The Machines, which date from the period 1967-1972 represent a departure from the more traditionally “narrative” nature of the rest of my pieces. I use the word Machine to define a consistent process governing a series of musical actions within a particular sound world and, by extension, the listener’s perception thereof. One might thus regard the Welsh Rarebit as a Machine in which a process is applied to the conditioning and perception of the world of bread and cheese.
Autumn Countdown Machine presents the guaranteed dis-simultaneity of six pairs of bass melody instruments, each conducted by a percussionist playing in time with, and making minor adjustments to the setting of a bell-metronome.
Son of Gothic Chord presents four keyboard players’ mobilisation of a sequential chord progression rising through the span of an octave.
Jews Harp Machine presents various permutations of the articulations “Ging, Gang, Gong,Gung, Ho!”
Drinking and Hooting Machine presents some observations on the world of bottles and their non-percussive musical potential. The effect of this piece has been compared to that of a large aviary full of owls all practising very slow descending scales.
John White, March 1976
THE SQUIRREL AND THE RICKETTY RACKETTY BRIDGE
The piece, for one player of two guitars, was written at the request of Derek Bailey, the jazz guitarist, in 1971. I had worked closely with Bailey from 1963-6 in and around Sheffield as a member of a group which included Tony Oxley on drums and myself on double-bass. Since that time, I have lost all interest in jazz, and in improvisation, and since Bailey was involved in both I wrote a piece which uses a technique which Bailey would be unlikely to have evolved in his playing. The two guitars are played simultaneously, each one lying flat on its back, and they are arranged side by side so that the two fingerboards can be played with the fingers hammering down on them, like two keyboards. In addition, the score contains a number of ironic references to jazz and to its critical literature - short texts added to the ‘musical’ notations, somewhat in the spirit of Erik Satie, involving the performer in a hypothetical dialogue with the composer using fragments culled from particularly banal pieces of jazz criticism e.g. “ ‘there is an area up here’, holding his hand above his head, palm down,’ where musical categories do not exist.’ ”. The left hand of the player moves at an even pulse, like the walking jazz bass, at a tempo “between Lady is a Tramp” as a medium bounce, and Cherokee as an embarrassment to lesser, and more intrepid, musicians”, while the right hand punctuates this with short notes, like a highly selective, or extremely lazy, trumpet soloist. The title involves an oblique pun to do with the nut of the guitar, the guitar’s bridge, the faint noise of the music in between – that each attack gives two pitches rather than one – and an English children’s song about Billy Goat Gruff.
Derek Bailey recorded the piece on Incus Records in 1971, and this new version is a multiple one, four players on eight guitars, in which each player uses a pair of guitars which are characteristically different from those used by the others.
Gavin Bryars (1971)
credits
released December 1, 2023
Side One
John White
AUTUMN COUNTDOWN MACHINE
John White Tuba, metronome, percussion
Christopher Hobbs Bassoon, percussion
Sandra Hill Double Bass
Gavin Bryars Double Bass, metronome
SON OF GOTHIC CHORD
Christopher Hobbs Piano
John White Piano
JEW’S HARP MACHINE
John White Jew’s Harp
Christopher Hobbs Jew’s Harp
Gavin Bryars Jew’s Harp
Michael Nyman Jew’s Harp
DRINKING AND HOOTING MACHINE
Christopher Hobbs Bottle
Susan Dorey Bottle
Gavin Bryars Bottle
John White Bottle
Brian Eno Bottle
Side Two
Gavin Bryars
THE SQUIRREL AND THE RICKETTY RACKETTY BRIDGE
Derek Bailey Steel Stringed Acoustic Guitars
Fred Frith Double-headed Electric Guitars
Gavin Bryars Concert Guitars
Brian Eno Electric Guitars
Recorded at Basing Street Studios 1976
Engineered by Rhett Davies
PRODUCED BY BRIAN ENO
White was born in Berlin to an English father and German mother. The family moved to London at the outbreak of war.
Originally a sculptor, White decided on a composition career when he heard Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie.
Gavin Bryars was born on January 16th 1943 at Goole in Yorkshire. He studied philosophy at Sheffield University from 1961-4 and studied composition privately with G.Linstead....more
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