Lieven Martens, Idylls

2.
A transcript from Ambae isle,
an aria with scherzo’s and
a coda 14’50’’
fig. – Our place is in a deep cleft of Vaea Mountain, some six hundred feet above the sea, embowered in forest, which is our strangling enemy (…)
(R.L.S. in a letter to Sidney Colvin, November 2nd, 1890, Found Object)
fig. 2 – The longhouse in Papua Nuigini is a central house in the village
where the men have meetings and perform ceremonies. Here pictured
is the longhouse in the village of Didesa. The small outbuildings house
government patrols that come through once a year. (Found Object)
This is a melody copied from an Ahi Gavegave
(“a song of anger”), recorded on Ambae Island,
sung by Barton Qaribageo in the mountain village
of Vuingalato. This type of song is a technique
of sharing ones grievances and conflicts through
declamation and melody. The singer expresses
the reason of his anger, describing the situation,
and sometimes also announces consequences
of the harm done to her or him. Thus in a way
one could say this is a pacifist way to deal with
troubles, yet that being said the song could foretell
vicious consequences, retaliations and alike …
The latter giving it the kind of “charm” an army
march might hold to some.
I once knew this local pianist who had a
short temper. Many times when he felt enraged
he would play Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue over
and over again, as a meditation to control his
anger with the world. Through the song he would
lower his blood pressure, and when performed
in public the potential listener would understand
that now is not the best time to debate with the
pianist. This sometimes created a grotesque choreography.
In the centre one saw a redheaded pianist
looping Gershwin’s playful melodies shielding
himself from the outside world; surrounded by the
uncertain movements of onlookers. Sometimes
whispering to each other, ideas for reparation.
But back to this composition. I found this
particular Ahi Gavegave on a CD collection
with music from Vanuatu. The song is called
Qaruqarahi Qarimemea, after the original hero
and / or composer of the song. I transcribed
the melody of this chant inside a corresponding
Western chord scheme, and reduced the tempo.
A monophonic melody appears, resulting into an
aria reproduced by a standard Midi piano plug-in.
This segment, like all parts of this composition, is
created by feeding automations to the computer.
Thus no personal playing has been involved in
the creation of this piece of music, only (mainly…)
the voice of a man from Ambae.
Part two is a scherzo in the same chord and
created with processing and layering note numbers,
cc’s et al of the previous transcription. When
having the computer decide which note it plays,
it seems the machine has a (deceptive) feeling for
melody after all. The computer even butters the
situation into a softer, almost piano bar environment,
counterpointing the initial “anger” of the
song with a soft pillow and a chilled white wine.
Parth three and the coda are two sample and
frequency modulation experiments, created by
feeding the previous scherzo through yet another
set of plug-ins and automations. These are two
tableaus with typically appealing structures, which
again one would never mistake for “angry music”.
It reflects the practice of a good and especially
effective Ahi Gavegave. Where even in all the outrage,
anger and grievance, beauty is always the
key concept.
Thus through these four steps, the voice of
the enraged man of Ambae, travels deeper and
deeper inside the computer system. And equally it
sinks deeper and deeper inside the listener’s mind.
Stereo, Computer