Non-Objective Labour: Towards a dialectical theory of corruption

Five works for string quartet and computer operated piano. First performed on Saturday 15 April and Wednesday 19 April 2000 at Baltyiski Dom Theatre in St Petersburg and at The Contemporary Music Centre in Moscow. Commissioned by the Sergey Kuryokhin International Music Festival.

SLAVE PIANOS PERFORM AT SERGEY KURYOKHIN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL, ST PETERSBURG AND MOSCOW

April 14th–20th, 2000

SLAVE PIANOS, in association with the SERGEY KURYOKHIN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL, present a recital and installation of artists’ music and sound works.

Featuring:

1. THE KRASNYI STRING QUARTET at THE BALTYISKI DOM THEATRE and
2. THE SLAVE PIANO (a computer controlled mechanical piano playing device)

performing arrangements and recompositions of works by leading twentieth century visual artists.

SLAVE PIANOS is an organisation devoted to the collection, analysis, performance, and recomposition of sound work by visual artists. In the last year SLAVE PIANOS have presented exhibitions and performances in Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Glasgow, Kassel, Los Angeles and New York; and have collaborated with DJ Olive, the Flux String Quartet, the Elektra String Quartet, Barney McAll and the Anti-JAZZ Bentet, Adawo, Flubb, Damp, Robbie Rhodes (Mechanical Music Association), the Astra Chamber Music Society, Latrobe University and QRS research division. The show will be installed at the Australian National Gallery, Canberra from July 2000.

SLAVE PIANOS are Australians: Michael Stevenson, Danius Kesminas, Neil Kelly, Rohan Drape. SLAVE PIANOS seeks to broaden the knowledge, appreciation and understanding of sound works created by people who are predominantly known in the field of the visual arts. To this end, they have created an ongoing archive documenting these works in sound. Original recordings from the archive have been recomposed, arranged and transcribed for piano and string quartet, jazz bands, rock bands, computer generated tape, brass and other ensembles.

The SLAVE PIANOS ARCHIVE includes works by: Magdelena Abakanowicz, Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Hany Armanious, John Baldessari, John Barleycorn, Joseph Beuys, John Borofsky, Louise Bourgeois, Glen Branca, George Brecht, L. Budd, Chris Burden, David Byrne, Jon Campbell, Ciurlionis, Tony Clark, Domenico de Clario, Martin Creed, Julian Dashper, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Terence Fox, Katharina Fritsch, Marco Fusinato, Dan Graham, Jeny Holzer, Joe Jones, Ilya Kabakov, Mike Kelley, Martin Kersels, Martin Kippenberger, Alison Knowles, Barbara Kruger, Sergei Kuryokhin, Louise Lawler, Thomas Lawson, Richard Long, Marinetti, Paul McCarthy, Bruce McLean, Daniel Malone, Christian Marclay, Jonas Mekas, Milkstar, Thurston Moore, Bruce Nauman, Herman Nitsch, Yoko Ono, Dennis Oppenheim, Gabriel Orozco, Tony Ousler, Nam June Paik, Martin Popperwell, Stephen Prina, Dieter Roth, Kurt Merz Schwitters, Ross Sinclair, Solver, Ricky Swallow, Takis, D M Thomas, Jean Tinguely, Peter Tyndall, Ronnie van Hout, Bill Viola, Lawrence Weiner, Emmett Williams and David Wojnarowicz.

Rules

The quartet employs a code using an entire chromatic scale from A2 in the ’cello through to B♭4 in the first violin.

The passport texts corresponds directly to the sequence of pitches across the four instruments in the resulting score.

Further rules determine articulation, bow placement and technique. Dynamics are indeterminate.

Durations are quarter note per letter, and quarter note rest per punctuation mark.

Words are indicated by measures, the four sentences are delineated with double bar lines.

Measure one is All, A2 in ’cello and two G♯3 in second violin. Passport at measure 27 is {C4,A2,E♭4,E♭4,C4,B3,D4,E4}.

Text

All citizens sixteen years of age and older who live in urban areas, central regions, or villages of city type must have a domestic passport.

A domestic passport is issued by the militia in the place of residence of the citizen.

A domestic passport can be exchanged under the following conditions: due to a change of family name or first name, due to expiration, etc.

Repeated offences by a citizen of the USSR against official passport regulations will be considered a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment.

Pitch Assignment Table

Materials

• score
  • typeset [pdf]
  • manuscript [jpeg]
• recording [mp3]

The manuscript parts were written by the Krasnyi String Quartet players in simpler time signatures for ease of performance.