St Georges Cabin A cold
06.52
St. George’s Cabin.
A cold night. A cold morning. Blankets of savagery are keeping the Fripp animal toasty at night, providing that no innocent flesh, such as an ear, appears far outside the bedding for very long. Sherborne House was, at the very least, preparation for this; and possibly also for any approaching new Ice Age. I anticipated the autumnal cold of a Washington State hillside, but not quite the wintery terrors of St. George.
09.14 Morning Sitting at 07.15.
Breakfast at 08.00.
At c. 08.25 Silence, or its local family member, came to visit; following which we addressed what is required of us today. Serious consideration was given to a free morning before lunch, a break before tea, personal time before dinner, and an evening off to visit the nearest bar - where the first round will be on me. Appealing though this schedule might be, we returned our planning-attention to preparing for the performance on Thursday.
The Six Principles of the Performance Event were called out & discussed; and how, whatever plans & preparations are made, the event will always be otherwise. What we prepare for is to be alert, with out attention available & engaged, collected, present & thinking on our feet. And/or chairs.
Today is very very cold, with frost on the ground & little discernible difference between the temperature provided by St. George inside his hut & that provided by Great Nature outside. But I am well wrapped, have 2 feeble radiators, and the Chapel & Dining Room provide havens of warmth.
Morning views I…
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Enthuse with The Gnarlies! is on the schedule for 10.00.
House of Guitars at 11.45.
11.22 The Gnarlies were a rhythmic challenge, both to themselves & anyone else within the Chapel; and maybe anyone walking within earshot, who would have had the rhythm of their perambulations unhinged.
The Gnarlies were initially referred to as the Low Flyers in distinction to the more experienced players in the Team, The High Flyers; but Low Flyers felt negatively defining & a little pejorative in tone. They are named after one of their number, a young student who attended the recent course in Sant Cugat: Mr. Gnarly. The Gnarlies are known by Curt as Those Who Fly At A More Modest Altitude. But Gnarlies is a quicker trip-from-the-lips, and the sense of aspiration is not denied them.
A few words were spoken on time & relating to it...
The musician has three disciplines: the hands, the head & the heart. Each of us tends to be more functionally disposed towards one more than the others (and in some cases two of these, in which case the third centre is referred to as under-developed). Some players are more naturally centred in their hands, and by extension their bodies; some are more in their hearts, and by extension their feelings; and some are located in the head: these are the more intellectual or cerebrally oriented players.
So, we have three primary ways of relating to time: through the body, through the feelings & through the head. Our experiencing of time, from each of these perspectives, is different.
Good time is primarily in the body; connecting & playing to the fundamental pulse of any piece of music is through the body.
Music is a quality organized in sound & in time (and may also be understood as a way of shaping Silence). The quality of music is eternal, but the forms of organization adopted for musical expression vary from culture to culture, and from time to time. In that part of Western popular culture, in the genre known as rock music, c. 1973 in the United States, one way of relating to fundamental pulse was known as laid back. The drummer, while maintaining fundamental pulse, placed their snare beat at the back end, or slightly behind, the top or centre of the beat. This, without the pulse slowing or deviating: not metronomic & fixed, but good time. In punk c. 1976-77 in London, the accent was right on top of the beat, with tempi characteristically faster. These, two examples of experiencing time primarily through & in the body.
Those more seated in their emotions, and disposed to gush in their emotional lives, in their relating-to-time will tend towards rubato. In a singer, the accompanist will be prepared for colla voce.
Performers centred in their head will tend to play ahead of the beat & move around it; Sample listening to the standard repertoire of violin concerti & its soloists will reveal much movement around the beat, particularly in passages of allegro & presto. To anyone who has ever played for dancing, or those experiencing time in their bodies, this is poor time.
Three notions of the process of music unfolding: time, timing, and time ordered or organized. Time – relating to fundamental pulse & its rate of flow (tempo) is primarily in the body. Timing - the stressing of legal discontinuities in the placement of the note around the beat in response to feeling what is right - is primarily in the heart. The organization & ordering of the sequence of unfolding flow, through time signatures & bars, is primarily in the head.
One standard GC suggestion as to how we might improve our time, is to put up posters – Dance In The Village Hall On Saturday Night! – and place bowls of overripe fruit near the entrance. Those intent on dancing tend to be unforgiving towards those who upset their enjoyment with bad time.
Following these rough words, indicating the centre of gravity of approaching the notion of time from a working player’s perspective, a sub-group of eleven Gnarlies formed from their number, of those who accepted that they are rhythmically challenged & challenging. This, after various attempts to play accents on particular beats within bars that, more or less, were arranged around specific groupings of notes, to a degree or not. But to an informed listener, if there were any particular beats to be accented, and within what arrangement or ordering was presumably being followed, what these might have been was closer to mysterious than ambiguous. Simply put, the situation is desperate; but not hopeless.
12.53 Guitars of the House met at 11.45.
The instructions:
When ready, begin.
When ready, begin again,
When ready, stop.
When ready or not, stop.
When ready, begin again, again.
Duet.
Trio,
The Chord From Hell.
Eye of the Needle.
Duet.
Circulating.
More circulating.
Up.
Sideways.
Flying.
The Hold at the end is critical – and we failed. When this is so, it demonstrates that the performance team is not present; and 90% of what is available to go into the bank, from the work of a performance, is lost. This is tragic.
14.47 Lunch followed by washing-up detail. The Industrial Hobart Washing Machine is a beast & continues to provide challenges.
16.37 Tea at 16.00.
Meeting with the Tuning The Air Performance Team at 16.45.
Afternoon views I…
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18.07 The TTA Performance Team: addressing subtleties in performance preparation & playing within Eye Of The Needle. What are we doing on the inside while playing this piece? Then, to a developing variation, counting, grooving riff.
Discussion of practicalities for The OCG performance this Thursday at Fremont Abbey.
Dinner at 19.00.
20.35 New arrival Don introduced himself at dinner, delayed by a back injury. Various reports were presented to him on the course so far, including explanations of terminology such as to gnarle: to have no innate sense of time; also engnarle: to lose time when playing with others.
A discussion began on approaches to improvisation after a question. When ready: begin – but what to do when we are tentative? Several comments on this, some very good & based in experience.
House of Guitars at 21.30.
22.22 Two Circles, with the TTA Performance Team on the inside.
Instructions:
When ready, please begin.
There’s someone on your left.(Nothing).
There’s someone on your right.
Chords.
More chords.
Well, that’s alright then.
So who do you think you are?
The year after next.
Moving to one large Whizz Circle.
