― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 21:05 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 21:08 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 21:11 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 21:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 21:36 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 21:51 (twenty-one years ago) link
66:45 Wee hee I am going craaaazy. Ping pong ping pong ping pong. Doo doo dee dee dee dee.
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 21:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 22:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 22:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 22:08 (twenty-one years ago) link
― robin (robin), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 22:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
86:30 The tape ended. I feel like I am literally floating. Airborne or like a foetus in whatever kind of fluid your mother has inside her. Like I was being . . . being . . . what's the word? . . . latched? to something by the repetition of the sequence. It is disorienting.
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 22:18 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 22:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 22:21 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 22:27 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 22:28 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 22:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
90:32 It stopped in the middle of a chord. I leaned forward a bit in anticipation, startled. Now I just feel calmed. I really will eat now.
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 22:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
― James Annett, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 22:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― geeta (geeta), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 23:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 24 October 2002 08:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
Vexations composed im 1893, at first seems to be a very short one page composition. It only contains 180 notes, but when one looks at the instructions Satie requests that this simple tune be played 840 times non-stop.
http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/jpg/vexmanu+.jpg
A link to the original vexations written by Satie himself.
It normally takes around 12 to 24 hours to perform live, and is often completed by a large team of pianists.
I believe it was first perfomed in 1963 in New York, it took ten pianists 18 hours to complete.
I remember hearing a story about how Andy Warhol went to one of these Marathon concerts, and talking about how impressed he was.
I recommend everyone to download the basic piece, which happens to be only around 54 seconds long, than play it on repeat 840 times, and than you have Vexations, without having to have a very large disc to play it on ;)
― Geoffrey Balasoglou, Saturday, 26 October 2002 22:02 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Geoff, Wednesday, 30 October 2002 09:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
but do you? aren't the tiny differences between each repetition an essential part of the piece? (I don't know, I'm just asking. what do you think, sundar?)
(I seem to recall I was offered the chance to take part in a performance of this piece in my university days. Why did I decline? I'd jump at it like a shot now!)
― Jeff W, Wednesday, 30 October 2002 10:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 31 October 2002 02:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 05:07 (eighteen years ago) link
I wonder if it's the same recording Marks released on London in the 80's or if it's a new one
I like the 80's one though there's a long silence at the end, with nothing but room ambience... it sounds nice and contemplative but since it's a single track disc it makes it impossible to easily loop the disc (two tracks would have been helpful)
― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 05:26 (eighteen years ago) link
and to answer my own question; yes the Alan Marks 'Vexations' CD that came out last year is a re-release. it's good, it's so good, it's so incredibly good I envy anyone hearing it for the first time
and news:
http://ubu.com/sound/vexations.html
Pianoless Vexations (MP3): 8 hours of MP3s recorded live at The Sculpture Center, NYC onJune 11, 2006. Vexations was composed by Erik Satie in 1893 and consists of a short motifrepeated 840 times. Vexations was first performed publicly by John Cage and several otherpianists over the course of 19 hours in 1963. As the title conveys, artists performing inPianoless Vexations used any instrument except the piano to perform Satie's originalcomposition. Instruments included laptops, drums, guitar, French horn, violin, trumpet,saxophone, viola, recorder, toy piano, harpsichord, mandolin, bass, film projectors,voice, dulcimer and more. Artists include Randy Nordschow; Hay Sanders; Bruce Pearson andMarco Navarette; Daphna Mor, Rachel Begley, and Nina Stern; Bruce Arnold Jazz Trio; AlanLicht and Angela Jaeger; String Messengers; Rusty Santos; Amy Granat; Greg Kelley; MiguelFrasconi; Bethany Ryker; D. Edward Davis and Erik Carlson; Zachary Seldess; CharlesWaters and Katie Pawluk; Andrew Lampert and Steve Dalachinsky; Margaret Leng Tan; TrudyChan; David Grubbs; Goddess; Matthew Ostrowski; Kenta Nagai; Stephin Merritt and EthanCohen; Rick Moody, Hannah Marcus, and Tianna Kennedy.
― milton parker (Jon L), Saturday, 15 July 2006 06:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― Chinchilla Volapük (Captain Sleep), Saturday, 15 July 2006 06:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― xyzzzz__ (jdesouza), Saturday, 15 July 2006 09:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 21:16 (seventeen years ago) link
John Cale on I've Got a Secret.
Link care of: http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/
― _Rockist__Scientist_, Thursday, 13 March 2008 00:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Must see.
― _Rockist__Scientist_, Thursday, 13 March 2008 00:58 (sixteen years ago) link
between that & the Cage appearence I'm definitely curious for a bio on the booking agent for "I've Got A Secret"
Erik Satie's Performance Indications
http://alexrossmusic.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/05/12/img023.jpg
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 13 March 2008 01:04 (sixteen years ago) link
having raided ross' bandwidth I should politely link to source
the two things that kill me about that john cale clip: the fact that one of the contestants actually gets the answer, and the little scuttle of laughter on the second sub-iteration of the piece where it actually dawns on the entire room at once what it might sound like to hear it 840 times
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 13 March 2008 01:24 (sixteen years ago) link
WTF: did this really happen?
http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=4487
― Webern conducts Berg (Call the Cops), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 10:03 (thirteen years ago) link
That was one of CT's annual April Fool's reviews. Usually pretty funny if a bit recondite.
I have the old Alan Marks CD but no idea where it is at the moment...
Also find Satie's performance instruction quite ambiguous; IMO one traversal of the score is just as legit a way to perform this piece.
― 99 anna hay-uff jussa woan' do (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 16:39 (thirteen years ago) link
A key element of this composition is the effect it has on the performer. Sure, there's something for listeners too but from what I've read it's the pianist who is most affected by a performance. There are some testimonials out there where the performers document the experience. And you really have to follow his instructions in order to get that - playing as slowly as possible, not playing from memory and doing 840 repetitions.
― everything, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 18:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Yes but his instructions, iirc, say 'If this piece is to be performed 840 times in succession, then [etc etc etc].' First word, if. And Satie liked deadpan joeks.
― it takes a lot to laugh, it takes a crane shot to 'NOOOOOO' (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 18:21 (thirteen years ago) link
Ah. I have never realized that the wording was open to such intepretation but now I see that it's actually not an instruction about performing it but an instruction about preparing yourself if you're going to play it 840 times. This makes me wonder how the 840 repetition thing became the accepted interpretation.
If you play piano I recommend trying this piece for fun. I find it quite confusing to play which is maybe something to do with the absence of a key or time signature.
http://home.swipnet.se/sonoloco14/learning/score01op.jpg
― everything, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 18:29 (thirteen years ago) link
Acutally, I now see that Satie also never specified which instrument this should be played on.
― everything, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 18:30 (thirteen years ago) link
^ That could be common practice for him; he often eschewed bar lines as well, and other 'necessities' of printed music.
― it takes a lot to laugh, it takes a crane shot to 'NOOOOOO' (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 18:51 (thirteen years ago) link
It's either a deliberate attempt to confuse the performer or else he's subverting the normal rules of musical notation for fun. On the second line he's got D#s bumping up against Ebs in a way that is not logical. There is probably some internal system which is only understandable if you are a musicologist geek.
― everything, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 18:59 (thirteen years ago) link
>It's either a deliberate attempt to confuse the performer or else he's subverting the normal rules of musical notation for fun.
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 19:39 (thirteen years ago) link
Satie's Performance Indications > Eno's Oblique Strategies
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 19:41 (thirteen years ago) link
He's a funny guy all right!
― everything, Tuesday, 1 June 2010 20:38 (thirteen years ago) link
The great thing is, almost every performance indication on that page can be actually applied to one's performance on some level.
Love the little prose poems he attached to the 3 Embyrons Desechees...
― it takes a lot to laugh, it takes a crane shot to 'NOOOOOO' (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 1 June 2010 20:58 (thirteen years ago) link
Trying to get hold of a relatively new recording of this by Stephane Ginsburgh, got a great review in Brainwashed a few months ago, but local stores (and, indeed, some classical music stores in a few cities in Europe) are letting me down.
― louiiiis jjjjagger (S-), Wednesday, 2 June 2010 04:00 (thirteen years ago) link
Today is the day.
― when entitlement goes unfilled (doo dah), Thursday, 21 June 2012 00:29 (eleven years ago) link
Entering hour 5 of @igorpianist's Vexations marathon... https://t.co/HJBHsqoyWM— Alex Ross (@alexrossmusic) May 30, 2020
― Karl Malone, Saturday, 30 May 2020 16:18 (three years ago) link