Text
\nSound Poetry<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I
\ncreated several pieces using manipulated speech recordings, starting in the
\nfall of 2003. After creating
\nseveral of these pieces, I became aware of a genre called Text Sound Poetry. Charles Amirkhanian gave me a copy of
\nOther Mind\u2019s re-release of 10 + 2: 12 American Text Sound Pieces<\/i> and coincidentally, I finally bought the
\ncopy of the re-released OU<\/i>
\narchives that had been temping me for months. Phillip Schulze, an exchange student, gave me a copy of Terre Thaemlitz\u2019s album Interstices<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Text Sound seems to be especially well suited to political
\nexpression. Often, a political
\nwork suffers a tension between the political\/text content and the musical
\ncontent. Either the political
\nmessage or the music often must be sacrificed. However, in the Text Sound genre, the text content is the
\nmusical content. Composers like
\nSten Hanson, Steve Reich and Terre Thaemlitz are able to create pieces where
\ncomplaints about the Vietnam War, gender discrimination and police brutality
\nform the substance of the piece.
\nTo engage the piece is to engage the political content.<\/p>\n
Reich\u2019s
\npieces are less obvious than Hanson and Thaemlitz. The loop process he uses it Its Gonna Rain<\/i> is auditorially interesting, but the
\nmeaning of the piece is not immediately clear to a modern listener. Many discussions of his pieces
\neliminate the political content and focus on the process. Before I did research on this piece I
\nwas disturbed by the implications of a white composer taking the words of an
\nAfrican American and obscuring them until the content was lost to the
\nprocess. It seemed as if he was
\nexploiting the preacher somehow.
\nHowever, according to Four Musical Minimalists<\/i>, Reich was deeply involved in anti-racist
\norganizing and was collaborating on anti-racist street theatre with the San
\nFrancisco Mime Troop. The
\nbook also stated that Reich was fascinated with deep timbres of African
\nAmerican voices.<\/p>\n
Right
\nnow, speaking for black people and saying that you’re fascinated by the timbres
\nof their voices would be extremely problematic. (I was surprised to see that
\nthe book had a very recent publication date.) But this all took place in the
\n60’s and it’s appropriate to judge his intentions only according to what was
\nconsidered progressive at the time. He was on the right side of things.
\nHowever, when one is trying to learn from this to figure out what to do now<\/i>, one has to take into account current
\nnotions of progressivism.<\/p>\n
Come Investigating <\/p>\n I I <\/p>\n Instead, <\/p>\n Fortunately Obviously, Fortunately, This However, Coulter did say that we should \u201cInvade While Making <\/p>\n On the other hand, as Brock notes, most Antebellum logics are a threat to queers, Text Sound Poetry I created several pieces using manipulated speech recordings, starting in the fall of 2003. After creating several of these pieces, I became aware of a genre called Text Sound Poetry. Charles Amirkhanian gave me a copy of Other Mind\u2019s re-release of 10 + 2: 12 American Text Sound Pieces and … Continue reading draft of text sound introduction<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3357,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions\/3357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOut<\/i> is an extremely
\neffective piece of political music. One of my questions was whether or not
\n"come out" had a possible double meaning at the time the piece was
\nwritten. It did not. That phrase as a signifier for visible queer identity
\noriginated in the 1970’s or 80’s. Instead Reich’s sample is made into a very
\neffective loop where the words "come out to show them" and then just
\n"come out" are plucked from their original context and by repetition
\ngain their own meaning of protest. Reich transforms the words from a statement
\nof victim hood to a statement of protest. (According to
\nyoung African American men who were beat by the police in Harlem. One of them
\nis describing how he was injured and wanted medical attention but wasn’t
\nvisibly bleeding, so had to open is wound to allow some of "the bruise
\nblood to come out to show them."
\nAworks blog points out that the piece was written as a fundraiser for
\nthe victims of the police brutality. (Gable)<\/p>\n
\nReich\u2019s work was influential to me.
\nI want to be aware of the issues I encountered in his work and keep on
\nthe current left side of progressivism. When someone who has privilege is using
\nthe words of someone who does not have privilege, it seems that extra care
\nshould be taken to avoid distortion.
\nI have done this thus far by mostly only using the voice of my political
\nenemies rather than my friends.
\nHowever, the transformative nature of Come Out<\/i> is entirely inspiring. It is one of my favorite pieces of
\npolitical music. In his seminar in the fall of 2004, Alvin Lucier warned that
\nthe danger of using text that you admire is the urge to elevate it
\nsomehow. Reich does elevate the
\ntext, but not like a gilded manuscript.
\nHis elevation is sensitive and entirely appropriate to the material.<\/p>\n
\nfirst became aware of Sten Hanson\u2019s piece The Glorious Desertion<\/i> while listening to the OU<\/i> archives. It is an excellent piece about American involvement in the
\nVietnam War. Hanson is European, yet
\nthe piece eloquently captures a picture of American politics of draft
\nresistance during the war. It is
\nmade up of interviews of draft resistors.
\nAlthough the war is long since ended, the piece is still engaging and
\ninteresting and avoids being dated. What makes it work is that the issues it raises are large and
\niconic of an era. There is a clip
\nwithin it of men chanting \u201cHell no, we won\u2019t go.\u201d This chant is still within the national consciousness as an
\nemblem of a large, long-lasting, successful movement. <\/p>\n
\nfear that my own text pieces will not wear so well over time. I believe the key to the longevity of
\nHanson\u2019s pieces is his choice of source material. He uses the voices of people
\nwho actually believe in something larger than themselves. If I am going to keep making political
\ntext-based pieces, I need to find voices that stand for something. I need to pick prominent issues. Alas, this is hard to predict. I though prison torture mattered, but
\nit does not, because it is only a part of a bigger picture. If I want to do anti-war pieces, I
\nshould follow Hanson\u2019s lead and use the words of soldiers or activists.<\/p>\n
\nI began my foray into Test Sound pieces by using the voice of President George
\nW. Bush. I created two pieces
\nusing his voice that are described in the next chapter. Ron Kuivila warned about using the
\nvoices of politicians because of the danger of a short shelf life. As the election approached, I began to
\nsee the wisdom in this caution.
\nClearly, I thought, Bush would be removed from office (alas!). I began to look for a source of sound
\nmaterial that was going to stay current longer, and preferably also from the
\nright wing.<\/p>\n
\nfor me, David Brock, author of Blinded by the Right<\/i> decided to start monitoring right wing
\nmedia for distortions. His book
\ndetails how there exists a right wing echo chamber, which he participated in
\nduring the Clinton administration.
\nAnti-Clinton people would invent scandals, where someone would imagine a
\nstory about Clinton, and the right wing media would repeat the lie. There was virtually no fact checking to
\nverify the imagined Clinton misdeeds.
\nOne media outlet would report it.
\nAnother would report that the first outlet had reported it. Another would notice that
\nreporting. Finally, the buzz
\ncreated by the right wing would be picked up by the mainstream and by the
\nendless partisan special prosecutor investigations. The result of this, as we all know, is that Clinton, who was
\ninvestigated initially for a land deal that went bad, ended up being impeached
\nfor having a consensual affair. If
\nLarry Flint hadn’t stepped in and exposed the then speaker of the House’s
\nrecent affair, Clinton would likely have been removed from office. Larry Flint saved our democracy (at
\nleast until 2000).<\/p>\n
\nsomething had to be done about this situation. David Brock wrote a confessional memoir and then
\nenthusiastically switched sides.
\nAmericans love their converts and so the left has enthusiastically
\nsupported Brock, despite his confession of lying in virtually every article he
\nhad written until then.<\/p>\n
\nhis recent efforts are all well documented and verified. In an effort to expose right wing spin
\nand echo as lies before it becomes part of mainstream political culture, he
\nbegan to post outrageous comments by pundits on his website
\nmediaMatters.org. In addition to
\nposting the text of offensive comments, he also provides documentary audio and
\nvideo clips.<\/p>\n
\ndocumentary evidence seemed to be a goldmine. It was a treasure trove of right wing voices. And what\u2019s more, the offensive content
\nwas already cherry picked. No
\nlonger would I have to do text searches of Bush\u2019s speech transcripts and then
\nlook for a recording of it. I
\ncould find all the pundits I wanted and only have their worst comments to
\nlisten to. I reasoned that pundits
\nmay rise and fall in popularity, but they often last for years. Rush Limbaugh has had a radio show for
\nmore than ten years and has thousands of rabid followers. His voice is iconic. He was the first pundit I downloaded
\nsamples of. However, I found his
\nvoice initially difficult to work with. Limbaugh is hard to pull apart. He is not sound bitey. He says nothing immediately
\nreprehensible. It takes a few
\nmoments to realize that he’s reprehensible. After experimenting with Limbaugh\u2019s
\nvoice, I turned to Ann Coulter. Her
\noutrageous, short sound bites were much easier to manipulate. Limbaugh requires several minutes to
\ngrok. Coulter requires mere
\nseconds. My success with Coulter
\nlead me back to Limbaugh and on to other pundits.<\/p>\n
\nI fear that my pundit music has an even more limited lifespan than my Bush
\nmusic. Rabid, right wing pundits
\ndo not focus on broad issues. The
\nfocus on the GOP talking point of the day and on attacking their opponents with
\nwhatever the echo chamber kicks up.
\nIt may turn out to be something that changes the course of history, like
\nMonica Lewinsky, or it might be later easily forgettable like \u201cTravelgate,\u201d
\nHoward Dean screaming, or Kerry throwing away combat ribbons during a protest. In a short time, people will have
\ntrouble remembering the name of the losing challenger, let alone the guy who
\nlost the primary in New Hampshire.
\nPundits themselves may outlast these candidates, but if the content of
\ntheir speech is made up of dated issues, then the speech also becomes
\ndated. Pundits only touch on broad
\nsocial issues as asides in their focused attacks, except for only
\noccasionally. <\/p>\n
\ntheir countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity\u201d, where
\n\u201cthey\u201d are the people of the Middle East.
\nShe touches on the national mood but – one hopes – she does not
\nrepresent a mass movement. She represents a political elite, and not even an
\nelected elite. Her words will not
\nlastingly resonate unless, God forbid, she wins a prominent public office. These pundits do not stand for anything
\nlarger than themselves. Their
\nwords reflect self-glorification first and everything else second. Michael Savage\u2019s pro-torture remarks
\nwere filled with interjections complaining that other media outlets (aside from
\nhim, of course) were \u201ccommunists.\u201d
\nHe paused for self-aggrandizing comments. \u201cYou like that?!
\nGo complain to somebody!
\nSee if I care.\u201d Rush
\nLimbaugh uses silly voices more often than not. He is in love with the sound of his voice. He stands only for himself. Ann Coulter is dazzled by her own
\ncleverness and never bothers to construct a coherent argument. These pundits are cynical. They only believe in their own
\ngreatness. They do not exist to
\nconvert, but rather to preach to their own choirs.<\/p>\n
\nI enjoy Text Sound Poetry, especially what I found in the OU<\/i> archives, I think that my time working
\nwith pundits is past. In the end,
\nI\u2019m frustrated. I thought that
\npeople would be appalled at Limbaugh defending prison torture. However, it\u2019s
\nnot an effective political piece because people are not appalled. They don\u2019t care. Someone finally managed to neutralize
\nempathy. Prison torture was not
\nenough to cost Bush an election.
\nIt\u2019s only Arabs and terrorists and bad guys that get tortured. When Michael Savage calls Iraqis \u201csub
\nhumans,\u201d he speaks for America.<\/p>\n
\nleftist experimental music is inherently futile. The politically dominant far right doesn\u2019t like experimental
\nmusic and will not listen to it.
\nIf they did listen to it, they wouldn\u2019t be persuaded by my content. They don\u2019t see anything wrong with
\ndefending prison torture. I,
\nlike the pundits themselves, end up preaching to the choir.<\/p>\n
\ncentrists and leftist are blissfully unaware of how the far right is changing
\ndiscourse. Bringing this to the
\nattention of the left may hopefully inspire them to fight it. At the least, one hopes that all of the
\nAlien Others constantly attacked by the right wing would begin to feel
\nsolidarity. Arabs and queers are
\noften used almost interchangeably. Imus in the Morning<\/i> described an Iraqi resistance fighter as
\n\u201can enemy combatant who had sworn fidelity to some bearded fatwa fairy.\u201d (
\nQueers stand-in for almost any social \u201cproblem.\u201d Bill Cunningham said while
\ndiscussing classroom discipline on Hannity & Colmes<\/i>, \u201cIn the good old days, back when AIDS
\nwas an appetite suppressant and when gay meant you were happy, back in those
\ndays there was discipline in public schools. But not today.\u201d (http:\/\/mediamatters.org\/items\/200503040003)
\nAh yes, back when people knew their place and social norms could be enforced
\nwith lynching, in that mythical golden age, children were well-behaved. <\/p>\n
\nto people of color, to women, to atheists and to anyone who wants to avoid a
\npolice state. When Bush complains about pop culture and Limbaugh defends prison
\ntorture and Michael Savage calls queer members of the \u201cturd world,\u201d this is a
\ntreat to my future ability to survive in this country. I keep saying that I\u2019m done with
\npundits, and then I keep working on just one more piece. I feel compelled to engage these
\nthreats.
\nThis post is Copyright 2005 Celeste Hutchins. All rights reserved. It is not Creative Commons Licensed.
\nTag: Celesteh<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"