IT'S ABOUT TIME

Faced with dilemma of my despair and confusion in the midst of a government imposed lockdown without any referendum of its people, I felt I was powerless to control my destiny. The COV-19 Pandemic establishment, fueled by the pied piper of the CDC, had determined that all I had worked for during my lifetime, and all that I was currently engaged in, was not worthwhile in light of a new virus launched by surprise on an unsuspecting global population.

As I fought through the brain fog of isolation and shutdown, I began to understand that I was allowing myself to be victimized by the circumstances of confinement. I needed to find my way out of this pandemic maze that had totally shredded the mechanisms of routines in my life that had imbued each day with structure and purpose.

Everything seemed to collapse and merge to the problem, (blackhole) of TIME.

Ah, Time...the dilemma of life, of science, of the universe...the focus of Einstein... the relativity of the absolute. Hadn't I always grappled with this... remembering my attraction to and obsession with Martin Heiddeger's BEING AND TIME?
Remembering my romance with phenomenology and ontology, that began when I went to NYU after completing my doctorate at Columbia. That romance began because of an encounter with my colleague in the Art Department, David Ecker, an astonishing phenomenologist who, at first seemed to be talking nonsense, when suddenly heuncovered the landmines of objective reality---and he was opening a new world of wonderment, clear vision and understanding of method. Later, I stumbled across Heidegger's TIME AND BEING, written near the end of his career as an experiment in philosophy and education.

Ecker focused on the process of the phenomenological method, using language as a tool of inquiry to uncover layers of meaning.  While I had read of Heidegger in my philosophy studies, I had not fully understood phenomenological use of language as a tool of inquiry, moving through layers of meaning from phenomenological description to meta-critical observations and conclusions. So as I came across Heidegger's reversal in the twilight of his career: On Time and Being, I was delighted that this was drawn from lectures for a select group of students in which he declares that he has no idea what his lectures will be about, but that they will discover the content of the lectures as it emerges from the class as a platform for inquiry.  I identified with this approach as it has been foundational to my classes and workshops.

As much as what I am writing here might seem a diversion from focusing on my dilemma of the COV-19 shutdown, it is extremely on point.

My own dilemma within the context of the COV-19 lockdown was that I was paralyzed from the shock of isolation and the tangible cultural support that had served as a source of inspiration. The cultural context had served to structure my time as well as define the strategies I needed in order to create new work. You may object by pointing out the vast cultural resources of the Internet. But the energy is different. In the screen before me, I sometimes seem to be staring back at myself.

I realized that I needed to rethink Time in the context of the lockdown. The idea of the schedules of artists and scientists (creators of new knowledge) has long been of interest of researchers. For example, Beethoven's regimine was as follows:

His approach was very disciplined. At breakfast he counted the number of beans for coffee: exactly 60 were needed to make the perfect cup. The breakout came at 4:45 p.m. when he would take long walks while sketching out ideas.

Mozart's schedule was somewhat more frenetic:

Mozart had to build his creative life around employment to serve as the musician and teacher of the court and attend to music for various occasions, some very formidable in terms of large scale music events for which he composed music and led ensembles from the keyboard.

In my teens, I strongly identified with Mozart (I composed a safety opera in the fourth grade), as well as George Gershwin, who fulfilled my fantasies of New York. Both died at 35 years of age, and I based most of my life on the assumption that I would also die at that age. For that reason, I never planned to retire.

Looking at the schedules of creative people led me to research Daily Rituals by Mason Currey, an impressive collection of how creative and innovative people structured their daily routines... great bedside reading. Then I came across a reflection on the creative process by the noted choreographer
Twyla Tharp, THE CREATIVE HABIT: Learn It and Use It for Life. In this book she stressed the importance of beginning with Ritual, and her discussion of how it set the tone for the day deeply impressed me.

I realized that within the isolation of this Pandemic Shutdown, I needed to find my own way out by discovering a regimen that would help me out of the despair that was weighing me down. I loved the circle graph that defined Mozart's schedule. As I read the lives of various innovators, I started to imagine how my day should be structured. The circle graph connects to the earth, to time, to the face of a clock.

So now began my quest to find a way out of my depression by discovering how to re-imagine my typical day. I also realized that this structuring of Time was a dimension of Being. I recalled the improvisations of our class EXPANDED MUSIC that explored Time, Manifestation, and Being through open-ended improvisations in THE PROVINCETOWN PLAYHOUSE. Somehow this Pandemic was opening the pathway to energies of the past that now populate the present.

PANDEMIC PANIC: A VICTIM OF LOCKDOWN

After a whirwind of two days, drenching ourselves with the artistic energy of New York City, Lisa Naugle returned to California on March 10, as the virus that Fauci claimed was "not a threat" appeared to spiral out of control. All business and activity in New York City came to a halt, and within days a lockdown was in effect. All that artistic energy vanished as though it never was.

From the confines of my apartment I would venture out every 10 to 12 days to buy supplies from the market.

At first, I thought this was a wonderful time to get work done, and for a while I was able to convince myself that this was not much different from my life as a loner.  But I was discovering that I had so many friends that I could see, have dinner or brunch with, or go to a coffee house to write in the presence of very creative people who were using places like Reggio's as a haven for creative work and stimulating discussions...or pop into the Morgan Library, the Whitney, The Russian Tea Room, or see a show or opera almost spontaneously when I needed a boost to my perspective on life.

That creative milieu was removed overnight, and it appeared that no one had calculated the consequences of such an unprecedented, catastrophic compromise.

I began to understand that I was in a state of shock, withdrawal, and depression. The day lost its shape, and I lost all sense of day and night. I could not sleep. All sense of a sleep cycle was lost. I was becoming more and more depressed because all this luxury of time on my hands was not being converted into any productive activity. I was starting to lose it...

I was in LOCKDOWN... I was in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, UNDER HOUSE ARREST, with all these talking heads on television who seemed to bicker back and forth on nothing of consequence whatsoever, except to remind us of what we could NOT do... that we were being watched... KEEP YOUR DISTANCE... WEAR YOUR FACEMASK! STAY INSIDE!... THEY seemed to be making "lists of whose naughty and nice" ... but it wasn't Santa... it was Governors and Mayors and bureaucrats who believed they had the power to make laws and conduct invasive surveillance without our consent... and then there emerged a sense of despair of media in collusion with so-called government... so that it seemed there was no end in sight... there appeared to be some perverted delight that lockdown was essential and must continue for "because it's good for you."

April tumbled end-over-end, out of control... my lack of sleep had filled my brain with the fog of despair. Easter loomed and passed as a non-event. Early spring days were filled with sunlight, with passing storms and sometimes very strong winds, even a tornado warning for NYC.

As May approached, my lack of sleep had become alarming. I was a victim of LOCKDOWN. And I knew I was not alone. Every email and message proclaimed everything was OK... and so did I also put on an air of survival mode mentality. But we all knew and know that everything was not well. The globe has entered an unprecedented era, far worse than the GREAT DEPRESSION...Worse because it has been a government-imposed shutdown based on faulty data and flawed projections.

Night and day merged without distinctive boundaries. With all this personal freedom of time on my hands, nothing was being accomplished. The end of April fizzled into May and I experienced PANDEMIC PANIC--- the LOCKDOWN has become an insurmountable hurdle... all imposed from within through the destructive energy of isolation.

I had nowhere to go. "Don't bother us unless you have COV-19--- we can't be distracted unless you are essential... " You see, some some of us are essential, but the rest are not, so those lives don't really matter.  "Since you're not essential, don't bother us until we say it's okay to come out."

I realized that I had begun to see myself as a victim, and there appeared to be no way out. I needed to find THE WAY.... and I thought of Neil Diamond's song THE WAY... and his plaintiff face out: "I need to find...I need to find...I need to find..."
                                                            FADE OUT

PRE-PANDEMIA: RESEARCH AS LIVED EXPERIENCE

My collaborateur, Lisa Naugle of UCI Irvine, had heard of a virus that was beginning to insinuate itself in people's lives in early March (2020), and had been planning to visit me so that we might use a couple of days to research venues to stimulate our thinking and discussions about future collaborative work. We have worked together, collaborating for many years as we toured Europe each spring with Maestro Dinu Ghezzo, the mentor of us all.

Lisa called to ask if I was uncomfortable with her coming since there were these rumors of a serious outbreak of a new virus. Yet, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the CDC had recently commented it was not something to be too concerned about---"not a major threat"--- and Nancy Pelosi was encouraging everyone to go to China Town. I remember several viruses from the past, including the Pandemic of 1968 which peaked in 1969 during the Woodstock Festival, so I was not worried that things were so serious that Lisa should change her plans to visit.

On the day she was scheduled to arrive, March 9th, the NYU School of Psychology was hosting Ted Coons' 90 Year Festschrift and I was scheduled to present. As I entered NYU's King Juan Carlos Center, the venue that was hosting Dr. Coons' Festschrift, I detected an air of concern among those who had traveled to be present to honor this great scholar, researcher, and educator.  Participants declined to shake hands and bumped elbows instead, although Ted, unfazed, continue to shake hands and hug former students and colleagues.

West Side Story (Spring 2020) Projection Amplifies Dramatic Tension

Lisa arrived during the evening of the Festchrift celebration, and we talked about our plans for using New York City as the backdrop for our researching performance resources to uncover new  ideas for collaboration. Of particular interest was the new multimedia production of West Side Story that had just opened. The production utilized techniques that we had explored ten years earlier, using media and projections to create an array of theatre effects in the NYU multimedia workshop IMPACT.  As a researcher pursuing phenomenology as my major mode of inquiry, I had proposed to Lisa that her visit would model Researching Lived Experience, the epic text by Max van Manen. My thought was that we might use her time in New York as a canvas to sketch ideas from our explorations that could lead to collaborative projects.

IMPACT Production: Image Echoes stretch sense of space

We were curious that techniques we had been exploring for more than ten years since 2007 were now finding their way to Broadway, including live video projection to intensify dramatic action and amplify the performance presence, adding a dimension of immediacy.  I had invented a term, "MoviOp" describing an opera using technology spontaneously to combine live and prepared projections, increasing the immediacy of the performance. This idea reaches back to Richard Wagner's gesamtkunstwerk.
Were Wagner alive today, he would undoubtedly be a film director in order to exert strict control over every artistic element.

ROTATION, multimedia opera

IMPACT (Interactive Multimedia Performing Arts Collaborative Technology) was a summer workshop at NYU from 2007-2017 that along with collaborators Tom Beyer, Youngmi Ha, Chianan Yen, and Deborah Damast, I founded to initiate college level students to the emerging technologies that were revolutionizing the arts in ways that underscored collaboration, spontaneity and immediacy. Indeed, I often referred to this new sensibility as the theatre of immediacy. We utilized the concept of Arts Collectives from the 60s-70s to congregate students into collective groups utilizing different disciplines and backgrounds to collaborate by bringing together their unique talents and skills to create and share new work.

Dr. Lisa Naugle became a part of IMPACT as the Director of Dance and Movement not long after the workshop came into being. I had the honor of chairing her dissertation research committee at NYU, and we had begun collaborative projects with other colleagues as early as 1995, when we were using dial-up modems to connect with the Internet.

Tom Beyer, Media and Technical Collaborator

Projection of different angles enhance presence

IF TIME REMEMBERS, prepared video with live projections

A crucial figure in development of projection and sound techniques for this new Theatre of Immediacy and Distance Collaboration was Tom Beyer, Systems Engineer for Music and Performing Arts in NYU's Steinhardt School.  Tom served as one of the founders of IMPACT, but we had been collaborating on projects and productions for a number of years before IMPACT. He has collaborated with many artists over the years, and was one of Dinu Ghezzo's major collaborators on the many tours throughout Europe. I played a role in bringing Dinu Ghezzo to NYU, and when I became the Chair of the Department, I appointed Dinu as the Director of Music Composition. I give this background, because it was this milieu of extraordinary artists that led to many collaborations that were constantly breaking ground and exploring new frontiers, attracting new collaborators that eventually grew into an impressive informal network of individuals coming together to create new expressive forms. Perhaps our greatest weakness was that we were always in the moment, and the pressure of production prevented our pausing to take note of what we had created. My philosophy was to document everything we did to excess. We created so much data that the task of retrieving it and attempt to reflect on our journey was utterly over-whelming. We were always on to the next production, the next experiment.

As artists, we were internalizing and processing our experience: we were the embodiment of our research. Thus each successive year and collaboration built upon the previous experiments and provided the means to leap forward by continually adding to and evolving the previous concepts and techniques into new experiments. Every season of IMPACT was a new experiment,

ROTATION, multimedia opera multiple screens

evolving from the previous year as we discussed the structure and process for the new workshop.

We experimented with the simultaneous running of two independent videos while incorporating live projections of performances, multiple screens, enhanced directional sound, connecting independent spaces in simultaneous distance performances.

During these years, we introduced so many young students from around the world, that we discovered (during our debriefing of their experiences on the final day) that perhaps the most important outcome for the participants in this collaborative process was they had sustained a transformative life-changing experience.

Our creative research as lived experience project of March 7-9 concluded with attending the preview of a stunning new production of Sondheim's classic, COMPANY, that starred Patti Lupone, who brought down the house with "Here's to the Ladies Who Lunch." The production reversed the genders of the original production so that the major premise was of a woman in her 30s who couldn't commit to marriage.  I found this production more exciting and inspiring than the original 1970 production. This new production never happened. Shortly after Lisa returned to California on March 10th, Broadway went dark and the COV-19 PANDEMIC pummeled New York City into a lockdown.

VIOLA ENLUARADA, CAPOEIRA & A PANDEMIC

In my earlier days as Phaedrus, I encountered someone in September 1999, who was in a formative stage of her journey, although she was wise beyond her years. She performed with her flute, and was always searching to use the beauty of her musicing to take her to solitary paths in search of enlightenment. When we met, she somehow intuited that I should meet Rilke, the German poet that I knew only through some of his poetry serving as texts for composers. To introduce me to Rilke, she presented me with his book Letters to a Young Poet.

Her gift of this book reminded me of my professor and mentor Doc Hemmle, who while I was under his guidance as a freshman at Texas Tech University, was often gifting me with whatever he was reading. When I first walked into the music building, I met him in the hall where he was reading a book called The Art Spirit. He held up the book and asked, Have you read this?" I said I hadn't and he put it in my hands, and said, "Take it... you may think at first it is about painting, but you will see it is all about the music of life."

Celina's gifting of Rilke began an adventure with a poet of the flute who has collaboratively made music around the world since those days of 1999, as a new century unfolded. The book had a profound effect on me, leading to an identity of Phaedrus...and that is a different story. But now we are at NOW, and I am embarked upon a journey retracing the steps of "THEN."

I was indelibly connected with the emergence and growth of the internet, and in my process at the university, I was surrounded by young people caught up in the transformation of the world as the electrical grid was transformed into a connection of nodes all over the world in an emerging digital consciousness. We are talking about the late 60s, and in 1968 there was a pandemic that overtook the world.

This pandemic spread from Hong Kong to the United States, arriving December 1968, and peaking a year later. The pandemic was caused by an influenza A (H3N2) virus comprised of two genes from an avian influenza. An estimated one million deaths occurred worldwide with about 100,000 in the United States. Most excess deaths were in people 65 years and older. H3N2 continues to circulate worldwide as a seasonal influenza virus. The world did not engage in lockdown as a defense.

1968 was a banner year for me, as I had the premiere of my multimedia opera ROTATION, and came in contact with Dr. Jerrold Ross, who had recently effected the merger of the New York College of Music with the music department of what was to become the Steinhardt School. Ross had heard of me through David Simon, the Registrar of the New York College of Music, but more importantly an American composer with whom I studied composition. Ross had heard of my vision for a music department of the future based on the emerging technologies. He invited me to join the department to build a a department with a new vision and mission. 

The economy dealt with the virus by continuing to operate in the midst of widespread fear. But if we had come to lockdown in 1969, I would never have met Jerrold Ross and Woodstock would not have occurred.

We have no way of knowing what cultural and economic devastation and deprivation is now being caused by a political response to a virus, that is deadly, but might have been detained if we responsibly protected our elderly population. We may learn from this shutdown and control of people's lives around the globe that the economic fallout may result in far more tragedies than COV-19.

I point this out, because had there been a lockdown in 1969, it is likely that I would have never met Celina Charlier, this remarkable Muse of the flute. I might have not learned of the deep musical structure of Brazilian Portuguese, and might never have discovered Capoeira--- a Brazilian practice that disguised the learning of martial arts through musical movement against a regime that oppressed its population. As a Muse, she introduced me to the rich musical fabric of this music and practice through a song, "Viola enluarada". She meticulously translated the text, the poem of this remarkable song that is at the same time a call to arms against oppression and a love song.

Deeply engrossed in the beauty and depth of the text and music of the song “Viola enluarada” composed by Marcos Valle and his brother Paulo Sérgio Valle, I hear this song as a personal call for liberty, while slowly but surely those who would control our lives and our comings and goings, ---through facial recognition and drone surveillance ---use the opportunity to take away our liberty, and divide us as a people through digital isolation and enslavement --- all for the public good.

In Brazil, viola refers to the acoustic guitar. Violas are used for serenades, to accompany songs at parties, and other musical occasions. It is part of the soul of Brazil and contributes in unique ways to the musical culture. Viola enluarada was composed in the 60s in the context of Bossa Nova but transcends the genre to become a classic statement of the human spirit. Enluarada has no real English equivalent but means “moonlightened.”

Bathed in moonlight we can see the world differently, intuiting that the challenges of life are not as sharply etched as we might think. Love, music, liberty, life and death embrace us in the breath of a single moment. Listening to this recording brings a rebirth and renaissance as we realize that no matter what we face, the freedom of the human spirit triumphs over all the claims of power and destruction. This has been the experience of the Brazilians, and the rise of Capoeira (martial art, dance, and music) as a response to slavery and brutality, attests to the resiliency of a people who have suffered much adversity and yet remain full of hope, as well as being among the most innately musical beings of our species.

Here is a literal translation of the Portuguese as revealed to me by Celina. The texture and resonance of the words are inseparable from the music, and Marcos Valle’s phrasing will astonish you with its subtlety and sensitive stretching of time that lives in counterpoint to a simple but eloquent harmonic commentary.

The version that never fails to bring tears to my eyes is Marcos Valle from Bossa Entre Amigos.…so simple and elegant, his phrasing is impeccable. Follow this link below to hear this remarkable
performance in another window, while you read this poem and its translation (courtesy Celina).


Marcos Valle- "Viola Enluarada"

a mão que toca o violão 
In the hand that plays the guitar

Se for preciso faz a guerra 
if needed [(it) notes the war

Mata o mundo, fere a terra 
kills the world, hurts the earth

Na voz que canta uma canção 
In the voice that sings a song,

Se for preciso canta o hino if needed, (it) sings the anthem,

Louva à morte 
praises death

No sertão é como espada 
in the countryside, it’s like a sword,

Viola e noite enluarada 
moonlight viola, moonlight night

Esperança de vingança hope of revenge.

No mesmo pé que dança o samba In the same foot that dances the samba

Se preciso vai à luta if needed, (it) goes to fight

Capoeira 
Capoeira

Quem tem de noite a companheira 
(the one) who lies, at night, his companion (fem.)

Sabe que a paz é passageira 
knows that peace is transitory

Prá defendê-la se levanta 
To defend her (peace/companion)

E grita: Eu vou! 
(it) stands up and shouts: I go (I will)

Mão, violão, canção, espada 
Hand, Guitar, Song, Sword

E viola enluarada 
and Moonlightened Viola

Pelo campo, e cidade 
through the country-side and the city

Porta bandeira, capoeira 
Porta bandeira, capoeira

Desfilando vão cantando
in the parade (refers to carnival) they sing

Liberdade 
Freedom 

Liberdade, liberdade… 
Freedom, Freedom

RON MAZUREK: REMEMBERING THE JOURNEY

Ron Mazurek (photo provided by Tom Beyer)

Today, April 26, Ron Mazurek, colleague, composer and friend, passed away in 2007. Yet, in the midst of the Pandemic of 2020, I feel the palpable presence of this quiet, unassuming man who was possibly one of the most gifted composers I have known. He quietly leapt across boundaries, each new work sculpting new territory as his creative work absolutely accepted no boundaries, no limitations. Just listen to this amazing work for Marimba "Masked Dances" performed by Peter Jarvis at the Memorial Concert for Ron, May 27, 2009: Masked Dances

Affectionately, this is known as Dinu Ghezzo & Friends

I was honored to be a fellow traveler with Ron on journeys to Europe where we performed and improvised multimedia works with sounds, movement, and media in a spontaneous eruption of discovery laced in the immediacy of Time and Space that echoes even now in the chambers of memory. Our mentor was Maestro Dinu Ghezzo, who was the Director of the NYU Music Composition Program, where Ron received his PhD in composition. Dinu was our mentor and inspiration, musicing defined his essence, as every silence was waiting to be filled and emerge through his magic of inspiring us all to give our best to each moment.

Ron was also a mentor to us all through his quiet presence that commanded our deepest respect. He led by example, and while quietly succinct, he had a way of disarming tense moments, and understanding that every challenge was followed by a resolution.  He was a Professor at Bergen Community College, where he developed a state of the art electronic music studio. It happened that he mentored my son, John Russell Gilbert, who remembers that "he showed me how to make my musical visions a reality.”

The most enduring characteristic of Ron’s character was his enthusiastic efficiency and  successful completion of  tasks and projects.  Once completed, Ron would always quickly move forward to yet another project. His love of electronic music and  composition was undeniable.   He developed the first electronic music curriculum, electronic lab, and A.A.S. degree at Bergen Community College.

                          ...Linda A. Marcel, Ed.D. Chair of Music, Bergen Community College 2009 - 2012

Ron On Tour (photo provided by Tom Beyer)

Dr. Lisa Naugle was an integral part of our team who brought movement and dance to our productions that were often more like Happenings than staged events. She recalls that among the places we performed with Ron were Oldenberg Unversity, Florence, Italy, and the Catherdral of San Sabine in Bari "which was a high challenge because it was built around 1200." I remember that space well. It was dark and had the smell of antiquity. This space had never hosted the kind of media we intended to employ, and the challenge was somewhat intimidating. Lisa recalls that "No one had ever done projections there. There was an Italian dancer, and I communicated all choreography using my hands and drawing on paper...One of the most memorable experiences ever!"

I'm remembering our many journeys, always during Spring Break as Maestro Dinu would assemble the next adventure. For me, it was a cultural, musical, and spiritual awakening. In this particular Instance we toured Italy, beginning in Florence, then meandering across Italy to the Adriatic coast and Perugia, and finally the beautiful town of Bari. I remember having breakfast overlooking the Adriatic Sea and conjuring the many adventures that had brought us together in so many diverse settings...getting lost in Oldenburg, getting robbed by gypsies in Poland, getting my pockets picked in Berlin, staring down a gypsy thief in Romania, and ultimately getting mugged along with Lisa in Romania... I began to formulate an adventure story that coincided with these many travels. Through it all, Ron was stoic, and his presence and enduring smile was a comfort to all.

Photos by Lisa Naugle

Lisa remembers: "I remember the end of winter changing into spring when we would arrive in Europe – Poland or Germany, Italy or Portugal. Porto in particular, sunny and warm. We were walking across a street, complaining about jetlag, when Ron said, with New Jersey accent, “Forget about it”. He had a special way of saying that. Locating ourselves in a theater, Ron’s music, my dances (John Crawford’s video system, Active Space), we would get ready ( with only a few hours preparation) for the concert. “Bird of Passage” – Ron’s composition -- this was my favorite of his works… and our first piece with live, hand-held camera by a “video performer” capturing the dance and projecting the imagery onstage. His composition, “Ascension” was the second piece we did with live video capture, later turned into only video which travelled to festivals all over the world. Ron had a way of noticing things… small and large at the same time. His perspective was ahead of his time; maybe that’s why his voice still resonates with me. Words can’t describe it all but I imagine us talking, probably today about coronavirus. I hear him say…”forget about it.. let’s keep walking and get to the other side… It’s a beautiful day.” He looked for the positive in life… and I will always remember and be grateful to him."

Photo provided by Tom Beyer

Claiming the space meant installing equipment, a sound system, projection surfaces, and making sure we had ample space for the dancers. There was never time for rehearsals, only speculation of what we would do.

The 21st Century seemed to be spilling over barriers of the past, and incorporating it into the fabric of Now. The Church in Bari was definitely an iconic moment, and one that Ron relished.  I remember as I watched Ron with his equipment arranged on the stage like a small, intimate electronic studio that we were were privileged to share as a singular awareness of music being born in the moment.

His works are honest, and searching. Each composition lifted him to new discoveries, new levels. 

As I think to where I am now, I think the remembrance of him, sitting at his portable studio in a church centuries old, may be the reason that I am now returning to a portable rack systems of modules where I can improvise anywhere. I think this because Ron embodied the past, and his studio embraced the Apse of the Church almost like an ancient relic waiting to be resurrected. 

Ron with his "studio" in the apse of the Church in Bari (Photo provided by Tom Beyer)

When Ron passed, he was in class at Lehman College and someone messaged me saying that he had collapsed in class, and they were waiting for an ambulance. I had no idea what was going on, and no sense of his condition. But he died instantly there in the classroom setting he loved so much, with the students that he loved so much. The sense of loss was devastating.

We went to his funeral in New Jersey. Tom Beyer wrote:

I still hear Ron's words of wisdom as I move through my day and I relish the long, late night  conversations we had about all manner of things while on tour together.  But it is rare when one finds another that you can communicate with, without using words.  That was my experience with Ron, off stage as well as on.  I hope you will all, once again, hear the words he said to you in the numerous conversations you have all had with him.   But more importantly sense his presence and feel him helping to guide you through life "From A bowve" I will sorely miss my roommate and Geloto buddy.

The words above were the notes to Tom's video tribute From Abowve.

 

Reflecting on this day of Ron's passing, makes me realize we are all temporary sojourners on our own quests for meaning, and that we do go on to join all those who precede us... it seems like a mutual adventure begun in the throes of creation when suddenly, in less than an inkling, everything just was. There is a theory of entanglement that claims that everything, including ourselves, are all connected to the "end of Time."

My thanks to all those that I bothered in trying to get them to help me remember Ron, and in remembering, remember our mutual journeys, even now.

RETURN OF THE PUTNEY

In 1968, I was involved in discussion with Dr. Jerrold Ross about joining a new department at New York University in which I would be involved in creating new programs to establish a diverse, visionary performing arts department. I had just finished composing and producing a multimedia opera, ROTATION, as part of my doctoral thesis.  As it happened, I was studying composition with David Simon who happened to be the registrar of the New York College of Music. During the course of our lessons, I would disclose a number of ideas I had about music and technology and a new divergent model for music and performing arts programs connected to the professions. The concept was to have technology support every aspect of other programs, using recording studios to provide experience for our performance majors to be recorded, while also examining new techniques for recording, and researching acoustic and electronic sounds.

PUTNEY VCS

In 1969, as we began to implement a new program in music technology and music business, I learned of a new concept for a music synthesizer designed by Peter Zinoviev, an engineer musician who felt that synthesizers were overpriced. He designed the Synthi A which was dubbed the PUTNEY,  a voltage control synthesizer.  It sold for less than $1000.  I bought two for the department, and another for myself. Zinovief eliminated synthesizer patch cords with a grid that connected modules by means of a pin. He also added a joystick that could be connected to manipulate sounds and controls simultaneously. This began our modest beginning in music synthesis, and we set up dividing part of the hallway outside the music office into a synthesizer studio.

In 1970, KEYBOARD MAGAZINE, contacted me about NYU Co-Hosting with them a conference called THE SYNTHESIZER EXPLOSION. On a weekend, we transformed the Education Building and the Student Union Building into studios and demo rooms and we hosted hundreds of manufacturers and several hundred additional musicians and technicians for three days of transformational concerts, lectures and demos in Loewe Theatre,and hundreds more demos going on in different rooms and floors of The Educational Building and Student Union. The Synthesizer Explosion had about 2500-3000 visitors come to Washington Square for an iconic event.

Years passed and as the program grew, we moved to the eighth floor, and I traded a Steinway for an extensive Buchla 100 system, and we devoted a studio to the system.  We had installed a recording studio and a research lab on the eighth floor, and eventually the entire floor became studios for program with the exception of 879, which remained a classroom, while also servicing courses for music business and technology.

During this time of the COVID-19 Pandemic, I decided I wanted to return to experimenting with new aspects of music electronics and synthesis and began to research Eurorack systems and modules. As I was in the midst of designing my new system for improvising ambient music which I would use in videos and live performance, ERICA INSTRUMENTS announced it was creating a new version of the SYNTHI A (Putney VCS) that would be available at the end of April.

SYNTRX (ERICA INSTRUMENTS)

This is an extremely exciting development. The new version preserves the identity of the original, but has been updated for 2020. It really is an ingenious replication and a tribute to the visionary genius of Peter Zinovev.  Needless to say, I am awaiting its arrival in a few weeks if production is able to stay on schedule.  In many ways, in this time of isolation because of the endemic, I feel like I am entering a new era of sonic awareness.  I continue to design my ambient Eurorack, as there is so much more that I can explore.

A demo gives a taste of expressive qualities of The Syntrx.

 In https://youtu.be/nwsQnB2jDsA

DETOUR~ THE ROAD NOT TRAVELLED

There was tremendous negative energy in the air a few days ago.  It started peaking on Thursday, March 12... it was independent of CRV-19, but fear of the virus contributed to heightened anxiety... anger and fear. I had experienced a fantastic positive day on Wednesday.. which had followed Dr. Lisa Naugle of UCI departing after a two-day intensive that we could only describe as research... Researching Lived Experience. 

One primary object of research was the new multimedia production of West Side Story. The production was using media to construct the dramatic environment, using still images, prepared video, and live video.  These were techniques we had experimented in our international workshop IMPACT for ten years. 

Also in that context, under IMPACT PRESENTS, three of my theatre pieces utilized these techniques: IF TIME REMEMBERS (2014), ROTATION (2015), and IF THIS BE MADNESS (2016).

The works mentioned are works remounted from the past with new material added and production techniques using extended media and process. My research with Lisa those few days in March hasn't produced any mutual collaboration, inspires and informs my work going forward.