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For many brass, percussion instruments, visuals and boat harbour, 30′-60′

In 1981 I conceived of a series of a modest number of music and nature conceptual works. The first in the series which has been performed in very different venues was Marina. It was first presented on both banks next to the Pont Neuf in Paris during the Biennale de Paris 1981. Young students from a conservatoire just outside of Paris played on the left bank (the audience was across from them on the Île de la Cité and on the bridge) as well as on a péniche, the long flat barges that take goods down the river. They were mostly brass instruments and some bells (to reflect the sound of ropes tapping against boat masts in the wind). Michel Jaffrennou, in this case, also presented a wonderful video installation in which water was descending from a television monitor hooked up to a hosepipe descending into the Seine.

Hundreds of people were there. However, le moment suprème was when a clochard (a gentleman sleeping rough under the bridge) spoke to a close friend of mine, Ginka Tscholakowa (Heiner Müller’s wife at the time) who attended the event – I’m not certain how they communicated as she had no French. He told her that ‘that musician, I believe, is more tuned in than Cage. He took the trouble to study the history of my home and then composed it’. One could not ask for more than this.

Marina has been composed to be presented at a boat harbour. Our site was almost that.

This is the Biennale announcement, the score of Marina followed by an overview of the series.

Announcement

Score of Marina

Music & Nature series overview