I love no spellcheck on "vagrancy" and Woody Guthrie's name.
Mansei!
Begin forwarded message: From: Elizabeth Adams [mailto:elizabethadams at musician.org] Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2011 5:07 PM Subject: 10,000 Harmonicas, 10,000 Occupiers
------
Come out this Saturday AND/OR November 17th to make Occupy Wall Street audible.
On November 17, 2011, Being Beings, in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, will march with
10,000 occupiers, equipped with 10,000 harmonicas.
THIS SATURDAY November 5th, a trial run of 1,500 will march.
As we march, we will slowly breathe in and out through the low end of the harmonica. Bring your own harmonica, or get your free harmonica there, and/or consider donating one through kickstarter or paypal. $1 buys and ships one Hohner harmonica. Hohner is donating them at-cost.
Here are some of the things l like about this piece:
It involves giving musical instruments to people we don't know because we know we share something. It amplifies / propogates our presence in an inviting, beguiling way. It amplifies / propogates our breaths, which symbolize our lives and our voices. The harmonica is "the instrument of the underclass," and I think of vagrency. We, the forclosed upon 99%, are all hobos now. The harmonica is also often a solitary instrument, for when you are down and out alone. We are no longer alone! My other associations are with Woody Guthry and Dylan, icons of earlier movements that had leaders. In this piece/movement we are all icons and leaders. Anyone can join. Everyone can play the harmonica. As the description below points out, the etymology of the word 'conspire': Latin, for 'breathing together' [against an empire]
Group composing will happen -- I'm kind of tired of arguing about the word 'improvise'. What I find interesting in improvisations is how performers respond to each other and whether their choices are perceptable. Constraints make their choices more perceptable. This low-range, two-chord breathing is totally constrained, so we will hear each other's choices clearly and thus, our coordination.
As Elizabeth Hoffman points out, the piece is bigger than the frame. There is no totallizing vantage point from which someone could authoritatively hear the piece. Instead, all of our vantage points/hearing perspectives are equally valid -- _are_ the piece. This metaphor is so powerful. Our collective reality/plight is bigger than any of our perspectives on it, ESPECIALLY (but not only) any media perspectives. Occupy Everywhere overflows the bounds. The principle of inclusion is predicated on the understanding that someone out of view has a perspective and a contribution you don't know about, that you need. We, OWS, care about those we can't see/hear. Global capitalism depends upon our not caring about what/who we can't see, as it plays a shell game with labor, resources, and waste. This piece is made of voices we can't see/hear (on the other side of the crowd) but who we know are there. This piece reverses the decay of the cliché "having a voice." We know we're out there, and they can hear us.
I think it will not only be beautiful, but I think it will project the already-beauty of the movement in a new way that could get through to people who don't yet get it. That is, this is not necessarily the kind of beauty I need -- there is already that in the movement -- but I think this could translate that beauty in a very powerful way and communicate it to so-far-dismissers.
For instance, I might be more musically interested if the harmonicas were in xenharmonic tunings. But I think the interesting intervals exist in this piece at the symbolic levels I outline above (and others I haven't thought of -- tell me!). This piece is for generating conversations without composers and musicologists to shepherd them. For generating responses we can refer to in later conversations.
Play me what democracy sounds like,
Elizabeth
http://10000harmonicas.blogspot.com/2011/11/re-direct-from-kickstarter-10000.html http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1032171588/10000-harmonicas-10000-occupiers
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
November 5th will be a momentous day for the Occupy Movement and we need to make sure that each individual participating is fully heard.
Our collective voice needs to become audible, it needs a presence. The word conspire comes from the latin root, to breathe with, it is in the collective breath that the power of a people is felt. With this in mind, there seems to be no better way to illustrate a unified people, then to give the breath of each individual a voice. With basic harmonicas, we can give this movement sound.
What we're suggesting is to equip the entire movement with harmonicas. By breathing slowly through these harmonicas, the historic instrument of the underclass in America, the audible qualities of both the individual and the whole will become a call used for marches, demonstrations, and sit-ins. As thousands of people step together and breathe together, the sound that we emit will be impossible to ignore or argue, because it lacks words that can be skewed or manipulated.
Hohner harmonica has agreed to donate all of their profits to the Occupy Wall Street cause, making the cost of the harmonicas for us only the cost of manufacturing and handling, 98 cents per harmonica plus shipping (around $200).
The minimum pledge level is $1 dollar, which covers the cost of the Harmonica and shipping exactly. With each dollar given one Occupier will be equipped with their instrument at Occupy Wall Street on November 5, 2011.
When you pay $1 and attend the march on November 5, we will deliver the harmonica to you in person. Consequently, if you choose to pledge more, more people will receive harmonicas.
The goal is to get 10,000 harmonicas in the hands of 10,000 occupiers. The funding goal is set at $1,000.00 only to try and pass the funding mark successfully.
Please help us make this happen. Whether that means being one of the thousands that will be there or insuring with your pledge that each occupier will have a harmonica to amplify their breath and presence.
Basic Harmonica Instruction for the 11 / 05 / 11 march: 1. Keep your breathing on the "low" end of the harmonica. 2. For rhythm, follow your inhale and exhale that is normal for you when you take deep breaths.