Stefan Szczelkun

Stefan Szczelkun is the publisher of Working Press, the press that published this. He was in the Scratch Orchestra & participated in the 8th International Neoist Apartment Festival in London in 1984 - wch is where I 1st met him. The subtitle of the bk is "William Morris, Cecil Sharp, Clough Williams-Ellis and the Repression of Working Class Culture in the 20th Century". Right. Stefan does a great job of explaining how working class culture gets sanitized by supposedly 'friendly' forces. Just tidying up a bit, wot?! I quote from this bk in my own essay entitled "Low Classical Music". Good onya mate!… (plus d'informations)

review of
Stefan Szczelkun's Improvisation Rites: from John Cage's 'Song Books' to the Scratch Orchestra's 'Nature Study Notes'. Collective practices 2011—2017
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 22, 2017

The full review starts here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/610819-improvisation-writes?chapter=1

Reading this bk, it seemed so specific to my somewhat rarified interests that it seemed almost written for me only even tho, of course, it's not — & I can imagine other people that it wd also be important to who weren't direct participants in the actions described. Alas, this subject is so important to me that I might have to write something considerably longer than this bk just to satisfy my desire for detail. But I'm not going to do that (or am I?).

Stefan, the author, is an original member of the Scratch Orchestra. I probably 1st read about the Scratch in Michael Nyman's excellent bk Experimental Music - Cage and Beyond from 1974. I read that sometime between 1975 & 1977. The frequent mentions of the Scratch in there wd've stimulated me to somehow find a copy of the also excellent Cornelius Cardew edited Scratch Music (1972) wch I must've read almost immediately after the Nyman bk.

Cardew was the founder of the Scratch. In Scratch Music, his "A Scratch Orchestra: draft constitution" he begins by defining it:

"Definition: A Scratch Orchestra is a large number of enthusiasts pooling their resources (not necessarily material resources) and assembling for action (music-making, performance, edification).

"Note: The word music and its derivatives are here not understood to refer exclusively to sound and related phenomena (hearing, etc). What they do refer to is flexible and depends entirely on the members of the Scratch Orchestra.

The Scratch Orchestra intends to function in the public sphere, and this function will be expressed in the form of—for lack of a better word—concerts. In rotation (starting with the youngest) each member will have the option of designing a concert. If the option is taken up, all details of that concert are in the hands of that person or his delegates; if the option is waived the details of the concert will be determined by random methods, or by voting (a vote determines which of these two). The material of these concerts may be drawn, in part or wholly, from the basic repertory categories outlined below." - p 10, Cornelius Cardew edited Scratch Music, The MIT Press, 1974

This "draft constitution" was reprinted from a June, 1969, edition of The Musical Times. Cardew goes on to list & describe 5 "basic repertory categories": "Scratch music", "Popular Classics", "Improvisation Rites", "Compositions", & "Research Project". It's the "Improvisation Rites" that we're concerned w/ here so I'll give his complete "draft constitution" elucidation:

"A selection of the rites in Nature Study Notes will be available in Appendix 2. Members should constantly bear in mind the possibility of contributing new rites. An improvisation rite is not a musical composition; it does not attempt to influence the music that will be played; at most it may establish a community of feeling, or a communal starting point, through ritual. Any suggested rite will be given a trial run and thereafter left to look after itself. Successful rites may well take on aspects of folklore, acquire nicknames, etc.

"Free improvisation may also be indulged in from time to time." - p 10, Cornelius Cardew edited Scratch Music, The MIT Press, 1974

Starting in 1965, Cardew had been in the London-based pioneering free improvisation group "AMM". In the liner notes to the Live Electronic Music Improvised record (Mainstream MS/5002) wch features AMM as including Cardew, Lou Gare, Christopher Hobbs, Eddie Prévost, & Keith Rowe, it's written:

"For this occasion AMM Music was recorded at a concert given at the Crypt Programme in Notting Hill Gate, London, June 12th, 1968. The tape has been edited and interspersed with silence in accordance with a random number programme to give a representative cross-section of a concert lasting two hours. The text which follows is extracted from a lecture by Cardew on the ethics of improvisation:—

""Written compositions are fired off into the future; even if never performed, the writing remains as a point of reference. Improvisation is in the present, its effect may live on in the souls of the participants, both active and passive (ie: audience), but in its concrete form it is gone forever from the moment that it occurs, nor did it have any previous existence before the moment that it occurred, so neither is there any historical reference available."

[Reviewer's interpolation: Basically, I disagree w/ this. Participants have their own history that contributes to whatever present they create. A musician has every rehearsal & gig they've ever played behind them. This creates both the muscle memory & the skill that enables them to do whatever they're doing. A pianist sitting down at the piano for the 1st time isn't going to play the same thing as one who's played thousands of times. The "historical reference" that Cardew claims doesn't exist in improvisation is the history of whatever the player has done before.]

"Documents such as tape recordings of improvisation are essentially empty, as they preserve chiefly the form that something took and give at best an indistinct hint as to the feeling and cannot convey any sense of time and place." - Mainstream MS-5002

Be that as it may, it strikes me as probable that most people aware of AMM are interested in what they do/did for musical reasons & will listen to the recordings in lieu of opportunities to witness AMM play live. As such, the recordings become the primary source available & how they play becomes important for the listener.

I got this record at the end of 1977, again, around the same time as my reading of Experimental Music & Scratch Music. I wd've been eager for listening to such things. While this record only contains excerpts from that Crypt concert, there's since been released the recording of the entire session on Matchless Recordings MRCD05. I'm listening to it from beginning to end as I type this. It's very noisy, w/ feedback, amplified sounds of unknown origin, & tapped metal. I think it's an extremely remarkable & historical performance. If I were to attend one like it now I wdn't necessarily find it very interesting. The world of "Noise Music" has blossomed since then & performances such as this are more common.

I probably started improvising when I was around 13 to 16 & I recorded myself playing piano on an old Grundig 3" reel-to-reel. I then accidentally listened to the recording backwards, an easy thing to do by misthreading the tape. In a sense, this wd've marked the time of my personal discovery of what I later learned was called "Musique Concrete" or "Electroacoustic Music". That wd've been around 1967 to 1970. It wasn't until the fall of 1972, tho, that I really started trying to improvise seriously.

I'd learned to play Frank Zappa's "King Kong" on my electric guitar, a challenge, as I recall, b/c it was in Db Major &, therefore, had no open strings in conventional E-A-D-G-B-E tuning. I realized that I had no idea how to play an improvised solo as part of my playing of it. The type of improvisation I was groping for wd've hypothetically been based on scales & meter. I doubt to this day that I'd be able to play a "King Kong" break to my satisfaction.

It wasn't long, tho, I think I was probably 20, when I was playing what I'd now call free improvisation - mainly in conjunction w/ my friend "Herr Brain", Brian Wolle. I remember playing a session on piano, guitar, & trombone w/ Brian on drums, piano, & cornet? in the 1st floor of the house where we both might've lived at the time - much to the annoyance of the tenant living above. That might've been 1973 or 1974. I remember being already bored by 'free improvisation' by the winter of 1981. For me it was 'been there, done that, not interesting anymore'.

Nonetheless, I'd played many a free improv session before that date & I've played even more since then. E.G.: I was in a group called "B.O.M.B." (Baltimore Oblivion Marching Band) during its brief existence in 1979. Our 1st action was:

"015. B.O.M.B. crashing of improvisation class

- Corner Theater, Baltimore, us@

- March, 1979

- The Baltimore Oblivion Marching Band (B.O.M.B.) - variously called a roving band of defiant youths (in "newspaperese") by myself & No Name Interaction/Reaction Group by Sumu Pretzler (a.k.a. Doug Retzler) & co-founded by us with Richard Ellsberry & others - was a loosely knit group with variable membership that got together, mainly on weekends, to crash various events - usually with the intention of stirring up some action & catalyzing greater interaction between all those involved. This usually involved eccentric dress, toy instruments, & aggressive "socializing" (or "anti-socializing") with strangers.

- B.O.M.B.'s premier crashing was at an improvisation class where our crashing was meant to be a critique of how silly we thought the class was. We snaked thru the students & teacher(s) alike trying to get them to spontaneously react to our unexpected presence & then left before they had too much of a chance to integrate us into their perception of the class.

- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE" - http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/MereOutline1979.html

Simultaneous w/ B.O.M.B. & extending for yrs beyond it to Xmas, 1983, was "Lacquerland":

"020. Visit to Lacquerland

- a construction site in Maryland, us@

- late March, 1979

- In fall of 1978, I started working as a hard-wood floor finisher. This job involved stooping over a bucket of lacquer & brushing the lacquer on the floors as a part of the finishing process. Inhalation of the fumes caused intoxication. Co-workers Brian Wolle (a.k.a. "Brain" &/or "Herr Brain Storm Drain") & Doug Retzler (a.k.a. "Sumu Pretzler") & I exploited this high & tried to have fun at work by improvising vocally while lacquering. These improvs centered around creating a mythology about the living conditions in "Lacquerland" - our name for the state of mind & body gotten into from the fumes. Our audience, when there was one, were our fellow construction workers - who were apparently entertained but who made jokes about our being "crazy". There were a fair amount of these sessions but, for the purposes of this history, I've restricted myself to only listing the 3 that we audio recorded." - http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/MereOutline1979.html

Unlike AMM, we didn't perform in music venues, our intentions weren't really musical. After B.O.M.B. ceased to exist, I founded or cofounded what I called the "nameless wandering wind ensemble". I didn't want it to have a name:

"030. nameless wandering wind ensemble

- Baltimore, us@

- winter, 1979/1980

- cris cheek (clarinet), Chris Mason (bass clarinet), Gayle Hanson (clarinet?), Patty Karl? (clarinet?), & I (alto sax) improvised while wandering the streets & alleys. We were joined by a guy named John(?) playing recorder who heard us passing by." - http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/MereOutline1979.html

Again, the emphasis was on the guerrilla nature of our performances but the music was central rather than just any type of action. After 1981, the quantity of free improvising that I engaged in, despite my being jaded, was enormous. In 1984, I started my "booed usic" project wch involved free improvising using some pre-recorded materials wch I mixed live in a process I called "Concrete Mixing". That cd be sd to've lasted from roughly 1984 to 1989:

"066.> booed usic

- t he telectropheremoanin'quinquennial, Galaxy Ballroom, Baltimore, us@ - Tuesday, January 24, 1984

- This was the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the Baltimore Underground Telephone Network. The word "telectropheremoanin'" being a pun that combined "telectro" (as in having to do with telephone communications) with "pheremones" (lust inducing biological signals) with "moanin'" (as in moaning with pleasure). This pun was the theme of the night. I had paid a phone sex prostitute by mail to be called by me that night. In case there was any problem with that I'd asked my friend Lisa "Wet-Legs" (as she became known after this night) to act as a back-up. The basic idea was that I'd call the prostitute & broadcast our conversation to the bar's audience - gradually making it more & more perverse. As my conversation was to get stranger, the booed usicians were to gradually start playing until their sounds would drown out the conversation. The booed usicians were: Mark Harp (tapes & radio), Craig Considine (trombone), Ron Cummings (tapes, records, & mixing board), Leroy Keltner (trombone), & myself (tapes). There was "trouble on the line" at the phone sex prostitute's so Lisa substituted. Lisa had gotten mysteriously sick earlier, had vomited & passed out - my call awoke her. This added to the general feeling of it all. Suggestions from the audience were taken & someone's friend was called too. I was too drunk &/or inhibited to carry on a very good conversation so the extremely able Buddy Johnson was called in to relieve me. The highlight of his conversation with Lisa for me was their reminiscing about school-days they never had together when he pulled out his "short fat pancake" & she "covered it with Mrs. Butterworth's". Throughout the "phone sex" & the booed usic that encroached on it, an hour long analysis projector transfer to video of the 16mm version of my film "Subtitles" was shown on a large video projection screen.

- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE" - http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/MereOutline1984.html

The pre-recorded materials were what I called "Usical Materials" & consisted largely of recordings I made especially for this purpose such as a tape w/ all cymbal playing on one side & all drum playing on the other side. I cd use auto-reverse to access either. This was one of my 1st free improv shows to take place in a music venue but later booed usics were, once again, guerrilla:

"110. street action with the booed usic busking unit

- Covent Gardens & Leicester Square, London, UK

- Saturday, May 28, 1988

- The "Portable booed usic Busking Unit / Nuclear Brain Physics Surgery School Lab / Philosopher's Union Member's Mouthpiece / Blatnerphone Hallucinomat", usually just called the busking unit, was a suitcase full of battery powered tape-player/radios, mixers, a tv, an amplifier, a PXL camcorder, & mouths that moved depending upon the volume output from the amplifier (etc, etc..). It was designed to enable me to present street actions with complex "concrete mixing". The tv-PXL connection enabled me to present the Philosopher's Mouthpieces (see the previous entry) - henceforth abbreviated P.U.M.M.s. The tape-player/radios & mixers enabled me to both mix prepared recordings & other "live" inputs. When set up, people could watch the tv (just barely - it was pretty small) & hear the sound coming from 4 speakers which could pan from left to right & from back to front &, of course, vice versa. This was the 1st street action "performed" with it. I was almost immediately moved along by the bobbies at Covent Gardens so I moved to Leicester Square where I was unmolested. Assistance in this was from Laura Trussell, who shot some footage with the PXL, & from Scott Larson - who threw money onto our collection cloth to try to catalyze the onlookers to do the same (to no avail). At least 1 tourist with an expensive video camcorder shot footage of us - I'd love to see it." - http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/MereOutline1988.html

Overlapping booed usic there was the free improvising instrument-based group named "Something that Dissolved the Shadow of Something that Was Next to Something that Burned Twice" wch lasted from 1987 to 1989. An aspect of the humor of the group was our disagreeing about what our name was. Our last gig:

"133. Something That Dissolves the Shadow of Something Which Was Once Close to Something That Once Burned Twice

- Displace, Baltimore, us@

- November 4, 1989, 9PM - 1AM

- The 2nd & final public presentation by this group. Neil Feather & I spent 20 hours installing our equipment in this room. John Berndt put in alotof time too. John Sheehan pulled his usual "difficult" routine by refusing to say whether he'd participate or not & then showing up at the "last" minute after Neil & I had set up his equipment for him. Neil's set-up was the most extreme: he had bowling balls hanging from a metal frame from piano wire which swung as pendulums against moveable bridges on necks - the resultant sound of the strings hitting the bridges was processed thru a 16 second digital delay. His other instruments included: Bendy Guitar, Nondo, & Contraption. I surrounded myself by 15 drums & cymbals & other metal things, a guitar, & a VCR & monitor playing a fairly complex feedback vaudeo I'd made. John Berndt was using some sort of home-made oscillator & Oddly-Strung Guitar - amongst other things. John Sheehan played a bass that he'd made from a kit. The agreement that we'd had before-hand was that we'd play for about 5 hours - with any of us taking breaks whenever we felt like it - but with at least 1 of us playing at all times. There were a few other agreed-upon things (few, if any of which, would John Sheehan commit to cooperating with) such as playing for an hour straight without any of us dropping out & with all of us playing as intensely as we could stand. When the time came for this latter, I had been drinking alcohol & taking oral morphine & was a bit worried that I might have overdone it so I played frenetically to try to work it out of my system. After John Sheehan dropped out, the rest us entered a nudist phase. The way the equipment was set up was basically so that it filled the large room we were in but so that people could walk anywhere around us. In the meantime, Brad Hwang & his room-mate Matt were having large mobile machine battles in an adjacent room. In 1 highlight & neoist reference, John Sheehan donned a sortof hockey face mask, lit a steam iron on fire that had a pick-up attached to its bottom, & played the pick-up by banging a piano wire against it that was mounted between 2 boards that he held between 1 foot & 1 very begloved hand.

"A movie from this is on YouTube broken into 2 parts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McbJXs4XC7w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCQHJk7I8DA" - http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/MereOutline1989.html… (plus d'informations)

I really enjoyed this little book about the cultural oppression of working class expressions of art and creativity, with examples of projects aimed at tackling and redressing the issue.

Szczelkun helped me reflect upon my relationship to my own working class roots, which I feel strongly and yet for which I also experience an estrangement. He has helped me to realise that I have internalised a set of assumptions of what it is to be working class, the traditional labels attached to which do not fit me and with which I have therefore not identified. I have, reluctantly, self-identified as middle-class for some time now, with occasional rebellioius reversions to what feels like my natural ground-state! I'm going to be reflecting a lot on this issue, to find my way through the values I've introjected and connect with those which feel more organically my own.

As class is socially constructed, in addition to reflecting upon how I perceive myself, I'll have to consider my perception of others and how they might perceive me. Sounds like hard work, but fun!… (plus d'informations)