The Monday Club - ‘Used to Couldn’t’ In 1997 Tony’s performance career changed dramatically when he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He wrote the poem ‘Used to Couldn’t’ to celebrate his Scottishness and to describe a little bit of the experience of living with MS. The Monday Club grew from a chance meeting between Tony and Steve Morley. A shared desire to explore sound was enough to start things moving - starting with long notes (to quote Tony - “is there ANYTHING they can’t do?”), it quickly became something more. The sources of this music are varied, elusive and not easily named - the spaces between words, and thoughts; the subtle stirrings of shifting time; flashing inspiration, raging and at once subsiding; a sense of space becoming sound becoming space...There are deep sonorities and ranging explorations, fuelled by the unique instrumentation and broad range of experience and inspiration within the group.
Used to couldn’t
I thought I used to couldn’t
For a while I thought I amn’t,
But really I used to could, you know,
really used to could.
I shouldnae feel like I used to couldn’t,
But I amnae the man that I used to be,
I wouldnae couldn’t –
I couldnae wouldn’t –
But at least I amnae can’t.
Teeter totter – teeter totter,
After a while it’s heedrum – hodrum,
Teeter totter – teeter totter,
But at least I amnae can’t.
Tony Gorman
INTERVAL
John Dowland - In Darkness Let Me Dwell John Dowland was one of the most prolific composer for lute and voice from the Elizabethan era. He often took melancholia as the subject of his songs. In darkness let me dwell, from the collection, A Musicall Banquet (1610), is traditionally interpreted as the utter anguish of human experience. In Dowland's world, darkness is akin to hopelessness, conveyed through the dissonant harmony, free meter which is often hard to pin down, building to the cry "Oh, let me living, die!" This is a sentiment which is often foisted towards people with disability. By reframing the music with my poetry, I'm recontextualising living in darkness as one of the many human possibilities we could experience. Darkness doesn't have to be the end.
The Emerald Ruby - Texture Map : How many words do you have to describe the way an object feels? This question sprouts from the heart of this piece, a grid of nine surfaces felt underfoot by the Ria, our guide through the geographic map of touch. The very first time I met Ria she shared the beauty and joy to be found in texture, leading a journey through the swirls and crinkles of a piece of art. I work predominately with sound and visual mediums, collecting a dictionary to describe these experiences. Lately, I’ve paid more attention to physical sensations. If I remain focused, perhaps I too will find a rich sensory experience and the language to share it.
Moondog - Tamagotshi “Tamagotshi is a mysterious and intriguing piece by an equally mysterious and intriguing composer. Louis Hardin (1916 – 1999), better known as Moon Dog Moondog lost his eyes in accident at the age of 16, and over the course of the next 67 years composed and performed poetry and music, built his own instruments and explored philosophy and Nordic religion. While Moondog maybe isn’t remembered or recognised as often alongside his contemporaries, his eclectic cross-genre compositional style and prolific output have gone on to heavily influence the development of contemporary classical and minimalist music throughout the 20th century to today, having been cited as an influence by artists from Philip Glass and Steve Reich to Allen Ginsberg, Igor Stravinsky, Charlie Parker and Frank Zappa.
As much of Moondog’s music remains in obscurity, it was a bit of an impossible challenge to find sheet music for Tamagotshi, despite there being a very small but VERY dedicated online forum dedicated to him called “Moondog’s Corner’ so I have instead opted to transcribe and arrange it for myself. The piece is a single melodic line, repeated and played in canon with a thumping percussion accompaniment played by Tessa. This arrangement is for one live double bass, sampled and looped three times; though the piece could easily be performed with many more cycles (and instruments!).
The Emerald Ruby - Calm is a Dangling Carrot from Finding Fondness. Commissioned by ABC classic as part of the 2023 composer commission fund and recorded in the ABC Studio’s in Ultimo alongside Sally Walker, Finding Fondness is a collection of 5 flute duets exploring The Emerald Ruby’s (Jennifer Hankin) lived experience as a late diagnosed Autistic individual. This body of work is an emotionally vulnerable sound based exploration of an increasingly common experience. Taking influence from Hankin’s vast and varied musical history “Finding Fondness” redefines the aesthetic and technical expectations of music made by two flutes. I was 8 the first time I optimistically recited the mantra “I just need to get through this week” only to be met with disappointment on the other end. This mantra was birthed from teaching and behaviour tactics inflicted upon my peers and I by a burned out educator who believed children should be seen and not heard. Since then, that phrase repeats daily, like a broken record, it’s promise like carrot dangled in-front of an overworked donkey pulling it’s cart “just a little longer”. Thousands of broken promises shaped the malleable tempo and haunting nature of this movement. The relief of a resolved cadence is a rare occurrence that always finds itself disrupted by a virtuosic anxiousness.
Georgia Scott - The Sleepers - ‘The Sleepers’ was written in response to a conversation with Soprano Ria Andriani, who stated that she would like the opportunity to move through a performance space independently. In this discussion, Ria and I came up with the idea that musical motifs may be able to provide a guide to help her navigate independently through the space. ‘The Sleepers’ draws from the Westminster quarters system, to provide ‘clock-face style’ musical directions for Ria throughout the space. These directions are paired with Audio Description which not only provides description of visual elements for audience members who are blind or have low vision, but also for Ria herself. This is in turn layered upon a musical setting of an abridged version Walt Whitman’s poem ‘The Sleepers’ which explores the nocturnal roamings of an unnamed person through the darkness and stillness of the early hours.