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Curium
(Evan Sornstein)
What was the impetus behind the creation of 'nowever'?
I've been interested in linking text to music for a while
and was finishing up a twenty-minute piece with cut-ups
of a poem by William Blake called Auguries of Innocence.
And at the end of working on this, I was complaining
to a friend that working so long on one piece was wearing
me down. He then suggested that I do a suite of really
short pieces, say, less than a minute each. So I thought
about this and it immediately occurred to me that there
are many poems from E.E. Cummings that would make some
very interesting material.
Now, it's important for me to step back for a moment:
I don't really like poetry. It never meant much to me – except
E.E. Cummings. When I was a kid, my father showed me
three poets, and one of them, I think now, really set
the stage for how I was to proceed with creating from
that point on. Somehow, Cummings poetry made sense to
me. His work is clever, direct, and profound in a way
that no one else has accomplished. So many of his poems
have distinct personality, so I decided to pick a number
of poems that could match the different ways people speak
English. I chose a particular poem that matched a person
and then composed the music to be 'a setting' that supported
the poem. So, in time, they became portraits of sorts,
as well. The poems themselves became the vehicle for
showing the different personalities of these people.
And what was the process like?
I began asking around to different people in my life
who I thought had an interesting way of speaking, and
would search for a poem that somehow matched them. And
I began recording these people reading the poems: some
over the phone, some in the studio, some at their houses,
in the open air – wherever it worked. Then I set
to dissecting the readings and the poems and conveyed
the readings to music, building a sort of landscape the
readings and poems could live in.
I asked my five-year old nephew; my friend's 85-year-old
grandmother; friends and co-workers from Nicaragua, Scotland,
England, France, Italy, Germany. This process never ended.
It took over two years and I could have kept going. I
had to stop at some point! There are several other accents
I never got or finished: Hawaiian Pidgin, Wisconsin,
Japanese English, Indian English, Icelandic English,
Scouse, Cockney...it really could have turned into quite
an accent project.
But in the end, I really need to concentrate on the
music since that is what I like to do most.
Where do you see this
suite being played? In what environments?
The suite does require a good amount of attention to
really take it in, and sitting at home with the booklet
and headphones does make sense. However, I have also
been working on a video installation of environments
to help support and focus the listening process and
the experience of the pieces. The music by itself is
mostly calming and doesn't need to be paid close attention
to. But to fully appreciate the poems, I think that
sitting down and listening in a focused manner is the
perfect way.
Who are your influences?
E.E. Cummings disregarded so many rules about how poetry
was to be written and heard. I thought it appropriate
to take a similar approach to the presentation of his
poetry. They are not performed or edited in a way that
is 'normal' but I think they do the poems justice.
I can't venture to think if he would like them, however!
What have you learned about Cummings through the
creation of the suite?
What I did learn was an even greater appreciation of
Cumming's spirit and wit. I read hundreds of his poems
to find the right ones for Nowever. It was like doing
a research project on him. There are a few poems I
really love which I did not use – they were too
sacred, perhaps. Also, there are a good number of poems
of his that are really mind-fucks and wouldn't render
well to being spoken. Listening to them would be way
too surreal and they wouldn't make sense. The one poem
we did that is closest to this dellema, the one read
by John Barron: 'now air is air and thing is thing'.
That one does take a good amount of concentration to
get what it is about. I strove to pick poems that can
be understood while being lsitened to – not an
easy task when it comes to Cummings. Being that he
wrote mostly in the 1920-50s, I also realize how ahead
of his time he really was. Gertrude Stein was out there
too, but arty and obscure, while Cummings was direct,
honest, and clear.
What other poetical projects do you have in the
works?
I'd like to go back to some more Blake. I also have
in mind to do something with Gerard Manley Hopkins;
he was amazing. So playful, yet smart. Currently, I
am in the beginnings of doing another St. John the
Baptist with my friend Chris, using the odd writings
of Aleister Crowley's Book of Lies. That should be
very fun – what an insane book. |
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