PowerPoint Presentation The Cornelius Cardew Choir: a blossoming...

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The Cornelius Cardew Choir
a unique blossoming of community and music in the
SF Bay Area
a presentation in honor of Cornelius Cardews
70th Birthday
Tom Bickley, CSU East Bay with Members of the
Cornelius Cardew Choir
for the West Coast Conference of the Music
Library Association 29 April 2006
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What IS a cardew?
a. a Welsh family name
b. a design firm noted for decorative teapots
c. an English composer/performer central to the
development of experimental music
Meaning -gt Black fort. Language-gt Old Welsh.
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Cornelius Cardew born 6 May 1936
Chorister at Canterbury Cathedral School
Killed by a hit and run driver on 13 December 1981
Student at Royal Academy of Music
Co-founded Revolutionary Communist Party of the UK
Active performing new music In London
Assistant to Karlheinz Stockhausen
Rejected the avant-garde In pursuit of social
justice
Encountered John Cage and David Tudor in Germany
Co-founded the Scratch Orchestra
Taught at RAM and Morley College
Championed American experimental approach
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Experimental Music in London
Cardews legacy lives on
a large urban area
AMM (John Tilbury Keith Rowe, Eddie Prevost)
center of cultural activity
draws people from all over the world and from
divergent musical cultures
Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton
Strong influences from edges of jazz (Lol
Coxhill and Evan Parker)
historically a center of social activism
notably high cost of living
Inclusive ethos, suspicious of musical
establishment
Festival of Experimental Music South Bank
Centre, May 1998
London Musicians Collective
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Experimental Music in the San Francisco Bay Area
experimental legacy lives on
a large urban area
Robert Ericksons SFSU Class
center of cultural activity
draws people from all over the world and from
divergent musical cultures
San Francisco Tape Music Center
Mills Colleges Center for Contemporary Music
historically a center of social activism
Strong influences from edges of jazz
(John Coltrane, Anthony Braxton)
notably high cost of living
Inclusive ethos, suspicious of musical
establishment
Other Minds
sfAlt Festival
ba-newmus listserv and the Transbay Creative
Music Calendar
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Pauline Oliveros born 30 May 1932
SFSU student of Robert Erickson (with
classmates Terry Riley and Stuart Dempster)
Co-founder of the SF Tape Music Center
Mills College Music faculty 1966-present
founder of Deep Listening practice
Activist for women in music and society
teacher of many Bay Area musicians
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Founding of the Cornelius Cardew Choir
Impetus from experiences at the 1998 LMC Festival
of Experimental Music and Deep Listening Retreats
Springtime 2001 conversations intiated by Tom
Bickley with Bob Marsh and Kattt Sammon
Further discussions about experimental
choral/vocal music with musicians in the Bay Area
scene
Initial organizing meeting held on May Day
2001 In Kattt Sammons living room on California
St., In Berkeley 14 people attended
First performance on 11 November 2001 at the
Berkeley Art Center
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Social Political practice
radical hospitality
backseat composing
assumption of mutual respect and goodwill
commitment to high level of performance
practice globally needed change on a local level
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Social Political practice
examples from our repertory
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Social Political practice
examples from our repertory
3 excerpts From Paragraph 7
1. If
2. Trivial
3. hum and Mistake not cliff for morass and
treacherous bramble
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Social Political practice
examples from our repertory
Employing musicological insights creating our
own editions
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Social Political practice
examples from our repertory
EMBEDDED Composed by Viv Corringham (2003) For
the Cornelius Cardew Choir (note each
performer will need several front pages of
newspaper taped or glued to form a sheet which
can cover the perfomer entirely while crouched or
lying down. TB) All performers begin crouched
or lying down, concealed under a large paper
sheet created from newspaper front pages. Begin
to sound, quietly at first. Use breath-long
phrases containing two notes. Each phrase can
use a different pair of notes and the two notes
can be sung in any way- alternating, mainly one
note, with fast or slow changes, with or without
slurring, trilled etc Begin to move under the
sheet, allowing the sounds made by the paper to
become part of the piece. Tear strips from the
sheet so that your mouth can break through, and
then elbows, feet or other body parts. Rip your
way out entirely. Take strips of newspaper to
use as texts. Use words from your text in any
way you choose. A collaborative,
transformational poem will be sounded from these
destroyed and re-created texts.
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Social Political practice
examples from our repertory
Rokkaku by Tom Duff
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Social Political practice
examples from our repertory
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Social Political practice
examples from our repertory
Developing our interpretation of Wind Horse
Email correspondence and calendar work
Distribution of score via a non-public website
Email discussion of the score
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Social Political practice
examples from our repertory
Developing our interpretation of Wind Horse
Face to face rehearsing
movement warm-up
vocal warm-up
The Name Meditation from Deep Listening repertory
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Social Political practice
examples from our repertory
Developing our interpretation of Wind Horse
Face to face rehearsing continued
yes
Questions? Improvements?
no
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Social Political practice performance of Wind
Horse
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Social Political practice
(Y)our Questions and comments
Particular thanks to
Meridian Gallery
Joseph Zitt
Jason Gibbs
Steven Tobiin
Brad Fischer
Sarah Rose Stiles
Tommy Soden
Tom Duff
Katherine Setar
Dave Cowen
Viv Corringham
Kattt Sammon
Pauline Oliveros
Judy Clarence
Bob Marsh
Alvin Curran
Berkeley Art Center
Richard Links
Nancy Beckman
Cathryn Hrudicka
http//www.metatronpress.com/artists/cardewchoir/
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Social Political practice
You are invited to join us in celebrating the
Sixth Anniversary of the founding of the
Cornelius Cardew Choir the 70th Birthday of
Cornelius Cardew and May Day
630 pm Sunday 30 April 2006 John Hinkel Park 41
Somerset Av (Southampton Avenue, between San
Diego Road) and Somerset Place, Berkeley, CA