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Over Again

from ORDO by Philip Blackburn

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about

On one level, Over Again – part homage, part ritual, part soundscape – is a tale of aww, shucks, derring-do; featuring as it does a first-person narrative modestly told by First Lieutenant Warren Ward (September 7, 1909 – March 24, 1945) a glider pilot from Madison, Minnesota, describing his task of delivering ammunition to Allied forces on the beaches during the Normandy Landing, June 4, 1944. His nonchalant storytelling style, rife with cognitive dissonance, contrasts with his astonishing feats of heroism amidst the chaos of war. Having told of the death-defying flight over the English Channel in a steel-and-canvas Waco CG-4A (aka “Flying Coffin”), lucky landing, delivery of 3 ½ tons of high explosives, and safe return, he adds that he is “just waiting for another chance to go over again.” Bizarrely, it was only when he recognized his own voice on the radio that he thought he was dead. The story is remarkable enough, but there’s more to it. Ward also inadvertently entered music history.

Pioneering composer, Harry Partch (1901-1974), was one of the most influential figures of the 20th century American experimental tradition, and a godfather of percussion ensemble music. His Speech-Music theories that derived musical harmony from the intonations and melodic shapes of everyday speech started him on a lifetime of dramatic musical works in Just Intonation, and building unique, sculptural instruments to play them. While at the University of Madison, Wisconsin, on May 3, 1945, he premiered a piece (I’m Very Happy to be Able to Tell You About This, since lost) incorporating this same exact recording (which has recently resurfaced). It would have been among the first ever works integrating acoustic instruments and fixed media (in this case, an acetate disc ‘transcription’ from WOR New York, where the solo part’s “spontaneity is predetermined,” as Partch put it).

Over Again is a reimagining of that occasion (five weeks after Ward’s death in Germany): somewhat bardic, somewhat theatrical, and totally in line with the long history of Corporeal attempts to marry speech and music on the dramatic stage (including Partch’s own Americana period where he used the language of hobos and hitchhikers). On first hearing the recorded voice, I was surprised that it had none of the typical melodic contours that Partch had been attracted to in his earlier vocal settings; there was little inflection from which to derive any harmonies. So I focused on syncing the rhythms of the speech with the story instead. You can hear percussion batteries – distant battle sounds – at various points being triggered by the voice (digitized via MIDI); speech as ammunition. The live performers provide additional accompanying soundscape elements (like a radio drama?) from propeller-like bull-roarers to ammo-can gamelan, oil-drum gongs, and a koto made from a radar decoy: Instruments from military surplus repurposed in a swords-to-ploughshares moment.

The work is a ritual of tribute and remembrance, and an intimate glimpse into the lives of two historical figures going about their daily – yet extraordinary – tasks.

I am grateful to Gene and Tim of Quey Percussion Duo for the commission, their support, inspiring dedication, astonishing skills, and everyday creative bravery.

credits

from ORDO, released October 21, 2023
For Harry Partch
Quey Percussion Duo:
Gene Koshinski, Tim Broscious playing on instruments by Philip Blackburn.
Voice of glider pilot Warren Ward (1944)

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Philip Blackburn Saint Paul, Minnesota

Philip Blackburn was born in Cambridge, England, and studied music there and at the University of Iowa with Kenneth Gaburo. He is a public artist specializing in sound — a composer/environmental sound-artist. Blackburn’s works have been heard in ships’ harbors, state fairs, forests, and coming out of storm sewers, as well as in galleries, parking lots, and on concert stages.

philipblackburn.com ... more

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