Allerleirauh and Sempreverde
Sep. 13th, 2005 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomus"I will marry my daughter, for she is the counterpart of my late wife, otherwise I can find no bride who resembles her."
I haven't made much music this year; half the gear in my studio seems to have broken down. But I have made a couple of collaborations here and there, one in Tokyo (demos for a project called Bambie) and one here in Berlin, back in late May and early June, with Japanese visual artist Yukiko Sawabe. Yukiko wanted some music for a piece she's making about the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Allerleirauh.
"Then she ran into her den, washed herself quickly, and took out of the nut the dress which was as silvery as the moon, and put it on. Then she went up and was like a princess, and the King stepped forward to meet her, and rejoiced to see her once more, and as the dance was just beginning they danced it together. But when it was at end, she again disappeared so quickly that the King could not observe where she went. She, however, sprang into her den, and once more made herself a hairy animal, and went into the kitchen to prepare the bread soup."
Yukiko has agreed to let me post two of the songs here today, along with the artwork she's made for the project. The mp3 file below contains "Allerleirauh" (from the Daughter side) and "King Song" (from the King side). Yukiko wrote the words and sang, I made the music.
Allerleirauh + King Song (Yukiko Sawabe and Nick Currie) 2.1 MB, 128 kbps stereo mp3 file, 2.19mins.
"Then he grasped her by the hand, and held her fast, and when she wanted to release herself and run away, her fur-mantle opened a little, and the star-dress shone forth. The King clutched the mantle and tore it off. Then her golden hair shone forth, and she stood there in full splendour, and could not longer hide herself. And when she had washed the soot and ashes from her face, she was more beautiful than any one who had ever been seen on earth. But the King said, "Thou art my dear bride, and we will never more part from each other." Thereupon the marriage was solemnized, and they lived happily until their death."
Yukiko explains: "I'm going to use small space for my exhibition. It was brothel. The exhibition schedule is undicided detail now. Please introduce songs with my art book 'temperature'. These works is based on Grimm's fairy tail, Allerleirauh and Snow White and Seven Dwarfs."
I also want to mention today that Andrew Snyder has set up a new Momus Forum called Sempreverde.
I haven't made much music this year; half the gear in my studio seems to have broken down. But I have made a couple of collaborations here and there, one in Tokyo (demos for a project called Bambie) and one here in Berlin, back in late May and early June, with Japanese visual artist Yukiko Sawabe. Yukiko wanted some music for a piece she's making about the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Allerleirauh.
"Then she ran into her den, washed herself quickly, and took out of the nut the dress which was as silvery as the moon, and put it on. Then she went up and was like a princess, and the King stepped forward to meet her, and rejoiced to see her once more, and as the dance was just beginning they danced it together. But when it was at end, she again disappeared so quickly that the King could not observe where she went. She, however, sprang into her den, and once more made herself a hairy animal, and went into the kitchen to prepare the bread soup."
Yukiko has agreed to let me post two of the songs here today, along with the artwork she's made for the project. The mp3 file below contains "Allerleirauh" (from the Daughter side) and "King Song" (from the King side). Yukiko wrote the words and sang, I made the music.
Allerleirauh + King Song (Yukiko Sawabe and Nick Currie) 2.1 MB, 128 kbps stereo mp3 file, 2.19mins.
"Then he grasped her by the hand, and held her fast, and when she wanted to release herself and run away, her fur-mantle opened a little, and the star-dress shone forth. The King clutched the mantle and tore it off. Then her golden hair shone forth, and she stood there in full splendour, and could not longer hide herself. And when she had washed the soot and ashes from her face, she was more beautiful than any one who had ever been seen on earth. But the King said, "Thou art my dear bride, and we will never more part from each other." Thereupon the marriage was solemnized, and they lived happily until their death."
Yukiko explains: "I'm going to use small space for my exhibition. It was brothel. The exhibition schedule is undicided detail now. Please introduce songs with my art book 'temperature'. These works is based on Grimm's fairy tail, Allerleirauh and Snow White and Seven Dwarfs."
I also want to mention today that Andrew Snyder has set up a new Momus Forum called Sempreverde.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 09:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 09:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 11:18 am (UTC)der.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 11:46 am (UTC)Nice piece! I've recently been going through your albums and have to disagree with a comment you once made about not being a great singer - "The Complete History of Sexual Jealousy (Parts 17-24)" and "The Sadness of Things," are good examples that you are. And I find your albums are more "revisitable" than most artists. Looking forward to hearing you sing again (actually, there are still several albums to get to, but you know what I mean). Thanks for being Momus, nick.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 12:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 12:53 pm (UTC)I've been thinking about making my new album without MIDI, because I totally share your boredom with it, and with General MIDI instruments.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 12:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 01:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 01:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 01:18 pm (UTC)Brothers Grimm
Date: 2005-09-13 01:19 pm (UTC)Not only is the Brothers Grimm film about to be released (although it will take another 2 months before the Uk will have it!!), but among those people I know, there appears to be a desire to recapture what was so beautiful in youth through the medium of Fairie Tales and similar childhood stories.
Perhaps the world has become such a depressive and suffocating place that all anyone wants to do is imagine that those fantasy, beauty and happy-ever-afters (which we grew up longing for) are still somewhat attainable?
Re: Brothers Grimm
Date: 2005-09-13 02:12 pm (UTC)Re: Brothers Grimm
Date: 2005-09-13 02:42 pm (UTC)This is where the two darknesses differ. In life, the darkness that we experience is rarely completely eliminated and, even when it appears to have been, it is not long until such horrors reappear.
While I accept that there are circumstances and consequences tied into the happiness at the end of the Grimm tales, for the most part these are made relatively unimportant by the blissful state achieved. Despite Allerleirauh’s wishes to escape her father and the councillors stating that "God has forbidden a father to marry his daughter, no good can come from such a crime, and the kingdom will be involved in the ruin", ultimately the story ends with: “they lived happily until their death”. Surely their happiness is worth the mental disturbance caused to others? Hence surely it is better for people to strive for some perfect happiness through dark stories if the real world were just as dark but gave no such happy ending?
Re: Brothers Grimm
Date: 2005-09-13 02:44 pm (UTC)Nic B.
Re: Brothers Grimm
Date: 2005-09-13 02:45 pm (UTC)hunting in it." On me, that registers as a new king, not that it wouldn't be a more interesting story if the whole thing were an elaborate tease on the daughter's part.
I'm curious why you used your own name to release this music. Have you done this before? Is it for legal reasons?
Also, I just saw the Brothers Grimm movie, and except for a few good visuals, it wasn't worthwhile. It relied too much on cheap humor and obvious plot formulae, and was generally way too upbeat for a move about the Grimm fairy tales. It also had nothing to do with the actual Brothers Grimm, although it did allude to Jakob's linguistic accomplishments by mentioning that he was "a scholar".
Re: Brothers Grimm
Date: 2005-09-13 03:07 pm (UTC)Key passages from the first version:
"She walked the entire night until she came to a great forest. She would be safe there. Because she was tired, she sat down in a hollow tree and fell asleep. She was still asleep the next day when the king, her fiancé, came to this forest to hunt. His dogs ran up to the tree and sniffed at it. The king sent his huntsmen to see what kind of animal was in the tree..."
The king is her fiancee, ie her father, not some new king. Later, in the palace, he recognises her:
"The king immediately invited her to dance, and as he danced with her, he thought how closely this unknown princess resembled his own fiancée. The longer he looked at her, the stronger the resemblance. He was almost certain that this was his fiancée, and at the end of the dance, he was going to ask her. However, when they finished dancing, she bowed, and before the king knew what was happening, she disappeared."
Father and daughter then marry and live happily until they die.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 03:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 03:51 pm (UTC)Do all your sounds come out of one module - I've often wondered when I listen to the 'Stars Forever' album? What would you do instead of programming, play guitar again?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 04:04 pm (UTC)I'd say my most important instrument is my sampler, an Akai S2800. Then the Roland PMA5, which has a bunch of General MIDI-type sounds in it. On "Stars Forever" I used a lot of analog synths too, like the GEM 1000 and the Korg Mono/Poly.
I've been playing guitar a lot recently, since I bought a lovely-toned secondhand acoustic in the local market. But maybe I should teach myself the singing saw, like you, Kev!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 04:50 pm (UTC)Oh, and what is that is broken? The most expensive stuff? The drum Machine?
BTW, sampling is a really fun time waster, recording your own friends and then maybe do a collage just to make fun of them.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 05:16 pm (UTC)Broken is mostly stuff like power adapters, the MIDI connector, the sampler's back-lighting and digital interface...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 05:17 pm (UTC)Ah, the synths did sound fruity - I thought they might be analog. That PMA thing - is that that ittle thing you play with a metal pencil?
My love affair with the saw is over (I got fed up with it's wail and wobble) and I'm back to an acoustic guitar and a little Reaktoring.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 05:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 05:43 pm (UTC)Oh, yes, you did write something about your mac's screen broke down. What a pity...
I still need to get back my harddrive...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 05:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 07:01 pm (UTC)Too much music
Date: 2005-09-13 07:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 07:39 pm (UTC)Re: Too much music
Date: 2005-09-13 08:05 pm (UTC)I think you have to get out of music, immerse yourself in other problems, other projects, other thoughts and ways of thinking, and then get re-enchanted with music, come in again from outside it, embrace the things only it can do well.
Plus, my ears get easily battered if I work too intensively on music. It literally makes me physically sick, like Ludovico's Treatment.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 08:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 08:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 08:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 09:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 09:18 pm (UTC)Rhetorical questions
Date: 2005-09-13 10:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-13 11:32 pm (UTC)It seems to me, though, that your relativism is checkmated by the contradiction pointed out by Mr Anonymous above. For example, to use your systems analogy, if something can be true within a system, then surely something can also be false within it (eg, if I can't move my chesspieces and I'm not in check, I've won). Perhaps you could say that the contradiction "the universal truth is there is no universal truth" is false only within the system(s) of mathematical logic , which are transcended by relativism; but then you appear to invoke a universalist metaphysics (or maybe just an epistemology) of systems interlain with more systems, with a corresponding hierarchy of truth, not an absence of truth; then the only thing you can say is that we cannot know the "ultimate" truth (if there is one) of what lies beyond all these systems, which statement seems to be true by definition if these systemic layers encapsulate all we could ever know. I cannot see what else you may have in mind, as your analogy seems to envisage a system of belief called "relativism" which is of a higher level than logic (as it includes all mathematical logic in its definition) and contains only the epistemological conviction that "truth is relative"; yet (1) there seems no reason to hold that that level exists and (2) again, it is posited as a universal.
I hope you can catch the gist of the above, even if you believe it is false; I find it hard sometimes to use language as the prime means of argument, as I find it easier to visualise problems than turn them into words - I wish I had time for a scanned diagram, but that would probably be deeply inappropriate on a blog!
Thanks for your time
Simon
Re: Rhetorical questions
Date: 2005-09-13 11:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-14 01:58 am (UTC)The Creation of Fat American Man"
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-14 06:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-14 08:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-15 12:14 am (UTC)Thanks for your reply.
I agree with all of what you've said above; however, if we are right in our beliefs here, then the idea of "natural law" must be a false one, as it cannot be true in certain circumstances - after all, the concept necessarily involves the idea of a law pertaining in all situations. Thus, if you are right about the arbitrary or cultural bases of any conception of law, it appears that the statement "there is no natural law" must be absolutely true. In other words, there are such things as claims to universal validity; and the truth of these claims can only be decided in terms of "is", "isn't" or "undecided". The problem with relativism is that it claims universal validity for the idea that there is no universal validity, so is self-refuting.
Of course, it may be that logic cannot tell us what really pertains independently of the mind. However, I think it would then be better to argue that this is the edge of what we can hope to understand, rather than posit a self-denying universal just beyond comprehensibility. We could be ideosyncratically human in using experimentation, observation, language, imagination, art and reason to describe and explore our world, but these are our only means of understanding, limited as they are. Given that the world is as it appears to us and that, for example, it just follows that, if I have two apples on the table and I eat one, there is one apple left on the table - or, if Kennedy is not a doughnut, then Kennedy is not a doughnut - I think we have to say that, at least within our common modalities of thought and experience, there is the possibility of asystemic truth and falsehood. This qualifies the idea of the universal by making what seems universally true (such as "2 + 3 = 5") only true as far as we can tell, but does not go so far as to deny the possibility of universal truth when such a denial seems neither logically possible nor a statement one can therefore make without claiming to know the unknowable.
Ach, this seems a bit of a rant, I believe... Please bear in mind that my mental state when writing the above was simply one of enthusiastic investigation - I hope you will take this comment as such!
Best wishes
Simon