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P​.​P​.​S. (Bonus Track)

from ORDO by Philip Blackburn

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about

As he learned that his beloved former composition teacher Goffredo Petrassi had become ill and no longer able to read, Kenneth Gaburo recorded a letter to send to him. In it Kenneth recounts (in Italian, his little-used mother-tongue) the last few decades of his own life since their last communication (Kenneth was not known as a timely correspondent!) and introduces two works which were to accompany the letter: Antiphony VIII (Revolution) for Percussion and Tape, and Antiphony IX (A Dot), for Orchestra, Children, and Tape. P.P.S. [Post-Post Scriptum], 1994, is my addendum to the letter of his life for Gary Verkade to play for Kenneth, our teacher. It incorporates vocalizations made during a singing lesson in the last week of his life; a tribute to the "pain piece" he so wanted to create.

In performance the work is minimally theatrical, with the player sitting at a lit table writing a private stream-of-consciousness journal. The three organ manuals and stops have previously been prepared with pegs to hold down specified keys corresponding to the resonant frequencies of Kenneth's voice. The clusters of each manual represent the aggregate pitches of his voice during that section. The pegs are attached to long fishing lines and draped over to the player's desk like a silk loom. As Kenneth's voice matches one of the pitches in the cluster the player releases that key, thus creating a pre-echo transfer from the organ to the speaker. One speaker is placed at the front near the audience, the other hidden inside the organ, thereby enabling spatial transfers and mingling of the vocal organ.

lyrics

Kenneth Gaburo: Letter to Petrassi

SYNOPSIS

Sad to hear that Petrassi can no longer read or write, Kenneth often thinks of the Tanglewood orchestral performance from his student days. At the University of Illinois he founded the New Music Choral Ensemble to begin investigating the voice and music as language. His first wife became insane and in 1968 he went to the University of California-San Diego; his eventual resignation led to many problems, but he stuck to his principles. He moved to the Anzo Borrego desert, started Lingua Press publishers and studied ecological systems. In 1982 his friend Peter Todd Lewis died so he moved to the University of Iowa Experimental Studios against his better judgment. He again found more institutional corruption and resigned again. He plans to start a big new alternative school for cognitive studies (for chaos, holism, political, and phenomenological studies). He introduces Antiphony IX (a dot is no mere thing) for Orchestra, Children and Tape (its desert-like stasis and random qualities) and Antiphony VIII (Revolution), a psychodrama for Percussionist and Tape on the theme of human expendibility in the event of nuclear war. He apologizes for his rusty Italian and sends all good wishes. In a post-script he mentions that Antiphony VIII will be broadcast on Radio Italia.

credits

from ORDO, released October 21, 2023
Gary Verkade, organ
Philip Blackburn, tape

Recorded in live performance on the Cassavant organ at Clapp Recital Hall, University of Iowa, Iowa City during the 1995 Society of Composers, Inc. national conference.

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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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