Blago Bung Blago Bung Bosso Fataka

Intro piece to a never-finished nor satisfying cycle about Dadaism.

All the pieces were going to be based around each module of the intro, but eventually all that stood up was this.

There is a midi error - the score is correct.

It might have the lyrics sung (my program has a midi voice creepiness thing), but if not, it is Karawane by Hugo Ball:

jolifanto bambla o falli bambla
großiga m'pfa habla horem
egiga goramen
higo bloiko russula huju
hollaka hollala
anlogo bung
blago bung
blago bung
bosso fataka
ü üü ü
schampa wulla wussa olobo
hej tatta gorem
eschige zunbada
wulubu ssubudu uluw ssubudu
tumba ba- umf
kusagauma
ba - umf

I don't think he'd mind my metrical revisions, and I got the text in the score from another book, that may have "translated" some of the german letters and pronunciations.

The score only has one page - the midi has more music. Your score has numerous notational problems, mainly with irregularly written rhythms and accidentals. Try to avoid using double sharps and double flats - ESPECIALLY with choral music. Even when you are working with non-tonal ideas, it's best to spell the notes in a simple, diatonic-looking way.

Your rhythms get confusing when you hold regular values in irregular places and patterns - for instance, the 2nd measure. You have an 8th rest then a half note. This is irregular and is more properly written as 1/8th rest- dotted 1/4 tied to 1/8.

I don't get the text (obviously). Who is this Hugo Ball and what does his text mean? I do, however, like your sense of harmony. It's very unique. Nice work!

the notation needs to be worked on, for sure... thats my master copy and i was working with polytonality of synthetic scales, which involved double sharps and flats as a way to maintain a standard septimal scale length. If i ever got anyone to do it (hopefully for my composition recital in may...) I'd clean it up for the performers.

The rhythmic stuff is a function of how I envision music I think that way, 4/4 for me is essentially the same as 8/8 or 16/16, depending on the main rhythmic pulse. However, most people don't understand rhythm that way, so I totally appreciate the kick towards reality.

Hugo Ball is the most lasting of the Dadaists, who were similar to the futurists in appeal and time period, but had more of a focus on lack of sense. The text is all nonsense words, which is why I didn't post a translation. He would kind of sprechtsang it (i know its not a verb, but still) to an intentionally faux-tribal beat, essentially trying to scare the audience, maybe in a parody of the Rite of Spring... somewhere on the internet has a recording of either him or a reenactor doing it correctly.

Keeping with dadaism, I wanted to present a coherent, but nontraditional tonality, destroying the original intent of the work, while keeping its spirit. Or something lame like that.

Thanks

my bad, just got around to pdfing the rest

Ferkungamabooboo:

As a visual artist (composing is a recent phenomenon for me), I'm more familiar with Dada as a movement in visual art. And in literature and the spoken word, although I guess that's more true for it's offspring, Surrealism.

For you, is Dada a living movement in the arts? In a sense, it never went away, inasmuch as Pop and Performance Art use absurdity, and they're still around. And Dada was sort of the beginning of the self-aware, parodist sensibility, which now is subsumed I think by "Post-Modernism," whatever that is.

I'm mainly a painter. "Isms" can be interesting, but the main thing is to just do the work, without regard for what some critic may call it. I think this goes for all the arts, including music.

I posted one of my compositions from my first CD in the thread on your "atonal" piece. Did you listen to it? It's short, but I'm actually sort of pleased with it. I wrote a couple tonight that will be on CD number six. I've done over a hundred of them since May, approaching four hours' worth.

I know I've got a lot to learn, but I think I'm making progress.

Thanks for being one of the more interesting members of the forum.


Walter Rhoads

Originally Posted by Walter Rhoads

For you, is Dada a living movement in the arts? In a sense, it never went away, inasmuch as Pop and Performance Art use absurdity, and they're still around. And Dada was sort of the beginning of the self-aware, parodist sensibility, which now is subsumed I think by "Post-Modernism," whatever that is.

Yeah... I feel concepts of Dada are pretty common now - absurdity is almost mundane.

I'm mainly a painter. "Isms" can be interesting, but the main thing is to just do the work, without regard for what some critic may call it. I think this goes for all the arts, including music.

Mos def. But it's a good shorthand to give people an idea of where you're coming from, especially for certain pieces. Going down that way, I usually call everything I write/play in that's not rock (or the damn jazz combos I have to take for my major) as "Contemporary Music," just to differentiate it from stylistic composers.

But I referred to Dadaism almost as a gimmick for the piece, so that there was something to grab onto for the listener. I'm gearing up for my senior (ok, 5th year) composition recital, and the school I'm at is hardly open to new music - which is weird, considering our professors are all pretty crazy musically.

Thanks for being one of the more interesting members of the forum.


Walter Rhoads

thanks for possibly the greatest compliment I can hear. Interesting is good to me