Solo voice-overs/stereo tape. New versions with choreography from 1994, 13 mins.

The writer, Gertrude Stein has not only influenced my work, she has occasionally provided the source material for my pieces. I believe that music is already to be found in the texts’ own sounds. They do not need to be placed on a five-line staff or need instrumental support. This composition is simply based on the re-composition of her writings; thus the samples are texts as opposed to sounds.

Three Stein texts form the basis of Rock’s Music (the German word, Stein = rock in English). Hundreds of pages taken from the following, Lifting Belly (1915/17), Patriarchal Poetry (1927) and As a Wife has a Cow: a Love Story (1926) form the source material for this piece. Influenced by Samuel Beckett’s famous play, Krapp’s Last Tape, the performer is in conversation with himself through a recording. There the comparison ends. What inspired the piece is how Stein was writing texts that not only predicted minimal music several decades before it was born, but in her case there is something else: what sounds like repetition is anything but that. As the number of voices increases, the ability to follow things decreases and, sometimes, reduced listening is the unexpected place where one arrives (also known as listening to music). This piece is the composer’s most performed work.

The CD recording from La Zététique (Erasmus WVH083) follows, then a version choreographed at Bretton Hall by Evelyn Jamieson can be found on the video. This is followed by the score of Rock’s Music. 

CD recording of Rock’s Music

Initial choreography of Rock’s Music (1994)

The score follows below