Culm

[Alan Sondheim]

Culm


http://www.asondheim.org/prairie.mp3
http://www.asondheim.org/prairie2.mp3
http://www.asondheim.org/prairie3.mp3

I was thinking through flattening and structure and in soundwork how
structure tends towards completion; leave off that final tonic - hear what
I mean. Musical and other patterning - neural resonances, tallying of/
across structures; errancy and (re)completion, myth of the return - these
drive culture. These drive culture in the presencing present; what passes
for memory is reconstruction, resonance, enumeration.

So these are harmonica solos slightly (not much) altered - on a simple
tremolo harp (I think it's called a "Weekender" - inexpensive Hohner) -
all you can do is melody - so what sorts of things w/ tonics and 2nds for
example - it's a kind of ongoing maze -

It's neither state nor process, it's _abacus._

Culm 1. (Eng.) Anthracite. (Welsh) A kind of coal, of indifferent quality,
burning with a small flame, and emitting a disagreeable odor. (Humble). 2.
(Penn.) The waste or slack of the Pennsylvania anthracite mines, consist-
ing of fine coal, more or less pure, and coal dust and dirt (Raymond).
3.In the usage of many European authors, the Lower Carboniferous or
Dinantian series of the Carboniferous system of rocks in Western Europe,
especially where consisting largely of siliceous beds with little
limestone. (La Forge). Called in Ireland, Calp.

Culm bank; Culm dump. A heap or pile of waste kept separate from the rock
and slate dumps.

- A Glossary of the Mining and Mineral Industry, Fay, 1920.

The early science of stratigraphy emphasized surface phenomena; little was
known of the interior. So therefore x__________y________x and x reappears
and therefore x_____________x where y is not only not transitive, ie.
(xy)-(yx) = (x) but is unnecessary altogether. The earth is flattened
residue. (You can see where I'm going but you can't see where I've been.)

http://nikuko.blogspot.com

(Written in a cafe in Santa Ana CA w/ an open mike night - playing against
furious guitar playing - singers can't get to the high notes necessary for
their equally furious emphasis.)