Sousaphonics / Sound the Chimes of My Abstract Body

sousaphonics

A multi-channel electroacoustic audio installation meditating on transformations of the U.S. military and patriotic music and culture from the late 1800s to present, explored via the life and work of John Philip Sousa.

I. Horn sextet composed using fragments of “The Liberty Bell.” Nostalgia, resonance.

II. Synthesized snare. The drum keeps time. Dislocation (physical, sonic). What, who, becomes?

III. Nanoseconds between intended sounds, isolated… 

(Make disparate objects/people/collectives. Fragmented, separated by force, persisting.)

…then stretched.

(Being incorporated, accommodated. Familiar, flattening, totalizing, gradual, subtle.)

Thank you Ana Woulfe, Alina Josan, Adam Feldman, the staff of the Philadelphia Free Library, Garrett Burke, Zoe Macdonald, and Christian Mirande. Audio documentation forthcoming, recorded on-site by Carrie DeCunzo and Christian Mirande.

Sousaphonics was installed at the Parkway Central Branch of the Philadelphia Free Library on August 9 in conjunction with the opening of Artist in Residence  Ana Woulfe's comics and drawings and drawings by Fred Williams. To open the exhibition, I was asked to write and perform a piece for the library's internal chimes system, which I titled "Sound The Chimes of my Abstract Body" in dedication to Ana Woulfe's exhibition of the same name. This was the first time the chimes system was played by someone external to the library's security personnel, and the original copy of the score is housed in the music department of the Parkway Central Library.