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The Surreal Carrousel

b_elliott

A work in progress.
This past week I first learned of @Tatiana Gordeeva's new work in progress based on the Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train (1951). I finally had a chance to watch it today. Yay.

I decided to give it a different angle of attack (in a musical sense) using the new-to-me cut-up technique from Wm. S. Burroughs. My cut-ups are random elements from the film soundtrack (both dialog + music) interspersed with Microsoft Jane and Tarzan reading a DAW user guide = a dizzying, whirling, up and down-i-ness like the merry-go-round ponies and their giddy agendas.

My Carrousel Cut-up

"Hey let's sing. Come on!"
Or it's "Glad to meet you."
Do you understand?

Talk.
I don't talk very much.
And in the--it's a good idea.

In the highest
Though -- motive! -- he's awfully cute.
Tour music session
evitom Motive!

Operations... fourth
Don't forget your sleeping bag.

And in the "How do you do?" [Carousel music plays out.]

===
Hitchcock or a user manual. Which is more frightening? You decide.

Cheers, Bill

iu


Edit: added Carrousel word cut-ups.
 

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Ah Bill, you are such an agent provocateur, mentioning the découpé technique of the dadaists! :) I also alluded to them here

Fragmenting the music, the carousel becoming like a sound zoetrope.
Interesting idea as always! :)
 
Ha ha. I just re-read your link "avante guard" and its mention of Dadists and Cabaret Voltaire. Clearly lotta stuff went over my head. :emoji_upside_down::thumbsdown:

Knowing you are as knowledgeable as you are, I did some studying. I discovered the following:

1. Dada’ translates to several unrelated objects and concepts across multiple languages, from ‘cube’ in some Italian dialects to ‘hobby horse’ in French. [Notice the connection: Dada - Hobby horse - carousel?]

2. You teased me in response to my nonsense [post #12 here].
I quote: "Guess who was playing bass in my score... :sneaky:"

3. I got you now young lady.! Your bassist was a dadist all along:

hugo_ball_cabaret_voltaire.jpg
Hugo Bell. :P

Cheers, Bill
 
Bill, you found me out! My friend, Hugo's son, also a unrepentant dadaist, was indeed playing all contrabasses in my piece! :)

I think you would have found Hugo's way of thinking quite appealing and similar to your own in many ways... He was also an original! ;)

20211128_104110334.jpeg
 
Bill, you found me out! My friend, Hugo's son, also a unrepentant dadaist, was indeed playing all contrabasses in my piece! :)

I think you would have found Hugo's way of thinking quite appealing and similar to your own in many ways... He was also an original! ;)
Fascinating. Though I did not realize it, I currently have on my plate this week a contemporary avant-gardist, Alejandro Jodorowsky.

First heard of him through Peter Gabriel's connection to him during the realization of Genesis' masterwork The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

This week's watch/study: El Topo (1970); La Danza de Realidad (2013).

Hoping from there I can put together some ideas for the Member's composition forum i.e., something new.
 
Notice the connection: Dada - Hobby horse - carousel?
Interestingly funny! After consulting my French-speaking 'hubby" (pun!) it seems that in French the word "dada" mostly means "someone's hobby" like in "mon dada est..." = "my hobby is...". Although apparently correct, he has never heard of 'dada" used to designate a horse, real or otherwise. Maybe in France?
 
Interestingly funny! After consulting my French-speaking 'hubby" (pun!)
Haha. Cute.

it seems that in French the word "dada" mostly means "someone's hobby" like in "mon dada est..." = "my hobby is...". Although apparently correct, he has never heard of 'dada" used to designate a horse, real or otherwise. Maybe in France?

The article I quoted the dada definition is here.

My guess, since Cabaret Voltaire is in Switzerland, possibly some local speaker would recognize the dialect; or, the word itself is just dada-lect. :rolleyes:

BTW I just completed watching El Topo.

One thing Jodorowsky features in this movie is his miming skills which he learned in Paris. He is quite good. But there is a connection:
I seem to recall that Stravinsky composed Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914) soon after seeing one of Europe's top mime artist perform in France. I can't now locate the article, but there was also an early 1900's video on-line showing a hilarious performance of the mime Stravinsky was inspired by (the mimist routine involved super-long shoes (almost stilt like)).... a cool connection.

Cheers, Bill
 
The article I quoted the dada definition is here.
About the Cabaret Voltaire it is written that :

In the 21st century..."the building has reopened and still embraces its Dadaist roots. It’s a café, show room, education centre and a meeting point for the disillusioned and the politically inspired: in essence it’s much the same as when it was first born."

I'm sure that it found plenty of new patrons during these troubled, strange times we live in. ;)
 
It would have been a curious atmosphere to have been around Cafe Voltaire's beginning days.

I wonder what music got performed while coffee was drunk, dada discussed? Maybe Hitchcock's feature of The Band Played On made its rounds inside CV....
Cheers, Bill
 
It would have been a curious atmosphere to have been around Cafe Voltaire's beginning days.
I wonder what music got performed while coffee was drunk, dada discussed? Maybe Hitchcock's feature of The Band Played On made its rounds inside CV....
Cheers, Bill
Yes and I'm even more curious about offbeat subjects being discussed there nowadays. We might even hear eclectic music played by the local DJ, maybe our own @doctoremmet, while being entertained by conversations about the state of the World and the imminent collapse of society. :P
 
I have heard rumours about some sort of casbah opening some time next year in the Quebec region. Casbah-ret Voltaire.

If I were a resident DJ in that venue the first ever record I’d put on would be:



 
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Been having a blast all day long with a mash-up/cut-up of Jodorowsky's El Topo and Philip K Dick's The Man In the High Castle.

El Topo is in Spanish which I don't speak. Bummer. So after not getting what this story was about I looked on-line and was surprised to discover Roger Ebert state: "Reviews of "El Topo" tend to be infuriating because their authors, myself included, fail to make coherent sense of the film..."

Cut-up to the rescue!

I'll post separately; but, I am having a good chuckle over how this is coming round.
 
Bill, cool! Make sure to also watch:
Finally got to watch Jodorowsky's Dune. Impressive.

First quote of the 2013 version I watched ("What is to give light must endure burning." V. Frankl) -- interesting to re-encounter this theme considering I had just watched El Topo that has its ending with him consumed in lamp oil immolation. The Tibetan(?) monk chant in the El Tope scene matched the Dune intro.

That said, he's an incredible visionary.

The other thing is this dude is still kicking around. Bless his soul.
Cheers, Bill
 
Thanks @liquidlino for your thumbs up, as well for introducing me to the WS Burroughs world of cut-ups.
Currently I am on a bit of a spree having done two cut-up inspired songs since your posting to me on the poem Nothing.

Having fun exploring with it as it completely free me from harmonic, counterpoint fiddle faddle. At least for now.
Cheers, Bill
 
Yes and I'm even more curious about offbeat subjects being discussed there nowadays. We might even hear eclectic music played by the local DJ, maybe our own @doctoremmet, while being entertained by conversations about the state of the World and the imminent collapse of society. :P
A recent find (just yesterday): Canada has it own Dada poets coming out of British Columbia. I discovered them once I looked up TISH newsletter.

Serendipity then struck as I listened to TISH co-founder Fred Wah reading Dada Anna Blue. I noticed his mention that it's in the style of German poet Kurt Schwitter. A Dadaist.

I am thinking of using Wah's poem above or its style in a newer song idea today. I like its rhythm.
 
A recent find (just yesterday): Canada has it own Dada poets coming out of British Columbia. I discovered them once I looked up TISH newsletter.
The same thing happened in Quebec, I was told, with the famous Refus Global. My husband tells me that, for example, you might like Paul-Marie Lapointe's poem from the Cold War era called "ICBM", yes "Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile" ! (in French).
Serendipity then struck as I listened to TISH co-founder Fred Wah reading Dada Anna Blue. I noticed his mention that it's in the style of German poet Kurt Schwitter. A Dadaist.
It has a very nice flow of words and onomatopoeia, a cool rhythmic quality.
I am thinking of using Wah's poem above or its style in a newer song idea today. I like its rhythm.
You should! Bill you're like a play "off-off-Broadway", you're "off-off-beat". ❤️
 
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