad. I guess for me the image that contains this all most fairly is the "mill of the heavens" or the 25,772 year precession of the north stars. It's a big set of nested cycles all going on its terrifyingly slow and eventful path at lightning speed, a millstone slightly off its axis and grinding out not just peace and life but the evils of war and waste, tended by deposed persons of conscience who live partly by procrastination and partly by camoflage. Yet the mill does turn on! All very best wishes to all, Max ___ From: NetBehaviour on behalf of Alan Sondheim Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2020 10:43 PM To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity Subject: [NetBehaviour] swansong swansong http://www.alansondheim.org/london0249.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/slow.jpg ___ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour web http://www.alansondheim.org/index.html cell 347-383-8552 current text http://www.alansondheim.org/xp.txt___ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
Re: [NetBehaviour] swansong
I like these images Alan! A gladiatorial chamber like a cistern of bloodletting, and an angle of gravel with resting sinuosity: rivers and ancient might. They remind me of the trip I made to Europe last May and June, which to me is now most halcyon of the world before what we have now, a crown of consequences, lysis, and death down to the first molecules of our frames. At the time I was very interested in the then-upcoming solstice of summer 2019, and how it might relate to stone circles, pantheons, and the indigenous medicine wheel (viewed from an internally and externally European afar). In Paris we stayed on the Rue de Boulangers with a view from the third floor of the Arènes de Lutèce, closed today for Covid-19, seen in fragments through green branches. One could imagine it soaked in blood, or pageants and music after enormous banquets, but also now mainly for football and reading, beautiful in the sun or the rain. Rivers of that summer were the Arno and Seine, accompanied by the bays and hillside streams of the picturesque Cinque Terre, and then of course later back home by the Mississippi. I can't remember any birds at all, even at the gardens of Luxembourg, but there must have been some. Another rocky arena in Nice, and the rocky beach too which had a lovely green-blue color to swim in. I'm sure I must have seen pigeons and seagulls on the trip, and wish I had seen fish, but I can't remember any of either specifically which makes me a little sad. I guess for me the image that contains this all most fairly is the "mill of the heavens" or the 25,772 year precession of the north stars. It's a big set of nested cycles all going on its terrifyingly slow and eventful path at lightning speed, a millstone slightly off its axis and grinding out not just peace and life but the evils of war and waste, tended by deposed persons of conscience who live partly by procrastination and partly by camoflage. Yet the mill does turn on! All very best wishes to all, Max From: NetBehaviour on behalf of Alan Sondheim Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2020 10:43 PM To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity Subject: [NetBehaviour] swansong swansong http://www.alansondheim.org/london0249.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/slow.jpg ___ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour ___ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
