PRICE:
$40.50
NOT IN STOCK
NO RESTOCK ESTIMATE
ARTIST
TITLE
The Alvin Curran Fakebook
FORMAT
Book

LABEL
CATALOG #
CURRAN 001BK CURRAN 001BK
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
3/18/2016

2015 release. 300-page paperback book, 11.7 x 8.3 x 1.8 inches. "The alvin curran fakebook is an atypical autobiography in notated compositions, a journey through my musical thought and practice within and without the system, designed and edited by Susan Levenstein. Not just sheet music but a multifaceted compendium, richly designed with photos, writings, and sketches, for anyone to pick through, enjoy, and make their own. The more than 200 works range from raw sonic materials to conceptual musics, fragments, suggestions, itineraries, and completed compositions, containing no secret codes other than my own DNA. They can be played as is, recomposed, looped, arranged, freely improvised on, remixed, layered, spatialized, staged, troped on, or tripped on. A resource and source of pleasure for composers, performers, improvisers, sound artists, scholars, teachers of composition and improvisation, fans, amateurs, terminal avant-gardists, bloggers, buskers, and art book lovers. In some of the 9 sections the music is written out for piano, but the possibilities of instrumentation are limited only by the imagination. The first section consists of sequences, simple strings of single tones that can be used to form looping patterns or as melodic or harmonic generators. The mels were born as pure monophonic melodies but can also be played in quasi-unison by multiple instruments, or overlaid in precise or random ways. The next sections are octaves (rarefied pieces featuring the octave or extended octave interval), music for two parts (just that), and beats (regular and irregular rhythmical patterns that swing, mostly but not only for percussion instruments). The strummz, alternating or rapidly repeated tones or chords, can be used by any chord-capable instrument or ensemble. The 3- and 4-part chorales in choral reefs, for any instruments or voices, bring triadic harmony to another brink. Most of the songs and dances, which were originally applied musics for theater, film, and dance, are presented in conventionally arranged lead sheets. The open aires are large- and small-scale structured improvisations for voices and/or instruments, mostly performed outside the concert hall. This fakebook is a democratic compost heap of musical scraps in the grand tradition of American experimental music. Available for delectation and use by anyone -- without artistic, social, or philosophical limits -- interested in my work or in contemporary musical/performative practices in general." --Alvin Curran