The trade of truth

The AFRO-SONIC SIGNIFIER

The Afro Sonic Signifier is a term coined by Satch Hoyt in the frame work of his project Afro-Sonic Mapping in HKW Berlin where he samples archival recordings, interweaving them with the contemporary trajectories of a network of sounds that continue to bond people of the transnational African Diaspora today.

Robin Hayward tuning his monochord (studio session)

Satch Hoyt and his Sanzas (concert in KW Berlin)

From the Codex Seraphinianus (1981)

E.I. The Blob, Annika Larsson, Augustin Maurs
(cello and Korg synthesizer)

Official entry of the fictional term "Zzxjanw" in the Musical Guide encyclopedia (1903)

- Subjects becoming objects becoming subjects becoming objects
- Past becoming future becoming past becoming future
- Rhythm becoming articulation becoming rhythm becoming articulation
- Intonation becoming color becoming intonation becoming color
...

The HAYWARD TUNING VINE

The Hayward Tuning Vine is an interface created by Robin Hayward for exploring the system of microtonal tuning known as Just Intonation. It enables direct and intuitive interaction with the pitches normally hidden between the keys of the piano keyboard.

NASA announces new "sounds" of interstellar space on twitter, 2020

Musical Simulacrum on ZZXJOANW, Augustin Maurs (2021)

Canon for Cloned Voice after Diana Deutsch, 2020
Yutaka Makino
*PLease use a pair of speakers instead of headphones

ROBIN HAYARD

Reclaiming harmonic space and the politics of tuning

1. The piano as a modern-day ‘canon’

Whilst most musicians are aware of how the harmonic series interacts with timbre, a strange disconnect often exists concerning its relation to harmony. This is due at least in part to the dominant position the piano keyboard has acquired in our musical culture. Particularly since the introduction of the iron frame piano in the mid 19th century, tuning has been taken out of the hands of the player and become a province of the specialised piano tuner. And as ‘in tune’ is generally taken to mean ‘in tune with the piano’, the piano has become the norm to which all other instruments are tuned.

In this sense the piano has adopted a similar role as the monochord had in Ancient Greece. The Ancient Greek word for monochord was κάνων (canon), which roughly translates as norm, law or general principle. The Greek canon therefore acted as law-giver both for tuning other instruments and for music theory, much as the piano does today.

In stark contrast to the piano however, the laws arising from the Greek canon are based on the harmonic series, along with its mirror image, the subharmonic series. The harmonic series arises when the length of string stretched across the canon is divided by whole numbers, and the subharmonic series when a segment of this string length is multiplied by whole numbers. In Ancient Greece the former was referred to as the Harmonic Proportion, and the latter as as the Arithmetic Proportion.

Pythagoras is credited with having discovered the connection between string length and musical intervals in the sixth century BC, although the connection between musical interval intervals and bamboo length had been made by Ling Lun in China over two millennia earlier.1 Pythagoras is reputed to have attributed special significance to the number three, first opening up the intervals of the perfect fifth between the 2nd and 3rd harmonics, and the perfect fourth between the 3rd and 4th harmonics. Further divisions of the string length by three lead the 9th, 27th and 81st harmonics, and multiples of the string to its 9th 27th and 81st subharmonics. A seven-tone Aeolian mode emerges, which for convenience may be notated as
starting on ‘A’:

Ratio: 1/1 9/8 32/27 4/3 3/2 27/16 16/9 2/1
Note name: A B C D E F G A
Cents deviation: +0 +4 -6 -2 +2 +6 -4 +0

The cents deviations indicate the difference between this Pythagorean tuning and the equal tempered tuning of the modern piano. As a cent is one hundredth of a tempered semitone, the difference between the two tunings is fairly subtle for the aeolian mode, but nevertheless discernable when two or more pitches are sustained together.

The Aeolian mode consists of two consecutive perfect fourths, the first extending between 1/1 and 4/3, and the second either between 4/3 and 16/9 or between 3/2 and 2/1. The two pitches lying within each of these perfect fourths form a four-note chord with them, and the Ancient Greek name for this chord is tetrachord, literally meaning ‘four strings’. The character of any given tetrachord depended on the placing and tuning of the two inner pitches, which was central to later Greek music theorists, who introduced higher prime numbers both to make the two inner pitches more consonant with the outer ones and expand the available harmonic palette.

... (Text in progress)

The Brexit Fugue, Hilary Jeffery: 
"Brexit Fugue" is an audio collage made with recordings from the "Cinesthesia - Screen Concert" series at Brotfabrik Kino in Berlin which ran from September 2017 - June 2019, featuring recordings of Yorgos Dimitriadis, Gamut Inc, Simon Goff, Boris Hauf, Steve Heather, Alex Jezdinsky, Joke Lanz, King Penda, Claus Loeser, Chris Long, Andrea Parkins, Gianpaolo Peres, Kaffe Matthews, Minor Tom, Angela Seo, Elliott Sharp, Maciej Sledsiecki, Zsolt Sőrés, Jamie Stewart, Marion Wörle and Xiu Xiu. While navigating and editing all the recordings, a semi-conscious subtext surfaced, where two classic British films clearly dominated the emerging narrative: "Penda's Fen" (1974) and "Made In Britain" (1983). Both films were directed by Alan Clarke and evoke contrasting visions of Britain from a pre-Brexit era. Utopian and nostalgic, dystopian and distressing - neither celebrating the "greatness" of Britain nor belittling the strong undercurrents of a dreaming Island, struggling to overcome oppression and in the end not being ashamed of having a national identity, albeit an identity which thrives on its own contradictions. The Cinesthesia series took place during the period in which Brexit became a reality, forcing a deep questioning of what it means to be "British", discovering a lost nostalgia for times past and awakening fiery visions of King Penda. During 2020 I also started a new composition for brass instruments entitled "Mining for Modulations". This composition (still in progress) is inspired by the full and dark sound of British brass bands, evoking a nostalgic vision of the British Isles, resonating with WIlliam Blake's visions and reminiscent of the 1980s miner's strike, as immortalised in Mark Hermann's film "Brassed Off".

“Non identified narrative objects"
Luther Blisset

Kepler's MI FA MI 

The Earth sings Mi, Fa, Mi: you may infer even from the syllables that in this our home MIsery and FAmine hold sway. Johannes Kepler, Harmonices mundi („Fünf Bücher über die Harmonik der Welt“), 1619

From tuning tool to silent regulator

The temptation of knowledge is to believe that it has freed itself from belief or faith. - from trust or reliability (du fiduciaire ou de la fiabilité.) Jacques Derrida

Anyone else’s family members talking about a major global shutdown this week? My mom can’t stop talking about a series of impending events set to happen this week: Trump being reinstated by “the generals,” a 3-day public broadcast on all media channels revealing “everything that’s been going to on,” a simultaneous blackout that will force those “who haven’t woken up yet” to stay home and watch the broadcast (without electricity?), mass demonstrations, collapse of the financial system, food shortages, and more. It sounds like a combination/culmination of all the theories she’s ever mentioned. Volcano Deniers. So there is a volcano erupting right now on the island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands, in Spain. Lava flowing downhill, covering fields and houses, the works. (Nobody has been injured, thankfully). Right now, there are actual Spanish people - actual people from La Palma - claiming that the volcano eruption is a government/EU plot, intended to distract people from the rising electricity prices, to claim EU green subsidies from "the climate fraud", and so on. And some people claiming that everything is suspiciously "well orchestrated", and that the lava flows from the side of the volcano, not from the top as it should, and that it's all down to HAARP, or to "mirror satellites" aimed at the volcano. The idiocy. You really couldn't make it up. Edited to add: and now Mount Etna has also become active. Tonight, QWife and QFIL stated that Trump won't come back yet. Not until the Cabal is gone, and apparently Durham is working on getting rid of the cabal. The leader? Hillary Clinton. This is the same pair of people who a few months ago swore Clinton was bag and tagged by SpecOps under Trump's command and then sent off to Gitmo. Sheeple… don’t know they are sheeple. I’ve distanced myself from my BFF of 35 years who told me she believed I was no longer a believer because I didn’t think tRump was the messiah… that (through many weaponized bible verses) right is right and left is satan. sigh…. Christ are the Q folk going to have a field day. I finally had enough and broke up with him. Guys, I lost it today. I finally snapped and ended my relationship. Part of me feels relieved that I don’t have to hear about all this stuff anymore but I’m also just SO MAD and SO SAD. I don’t know where all this Q stuff came from or why but whoever is responsible has caused so much suffering and death it’s unbelievable. I can’t wrap my head around how we’ve ended up here as humans. I put up with a lot in the name of “tolerance of difference.” I believe in diversity and that includes diversity of political affiliation and diversity of opinion. But today, I just couldn’t take it anymore. The final straw came when he showed me another article trying to prove his position. As with literally every single other thing he has ever sent me, I was able to quickly debunk it. He acknowledged he was wrong for all of .5 of a second and then launched into proving his point again. I realized that he will quickly dismiss anything that proves him wrong and is committed to playing the victim. The rage I felt during our conversation honestly scared me. I have never been so frustrated in my life. Staying in this relationship has turned me into a version of myself that I don’t even recognize. I’ve lost all respect for him. This stuff has made him obnoxious, rude, insensitive, self righteous and frankly, completely nuts. And now I’m done. It’s over. I love him but I have to love myself more. I deserve peace. Really sucks though. She’s really worked up about it, and I’m worried about her. More worryingly, she said that she and every other patriot are going to be incredibly angry if “they” push back the reveal again. She said she’s tired of being ridiculed and ignored while “they” delay going public for the sake of those who haven’t gotten onboard. She’s not typically an angry person, but the resentment, frustration, and infuriation were palpable. Is anyone else hearing family members talk about a similar ultimate-type event set for this week? I’m wondering how many other mislead people are expecting to be vindicated this week, and what might happen when they aren’t. QBoss is prepping and trying to scare me. Today my QBoss comes to work in a brand new huge Chevy truck, he's excited to show me because I'm a car person and he is a look at me kind of guy. I'm looking at it with him as he shows me all the bells and whistles, man this truck is loaded. Qboss is a former Arm guy, likes to be called Sarge, and normally drives a load bright orange Camero. (take that how you want) I ask him if he is going to replace his "racecar" with the truck and this is his response. "I need this truck because I'll need something to get my family to the mountains when we (I'm thinking the US) gets invaded. Its coming sooner than you think the writings on the wall. The BMW (X5) isn't going to make it, and this thing has plenty of room for my rifle. At this point I smoothly exit the conversation. I try and avoid these conversations but they are getting for frequent and weird. Sorry for the errors I'm writing this on the fly. No hope. Help Needed. The gaslighting is complete. I am like the walking dead. Surrounded by Qfolk, led by my QSpouse. I am just at full on hopelessness. I have been facing this since the POS former guy came down the escalator and ruined all our lives. I don’t even know why I’m posting, I suppose because this is the only place where I can share “QAnon and MAGA have destroyed my family and my life” and a few thousand people will know exactly what that looks like. My own grasp of reality has been compromised. Not enough to fall down their vortex, but I am left without a real plan on how to live life going forward. If it wasn’t for my daughter, I would totally go back to drinking and try and pull a Leaving Las Vegas. But I won’t be doing that. I will just be writing this post and getting ready for another sleepless night in a hopeless upside down world. Sorry for the lack of solution. But I’m just done, but with nowhere to go. getting things off my chest with Qadjacent family I always wanted to write this post because my relationship with family is very thin and it just causes a lot of anxiety and depression. Anyone else’s family members talking about a major global shutdown this week? My mom can’t stop talking about a series of impending events set to happen this week: Trump being reinstated by “the generals,” a 3-day public broadcast on all media channels revealing “everything that’s been going to on,” a simultaneous blackout that will force those “who haven’t woken up yet” to stay home and watch the broadcast (without electricity?), mass demonstrations, collapse of the financial system, food shortages, and more. It sounds like a combination/culmination of all the theories she’s ever mentioned. Volcano Deniers. So there is a volcano erupting right now on the island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands, in Spain. Lava flowing downhill, covering fields and houses, the works. (Nobody has been injured, thankfully). Right now, there are actual Spanish people - actual people from La Palma - claiming that the volcano eruption is a government/EU plot, intended to distract people from the rising electricity prices, to claim EU green subsidies from "the climate fraud", and so on. And some people claiming that everything is suspiciously "well orchestrated", and that the lava flows from the side of the volcano, not from the top as it should, and that it's all down to HAARP, or to "mirror satellites" aimed at the volcano. The idiocy. You really couldn't make it up. Edited to add: and now Mount Etna has also become active. Tonight, QWife and QFIL stated that Trump won't come back yet. Not until the Cabal is gone, and apparently Durham is working on getting rid of the cabal. The leader? Hillary Clinton. This is the same pair of people who a few months ago swore Clinton was bag and tagged by SpecOps under Trump's command and then sent off to Gitmo. Sheeple… don’t know they are sheeple. I’ve distanced myself from my BFF of 35 years who told me she believed I was no longer a believer because I didn’t think tRump was the messiah… that (through many weaponized bible verses) right is right and left is satan. sigh…. Christ are the Q folk going to have a field day. I finally had enough and broke up with him. Guys, I lost it today. I finally snapped and intended to distract people from the rising electricity prices, to claim EU green subsidies from "the climate fraud", and so on. And some people claiming that everything is suspiciously "well orchestrated", and that the lava flows from the side of the volcano, not from the top as it should, and that it's all down to HAARP, or to "mirror satellites" aimed at the volcano. The idiocy. You really couldn't make it up. Edited to add: and now Mount Etna has also become active. Tonight, QWife and QFIL stated that Trump won't come back yet. Not until the Cabal is gone, and apparently Durham is working on getting rid of the cabal. The leader? Hillary Clinton. This is the same pair of people who a few months ago swore Clinton was bag and tagged by SpecOps under Trump's command and then sent off to Gitmo. Sheeple… don’t know they are sheeple. I’ve distanced myself from my BFF of 35 years who told me she believed I was no longer a believer because I didn’t think tRump was the messiah… that (through many weaponized bible verses) right is right and left is satan. sigh…. Christ are the Q folk going to have a field day. I finally had enough and broke up with him. Guys, I lost it today. SpecOps under Trump's command and then sent off to Gitmo. Sheeple… don’t know they are sheeple. I’ve distanced myself from my BFF of 35 years who told me she believedSpecOps under Trump's command and then sent off to Gitmo. Sheeple… don’t know they are sheeple. I’ve distanced myself from my BFF of 35 years who told me she believedSpecOps under Trump's command and then sent off to Gitmo. Sheeple…

Reddit thread QAnon Casualties

Response-ability:
"differential responsiveness (as performatively articulated and accountable) to what matters”
Karen Barad
“cultivating collective knowing and doing” or “sympoiesis (making-with)”
Donna Haraway
“rendering each other capable”
Vincianne Despret

TREAT REPETITION WELL

Hilary Jeffery, The Tuning Monastery

The Harmony of spheres, Pythagoras,
The Pure Arabian tone System, Al-Farabi,
Speculum Maius (The Great Mirrors), Vincent of Beauvais
Elementa Harmonica, Aristoxenus of Tarentum,
The Division of the Canon, Euclid,
Harmonics, Ptolemy,
The Celestial Monochord, Fludd
Harmonice Mundi, Kepler
Musicalische Temperatur, Andreas Werckmeister
(…)

Orson Welles conducting his radio drama "The War of the Worlds" (1938)

“Q” is a figure from the novel of the same name, who manipulates facts and spreads disinformation to sow seeds of doubt in society and help maintain the dominance of the church in 16th century Europe. Published in 1999 by the left wing collective Luther Blisset.

The canon as time machine:

Canon by inversion in which the follower moves in contrary motion to the leader.
Retrograde canon, the follower plays the leader melody backwards.
Retrograde inversion (where the follower plays the leader melody in contrary motion and backwards)
Mensuration canon, or prolation canon, or a proportional canon - (the follower imitates the leader by some rhythmic,
that operates different types of augmentation or diminution.
Spiral canon
Double canon
Mirror canon
Puzzle canon
Canon per tonos
Table canon
Rhythmic canon
Hunting canon “chace”
Canon enigmaticus
Perpetual/infinite canon
(…)

E.I. The Blob (Annika Larsson)

SCHIZOPHONIC MIMESIS

Schizophonic mimesis is a term coined by Steven Feld that describes the separation of a sound from its source, and the recontextualizing of that sound into a separate sonic context. The term in and of itself describes how sound recordings, split from their source through the chain of audio production, circulation, and consumption, stimulate and license renegotiations of identity in an ethnomusicological perspective.

The term is composed of two parts: schizophonia and mimesis. Firstly, schizophonia, a term coined by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, refers to the split between an original sound and the reproduction/transmission of this sound, be it in a recording, a song, etc. For example, any sound recording, radio, and telephone is a machine of schizophonia, in that they all separate the sound from its original source; in the case of radio, the source of a New York radio show is from New York, but a listener in Los Angeles hears the noises from Los Angeles. Secondly, mimesis describes an imitation or representation of that separated sound into another context. For example, mimesis has occurred if one places a recording of a baby's gurgle into a song.

Satch Hoyt, Whooshed Out Streams of Memory, 2020

Al-Farabi's qānūn,
from The Great Book Of Music

TWELVE-TONE EQUAL TEMPERAMENT

The Twelve-tone equal temperament is the musical system that divides the octave into 12 parts, all of which are equally tempered (equally spaced) on a logarithmic scale. That resulting smallest interval, 1⁄12 the width of an octave, is called a semitone or half step. The Twelve-tone equal temperament is the most widespread system in music today.

MAQAM

Arabic maqam (Arabic: مقام, romanized: maqām, literally "rank"; pl. مقامات maqāmāt) is the system of melodic modes used in traditional Arabic music, which is mainly melodic. The word maqam in Arabic means place, location or position. The Arabic maqam is a melody type. It defines the pitches, patterns, and development of a piece of music and is unique to Arabian art music.
Each maqam is built on a scale, and carries a tradition that defines its habitual phrases, important notes, melodic development and modulation. Around 120 were listed at the First Congress of Arab Music in 1932. Today we know of 72, and they continue to be lost or forgotten.

KANÓN

Kanón, ancient Greek κᾰνών, “straight rod”, “reed”, “rule” ”monochord”
an ancient musical and scientific instrument, involving one (mono-) string (chord).
A string is fixed at both ends and stretched over a sound box. One or more movable bridges are then manipulated to demonstrate mathematical relationships among the frequencies produced. With its single string, movable bridge and graduated rule, the monochord straddled the gap between notes and numbers, intervals and ratios, sense-perception and mathematical reason. Music, mathematics, and astronomy were inexorably linked in the monochord.

QĀNŪN

Qānūn, Arabic قانون,; Sorani Kurdish: قانون; Greek: κανονάκι; Hebrew: קָנוֹן; Persian: قانون; Turkish: kanun; Armenian: քանոն; is a string instrument played either solo, or more often as part of an ensemble, in much of the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa, Central Asia, and Greece. The name derives from the Arabic word qanun, meaning "rule, law, norm, principle", which is borrowed from the ancient Greek word and musical instrument κανών (rule), which in Latin was called canon (not to be confused with the European polyphonic musical style and composition technique known by the same name). Traditional and Classical musics executed on the qanun are based on Maqamat or Makamlar.

CANON

The Western canon is a body of high culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that is highly valued: works that have achieved the status of classics. However, not all these works originate in the Western world, and such works are also valued throughout the world.
In music, a canon is a counterpoint-based compositional technique that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration. The follower must imitate the leader, either as an exact replication of its rhythms and intervals or some transformation thereof. based on the repetition of the theme by a leader and follower, in latin “dux” and “comes”.

(...)

Maqam families

‘Ajam – ‘Ajam (عجم), Jiharkah (جهاركاه), Shawq Afza (شوق افزا or شوق أفزا), Ajam Ushayran (عجم عشيران)
Bayati – Bayatayn (بیاتین), Bayati (بياتي), Bayati Shuri (بياتي شوري), Husayni (حسيني), Nahfat (نهفت), Huseini Ushayran (حسيني عشيران),
Hijaz – Hijaz (حجاز), Hijaz Kar (حجاز كار), Shad ‘Araban (شد عربان), Shahnaz (شهناز), Suzidil (سوزدل), Zanjaran (زنجران), Hijazain (حجازين)
Kurd – Kurd (كرد), Hijaz Kar Kurd (حجاز كار كرد), Lami (لامي)
Nahawand – Farahfaza (فرحفزا), Nahawand (نهاوند), Nahawand Murassah (نهاوند مرصّع or نهاوند مرصع), ‘Ushaq Masri (عشاق مصري), Sultani Yakah (سلطاني ياكاه)
Nawa Athar – Athar Kurd (أثر كرد), Nawa Athar (نوى أثر or نوى اثر), Nikriz (نكريز), Hisar (حصار)
Rast – Mahur (ماهور), Nairuz (نيروز), Rast (راست), Suznak (سوزناك), Yakah (يكاه)
Saba – Saba (صبا), Saba Zamzam (صبا زمزم)
Sikah – Bastah Nikar (بسته نكار), Huzam (هزام), ‘Iraq (عراق), Musta‘ar (مستعار), Rahat al-Arwah (راحة الأرواح) (spelled Rahatol Arwah), Sikah (سيكاه), Sikah Baladi (سيكاه بلدي)

The terms “world music” and “world beat” were coined in order
to create a marketing niche in industry discourse for non-Western acts
and genres. World music is a postmodern pastiche where distinctions between tradition, authenticity,
and modernity dissolve, demonstrating the “loss of referentiality”
and the triumph of the culture of the simulacrum.
Georgina Born /David Hesmondhalgh

Words of Paradise, Robin Hayward (2019)

Words of Paradise was inspired by the Renaissance Dutch linguist Johannes Goropius Becanus, who thought he had shown the Flemish dialect Brabantic to be the language spoken in Paradise. The brass instruments imitate the sound of this language, whilst in a metaphor for leaving paradise, the harmony drifts from central unison to the distant relationships of the outermost circles of the graphic score.

Satch Hoyt, Rulers (2016)

Say It Loud, Satch Hoyt

Bassem Alkhouri, Muwascha

“In fact, he told the truth twice.”

"Two years ago, I calculated that YouTube's algorithm recommended the flat earth theory about ten times more than videos that explain how we know the earth is round.
(Guillaume Chaslot, creator of the YouTube algorithm)

THE PERPETUAL CANON

Bassem Alkhouri, qãnūn (concert in KW Berlin)

E.I. the Blob / Annika Larsson and Robin Hayward in duo (concert in KW Berlin)

Robin Hayward and his Tuning Vine (concert in KW Berlin)

Diana Deutsch’s research in the field of musical psychology revealed how we hear words and phrases differently due to our knowledge, beliefs and expectations. Canon for Cloned Voice after Diana Deutsch is a piece that explores the idea of a perpetual canon. The repetition of a word played through speakers will continuously be transformed and perceived differently over time by the audience.

Terms / Instruments (...)

In ancient Greece the kanṓn, (Greek for “measuring rod” ,“rule”, “monochord”) was a single string musical tool, that served the purposes of measuring pitches and scales arithmetically.
For many centuries the device straddled the gap between notes and numbers, intervals and ratios, linking together music, law, mathematics and astronomy.

The kanṓn, and its Middle Eastern relative the qānūn, have been related to the elaboration of numerous groundbreaking but also occult theories. The tone measuring instrument was used and enhanced by Pythagoras, Al-Farabi or Kepler among many others, until the early days of modern Europe where the canon was gradually established as a cultural rule giver –
and as a musical contra-punctual technique.

How could a wooden tuning tool mutate into the cultural regulator of modern Western history?

The project draws relations between the hegemony of the Western tuning system and the role of the european canon in regard to the westernisation of non-european music and the ensuing loss of knowledges. It also questions the ongoing “economic canonisation” of artistic practices while facing a global trade of truth, in which conspiracy theories such as the far right QAnon movement resonate.

The project brings together microtonal explorations with ancestral, invented or revisited instruments, voices and acoustic hallucinations around a shared idea of antiphonic playing; a quest for outer-canonic call and response. KANÔN, QĀNŪN, CANON (…) was initiated by Augustin Maurs as a long term project of artistic exchange and concerts together with a group of Berlin-based musicians, composers and artists.

Contact: info@written-not-written.com

Johannes Kepler's singing planets

Why tuning systems
are essentially political

Some kanṓn practitioners and theories

Treating repetition well

Augustin Maurs & Hilary Jeffery
(cello, trombone)

Responsory practice (studio sessions)
videos can be played simultaneously

Meantone Canon, for tuba, trombone - Robin Hayward 2021

The piece was inspired by a fragment from the Ancient Greek music theorist Archytas, in which he outlines various methods for
calculated the midway points between two tones. Applying his ‘arithmetic’ and ‘harmonic’ methods iteratively to an octave results first in two smaller intervals, and then to two sets of yet smaller intervals. These form the basis for a two or three-part canon, whose inversion,
retrograde and retrograde inversion form separate quadrants of the circular graphic score.

HALLUCINATORY MACHINE

Yutaka Makino's Hallucinatory Machine (2020) is based on a custom machine listening algorithm that misunderstands the auditory inputs and hallucinates while listening to the auditory inputs. During a performance, the Hallucinatory Machine takes over the auditory perception of performers who repeat pre-defined motifs according to the auditory inputs according to a rule set up for the ensemble. In this process, the motifs gradually transform into an undifferentiated milieu of sound.


ZZXJOANW

Zzxjoanw, ostensibly pronounced: SHAW is a likely fictitious entry in an encyclopedia which fooled logologists for many years. It referred to a purported Maori word meaning "drum", "fife", or "conclusion". In 1903, author Rupert Hughes published The Musical Guide, an encyclopedia of classical music. Among the many sections of the "Guide" was a "pronouncing and defining dictionary of terms, instruments, etc". The "dictionary," 252 pages in all, explained the meaning and gave the pronunciation of German, Italian, and other non-English words found in the terminology of classical music. At the end of the dictionary, immediately following the entry for "zymbel" (German for cymbal), Hughes added the following definition:zzxjoanw (shaw). Maori. 1. Drum. 2. Fife. 3. Conclusion.
The entry was retained when the book was republished under different titles in 1912 and 1939.


CODEX SERAPHINIANUS

Codex Seraphinianus, originally published in 1981, is an illustrated encyclopedia of an imaginary world, created by Italian artist, architect and industrial designer Luigi Serafini between 1976 to 1978. It is approximately 360 pages (depending on edition) and written in an imaginary language.

E.I THE BLOB

E.I the Blob is an interactive “image-organism” sensitive to sound and touch, designed by Annika Larsson and programmed in WEB GL, which is a script for rendering interactive 3D and 2D graphics. It is an open-end project done in collaboration with the programmer Stefan Kernjak, and created to explore new ways of thinking, being and acting with the Moving Image. E.I The Blob is a (non-human) colleague who allows us to open up new ways to experiment with time, movement and toward the Moving Image as an intra-active* vibrant body. E.I The Blob’s programmed algorithm is also making us challenge the characteristic inability for digital programmed systems to create change. Here we are looking for ways to open the inherent closeness of digital communication towards more unknown protocols that allow for the spontaneous movement and change that exists in analogue systems.

Ptolemy' Harmonics

‘Whilst the microtonal tuba makes it possible to play every conceivable pitch within the instrument’s range, sliding between pitches
may only be accomplished slowly through alternating between the slide and valve combinations. In 2021 I discovered that inserting an
‘air-cushion’ into the bell makes it possible to play fast slides over wide intervals, particularly in the low range. I have therefore come to
refer to the microtonal tuba equipped with air-cushion mute as a Swoopophone.’ (Robin Hayward)

Alien Laughter - with Swoopophone and Blob - Annika Larsson / E.I. the Blob, music by Robin Hayward (concert in KW)

QAnon - a far-right conspiracy
theory and movement
centered on false
claims made by an anonymous
individual or individuals,
known by the name
“Q”. QAnon took inspiration
from an organisation of
leftist artists who, for
most of the mid-1990s,
called themselves Luther
Blissett after the 1980s
English footballer.
They used the England
striker’s name as a nom de
plume, perpetrating countless
media hoaxes, pranks
and art interventions.

PROGRAM of the concert in KW Institute for Contemporary Art KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V
16.11.2021

Tuning in - Qanun, Tuning Vine

The Hayward tuning Vine is an interface created by Robin Hayward for exploring the
system of microtonal tuning known as Just Intonation.

Canon per Tonos - J.S. Bach (from “The Musical Offering”)

The canon per tonos, an endlessly rising canon, pits a variant of the “king’s theme” allegedly given to Bach by King Frederick II of Prussia. The canon modulates and finishes one whole tone higher than it started out at. It thus has no final cadence. Bach wrote in the dedication score for the king: “Ascendenteque Modulationae ascendat Gloria Regis.” (“And with the ascending modulation let the glory of the king rise”).

Canon for Cloned Voice after Diana Deutsch, 2021 - Yutaka Makino

Diana Deutsch’s research in the field of musical psychology revealed how we hear words and phrases differently due to our knowledge, beliefs and expectations. Canon for Cloned Voice after Diana Deutsch is a piece that explores the idea of a perpetual canon. The repetition of a word played through speakers will continuously be transformed and perceived differently over time by the audience.

Meantone Canon, for tuba, trombone - Robin Hayward 2021

The piece was inspired by a fragment from the Ancient Greek music theorist Archytas, in which he outlines various methods for
calculated the midway points between two tones. Applying his ‘arithmetic’ and ‘harmonic’ methods iteratively to an octave results first in two smaller intervals, and then to two sets of yet smaller intervals. These form the basis for a two or three-part canon, whose inversion, retrograde and retrograde inversion form separate quadrants of the circular graphic score.

Tri-Spaced Cycles in Four - Satch Hoyt

The paintings that accompany Tri-Spaced Cycles in Four are Unfixed Graphic Scores. These scores function from a self conduction - a real-time compositional methodology. Operating on an improvisational platform, the score prompts moods triggered by depictions of rhythmication in form and their accompanying color fields. Each performance is unique, thus eliminating any chance of repetition.

QAsualties on Mi and Fa, for Voice, microtonal tuba, analog synth - Practice proposed by Augustin Maurs

This is a memory oriented practice based on the notes E and F, (Mi et Fa) referring to a quote by Johannes Kepler:
“The Earth sings Mi, Fa, Mi: you may infer even from the syllables that in this our home MIsery and FAmine hold sway” (Harmonices mundi, Fünf Bücher über die Harmonik der Welt“), 1619. The text is extracted from the reddit thread “QAnon Casualties”.

Technical Ensemble, 2021 - Yutaka Makino

Each instrumental player is asked to wear custom-made headphones which induce different degrees of Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF). DAF prolongs the time between a sound event and its auditory perception. Due to this effect, chaos and mishaps slowly take over the musical order. The entanglement among the devices, the players, and the form of the canon gradually decompose J.S. Bach’s Canon per Tonos.

Canon for Cloned Voice after Diana Deutsch, 2021 - Yutaka Makino

Diana Deutsch’s research in the field of musical psychology revealed how we hear words and phrases differently due to our knowledge, beliefs and expectations. Canon for Cloned Voice after Diana Deutsch is a piece that explores the idea of a perpetual canon. The repetition of a word played through speakers will continuously be transformed and perceived differently over time by the audience.

Alien Laughter - with Swoopophone and Blob - Annika Larsson / E.I. the Blob, music by Robin Hayward

E.I The Blob is a noise making interactive “image-organism” sensitive to sound and touch, created to explore new ways of thinking, being and acting with the Moving Image. As an intra-active vibrant body it plays a central role in my artistic research project “Non-knowledge, Laughter and The Moving Image” exploring ways to rethink laughter beyond the human laughter as well as ways to open the presumed closeness of digital communication systems towards more unknown protocols that allow for spontaneous movement and change. (Annika Larsson)
‘Whilst the microtonal tuba makes it possible to play every conceivable pitch within the instrument’s range, sliding between pitches may only be accomplished slowly through alternating between the slide and valve combinations. In 2021 I discovered that inserting an ‘air-cushion’ into the bell makes it possible to play fast slides over wide intervals, particularly in the low range. I have therefore come to refer to the microtonal tuba equipped with air-cushion mute as a Swoopophone.’ (Robin Hayward)

Muwascha, for ensemble - proposed by Bassem Alkhouri

Muwashshah (Arabic: حشوم literally “girdled” in Classical Arabic, is the name for both an Arabic poetic form and a secular musical genre. The poetic form consists of a multi-lined strophic verse poem written in classical Arabic, usually consisting of five stanzas, alternating with a refrain with a running rhyme.

Bassem Alkhouri, qãnūn and Robin Hayward, Tuning in, (concert in KW Berlin)

EVENTS:

16.12.2023, 5 pm, THE PERPETUAL CANON - selected motifs and talk, Augustin Maurs, hosted by Isabel Lewis and Dirk Bell
at Sophiensaele Kantine Berlin

25.10.2023 Presentation at the KYUSHU UNIVERSITY with Augustin Maurs and Yutaka Makino, Fukuoka, Japan

15.01.2022 C, K and Q MOTIFS from THE PERPETUAL CANON
for voice, mixed medias and instruments together with Elisa Storelli
Hoffmann Collection, Berlin

15.01.2022 RESPONSORY PRACTICE, 
Augustin Maurs and Hilary Jeffery
Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin

19.12.2021 RESPONSORY PRACTICE 
Augustin Maurs and Hilary Jeffery
Behind Ufer Studios, Berlin

16.11.2021 KANÔN, QĀNŪN, CANON (…)
Concert at KW Institute for Contemporary Art KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V.
Music for qãnūn, monochord, sanza, trombone, cello, microtonal tuba, voices and electronic

With:

Bassem Alkhouri
Annika Larsson
E.I. the Blob
Hilary Jeffery
Robin Hayward
Satch Hoyt
Mo Abbot
Yutaka Makino
Cymin Samawatie
Elisa Storelli
and more to come

Initiated and assembled by Augustin Maurs
In collaboration with:
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V.

This is the online workshop of the THE PERPETUAL CANON,
a collaborative inquiry into the notion of canon.
The project looks into the etymological developments of the term and explores its musical and non musical resonance until today.

The outcome unfolds as an ongoing suite of pieces and practices;
a quest for other kinds of musical response-ability.
Material, inspiration and updates will be shared on this blog.