Juliana Hodkinson
Nothing Breaking the Losing (2016) for (one or) two performers with one (electric) string instrument audio playback drone, some active audience objects, threads, and scissors Dur. c. 12′
Commissioned by Sanne Krogh Groth at the Royal Library of Denmark
SCORE
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Composed with support from the Danish Arts Foundation
With support from Koda’s Cultural Funds.
Projektet er støttet af Kodas kulturelle midler
Edition·S publications are supported by the Danish Arts Foundation / Edition·S udgivelser er støttet af Statens Kunstfond
Juliana Hodkinson
Nothing
Breaking the Losing (2016)
for (one or) two performers with one (electric) string instrument audio playback drone, some active audience objects, threads, and scissors Dur. c. 12′
PERFORMANCE NOTES
First performed in reduced version by Mina Fred (viola) at the Royal Library of Denmark, Copenhagen, 17th September 2016
First performed in full version by Mina Fred (electric viola) and Juliana Hodkinson (speaking) at Kaldal6n, Harpa, Reykjavik, 30th September 2016
Full version additionally extended as part of a performance lecture with Mina Fred (eclctric viola) and Juliana Hodkinson (speaking) at ZKM Zentrurn fur Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe, 27th September 2017.
Nothing Breaking the Losing is scored for two performers -1 musician (Performer 1) with (electric) string instrument, and l speaking voice part (Performer 2) – and audio playback drone, some active audience (minimum 12) and objects, threads and scissors. The speaking voice pati (until now always performed by the composer) may be replaced with additional playback audio (pre-rec available on request, from composer).
Audio 1 is a 15-minute sample (mainly a low drone), played through a stereo/ quadrophonic PA system with good bass range.
Audio 2 is a 10-minute sample (spoken word), played through a good-quality mobile speaker, such as Bose SoundLink Mini or similar, or a good.quality USB-stick player. If there is a Performer 2 (speaking part), then Audio 2 is not used. In the score, Audio 2 instructions are written in brackets.
Objects
4 – 12 pairs of nail scissors
8 – 12 cups and glasses, mixed glass/porcelain, various sizes, preferably all thin/ delicate, vintage; some of them are filled/half-filled with water
4 – 6 benches for seating audience (rest of audience stands) -see space plan Viola (without bow), rigged with 8 long (2-metre) lengths of coloured cotton thread -2 on each string, on either side of the bridge
8 – 12 objects (key, button, tinkly bell, etc.), each object tied to 8-metre lengths of coloured cotton thread White sheet, to be spread on floor under the cups/glasses, and held down with double-sided tape.
Instrument and audio equipment
Electric string instrument with pre-amp – or optionally, acoustic string instrument –played without bow Microport and pre-amp for speaking performer, performer 2 (if string instrument is electric) (Mobile USB speaker, if performer 2 is being replaced by audio playback).
Performance instructions
In the score, instructions for the reduced version, in which performer 2 is replaced by audio playback on a USB speaker, are included in brackets ( ). The main movements and actions of the audience, particularly the active audience, are notated in the score purely for the purpose of the performers having an overview -the audience does not need to be told in advance that there is the option of getting involved, and all audience actions are prompted during the performance by the performers.
Text, spoken by Performer 2 (or if pre-recorded, Audio 2 playback)
The text is written by the composer. The title comes from Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons, which is its point of departure.
Welcome. A little calm is so ordinary here where we are.
A very small difference prepared. In time. What if waiting is not natural there is perhaps some use in just listening. There are more places empty. All this which is several being together, which is a system that has feeling, which has resignation and success, all makes a venue. But is there not much more safety in more chairs and a place to put them and very likely more sound will ensue.
It shows what use there is in a whole piece if one uses it and if it is extreme. And very likely things could be clearer with or without my being there but in any case there is a little bit and if there is the best thing to do is to pull on it.
Light blue and red with purple makes a chord change. It shows that there is no mistake and very likely it is in tune and in time.
Several being together, those numbers are small, which makes them hard to count. Some increase means ascendancy and this is the best preparation for several being together.
In the middle of here there is a precise thing. Her hand is leading. Arm, hand, she is pulling together.
The sound of a hand if it is white and black, the second hand augmented by royal assent pulls a green string.
A little upturned tuning of a third makes such a sweet singing promise and a little downturned tuning of a fomih augmented falls warming a round thing fluttering a white thing, and we are moving a fifth ahead. So then the order is that a louder way is something suggesting a pitch not a point and is it is disappointing.
When. The sound of a reason, a slight change of mind or temperature and this life table octave and a half death rate is simply the reciprocal of the expectation of life, itself a widely used index.
The normal way is to accustom the thing to have a shape and to be solid, quite solid and to use heaviness. ON.
Not thin thin things where there may be breakages. Off.
Dirt makes a sound darker its shape heavy and makes melody harder. It takes compassion and precision and even an act of quiet strength to spread a cloth wider to cover it.
Half a corner and no curve, a cause and loud enough, a cause and extra a loud clash, a slender grey and no quiet passage, this means a loss a great loss and a migration. We keep moving, hungry. And rising.
There are more places empty. They used to sit. Entertaining the unbearable idea. Where.
If it returns, we will never know whether it was a repetition or just a timbral or intonational refinement caused by a new fingering.
If children exhaust noise and distance and even dust, if they perfect will dirt a surface that has no grace, if they do this and it is not necessary it is not at all necessary if they do this they need an instrument.
Suppose an example is necessary, the plainer it is made the more reason there is for some outward recognition that here with or without good reason is a result. So far, so good, becoming moderate.
An occasion for plates and a dinner set of coloured china. If the party is small a clever song is in order. It makes the pressure drop. Pack together a string and enough with it to protect the centre, cause a considerable tension and gather more as it is cooling, collect more trembling and not any even shaking, cause a whole thing to be a church. Rocksteady. And falling. Simple, clear and absolutely impossible to understand.
Is there any extreme use in cotton as string.
A string that has no care must be a warm kind of air and nothing flat nothing quite flat and more round, nothing a particular moment passing, no pause or passage, nothing breaking the losing of no little piece. Normally.
Cut cut in skin which so lately. Cut more than any other and show what it was. What is the currency that makes it crackle, what is the link that presents under extreme pressure a long line and a necessary stopping. Where is the length, where the interval, it is there and a dark place is not a black place, only a bow is every col or. A line distinguishes it. A line just distinguishes it If everything is in white it is not necessary. Rainbows are not binary. Is that not an argument for any use of it and even so is there any place that is better, is there any place that has so much currency and no money. Bend more slender accents than have ever been necessary. It is not an invitation, it is a sobering accident, it send animosity and accentuation quivering. Why is there no time. Soon. Rest. Later. For me. This one particular day. We were glad to be there.
A piece was not exchanged, not a bit of it, a piece was left over. The rest was sent for analysis. So.
What was the use of not leaving. What was the use if there was no chance of ever seeing it come there.
Within the cut and slender time alone, with sudden equals and no more than there, an exhalation to one side. So very tired. From the centre make you two one subside. No cup is broken in more places and mended, that is to say a plate broken does show that that culture is lowering its flag. It shows the whole element of angels and orders airborne fly out to the sides. It does more to choosing and it does more to that counting. It does, it does change in more water. Supposing a single piece is a hair supposing more of them are orderly on that day, does that show that strength, famously, does that show experience, does that play well. Does it.
This was the hope which made the sixteen and seventeen have no use for any more places and this necessarily spread within eleven to twelve minutes into nothing. A piece means necessary sound and a little revision of a thousand little things does mean that there has been a place, a sound where you did shake, and I Just spoke.
Audio 1 Performer 1
Preparation of instrument, threads and performance space, including sound check Instrument: any scordatura,
NOTHING BREAKING THE LOSING
Performer 2 (or Audio 2)
Audience
Audio I, on fixed speakers, is already running as audience enters .._ j (Off-stage: START Audio 2) I
Performer 2 may optionally be Begin to recite text already in the space before the acoustically - amplification audience enters, or enter at any up very gradually, over point between B and C 60-90 sec.: j Audience enters I ~=n<,CffiO
© 2016, Juliana Hodkinson
30-50 sec.
60 sec.
ENTER performance space (carrying mobile speaker)
WALK complete circle (with mobile speaker) around outside of audience, if possible, (and choose a place to PUT DOWN mobile speaker) MOVE to instrument (Position A) and take up cotton threads one at a time ... speaking ...
PLAY BY PULLING thumb and index finger along the threads, alternating hands, varying speed and length of' stroke'; EXPLORE the accents made by knots in threads, making as many different kinds of accent as possible (vary dynamic, articulation) - subtly at first, then more freely
10 sec. 30 sec.
_,,, - - - ~·--·----~
15 sec.
or ··•--« •.• ~.< ·•-•-'•-"'""' -
1---- ... speaking ... 1
-
Audio 1
10 sec.
10 sec.
10 sec.
Performer 1
GATHER all the threads that are attached to instrument into a bunch and CUT them with nail scissors; PICK UP instrument
INDICATE TO THE AUDIENCE at CD-E-F to raise the objects from the cups/glasses, by pulling on the cotton
Performer 2 _ ... speaking ... or Audio 2
Audience . . . some holding threads ... -
Pull on cotton threads, to raise objects from cups/glasses
If the objects are not hanging above the cups/glasses, GUIDE them gently into place, lightly EXPLORING their sounds ,_ ... holding threads tight ...
Audio l
30 sec.
20 sec. 10 sec.
20 sec.
Performer 1
Performer 2 or Audio 2 Audience
LIFT instrument and PRESS instrument strings lightly against threads held by audience, and MOVE from (F) to (B); MOVE instrument along the audiencehe Id string(s) towards (F) 1--- ... speaking ...
MOVE from (F) to (B) MOVE from (B) to (F)
Walk around back of seated audience, if possible, to Position C
... holding threads tight ...
Audio 1 Performer 1
Performer 2 or Audio 2 Audience
10 sec. 10 sec. MOVE from (C) to (B) -1---i MOVE from (B) to(E) to (B) i---- speaking ... ... holding threads tight ...
20 sec.
EXPLORE articulations on any instrument 1------1 string(s), using any of the cotton threads 1-------
30 sec.- -Create a slow-motion TREMOLO, focusing onstring sound - ... speaking ... ... holding threads tight ... -
50 sec. 20 sec. - - -
SHIFT THE FOCUS of tremolo to the While audience at C-O-E-F continues to objects, guiding the audience at C-O- sustain the object/thread tremolo, E-F to sustain the object/threadDISTRIBUTE nail scissors to the audience tremolo (small shaking movements) seated on benches G-H ••--"~ "~"ITake up object/thread tremolo I I . .. sustaining object/thread tremolo ...
Audio 1
--
Performer 1
IOptionally, fade out from here to end -
Performer 2 or Audio 2 Audience
Return to B and use nail scissors to CUT one thread - ... speaking ... ...., . sustaining tremolo ...
INDICATE to the audience at G-H that
While the audience from G-H is cutting they are to move to B and cut the other at B, use nail scissors to NIBBLE gently threads one by one, starting with the at lowest string of instrument person nearest H (you may talk to them)
I SLOW DOWN ifnecessary I
Audience cutting threads with threads nail scissors
Some audience moves to cut
Audio 1
Performer 1 (Pick up mobile speaker and) LEAVE
Performer 2 I d - FINISH text an LEAVE or Audio 2 _
Audience
