Suppose you came to this blog post because you attended the performance about to be reflected in it. First, I want to say a great "THANK YOU!" to you for coming to the show, and second, "THANK YOU!" to you for stopping by this site. Realize you did so with questions like "Who's Eddie?" or others. If you couldn't make the show, you were not alone. Acouple of us planned to be there, but at the last minute, couldn't make it either. Whether you attended or not, here you'll find answers, and possibly a few more questions. If you have them, don't hesitate to ask!
Like all entries on this blog site, its purpose is as a space archive the documentation of the process forming the artwork, first and foremost for me, the artist, providing a record to refer back as I move forward on future versions of this or other projects. I mix the history of this project's development with background information and basic research on the performers, the ideas and content forming the piece, photos from various stages of its development, a video documenting the performance, post-performance personal reflection, and my thoughts for future iterations. This project is a collaboration with many artists, so this posting is by no means a definitive documentation as it provides merely one of many viewpoints, mine. Still, included near the end are words from another project artist, Enno Fritsch, who at the last minute was unable to attend. Enno, like those readers who may be encountering this project only through this posting, shares his response to this documentation, and his ideas and enthusiasm for future iterations of this project
Reading a process blog is like looking through a sketchbook or visiting the studio of an artist who has passed away; you will have a very different relationship to its contents than the artist. I recommend approaching it with the same mindset as the sketchbook or studio. Flip through or linger, and ask yourself questions — again, feel free to send them my way, too. Important to keep in mind, this blog is about process —a series of actions or events performed to make something— and not resolution, completion, or finality. Links have been embedded at various points, some of which are short videos that I use when I teach or find something in my research and that I would like to refer back to now and again. I recommend checking out the links, or bookmarking them to visit at a later time. Even if you do decide not to go down the rabbit hole like Alice at the moment, you might find some answers to questions, or at least Wonderland, when you do.
Project Decameron: l'Umana Commedia (George Angelvoski, Enno Fritsch, and Robyn Thomas) premiered in its first iteration as the opening performance piece of Eddie's in the Space-Time Continuo, with Renaissance Noise Restoration (Cilla Vee and Tom Law), Laurie Amat, and Kristina Warren at AS220 in the BLACK BOX performance space; 95 Empire Street, Providence, Rhode Island on Wednesday, August 14, 2024 from 7 to 10 PM.
And now, to how the story began...
Invitation
During a Zoom conversation earlier this year, Claire Elizabeth Barratt shared with me plans she and Tom Law had for a 'Mostly August 2024' tour of the Northeastern US and Canada in which they would be combining their passion for Early Music, Noise Music/Sound Art, and Improvisation/Performance Art into the project 'Renaissance Noise Restoration.'Claire, better known by her artist moniker 'Cilla Vee,' is an international interdisciplinary artist, director of Cilla Vee Life Arts (a cross-disciplinary arts organization), creator of the Living Art performance pedagogy and practice method, and the founder and director of the Center for Connection and Collaboration in Asheville, North Carolina. I have enjoyed knowing and collaborating with Claire numerous times since we first met in Berlin, Germany, a decade ago. Tom is a composer and improviser from South Carolina, now based in Saugerties, New York. He performs laptop-based electroacoustic music with viola da gamba, solo, and in Duo Denum, Cheli-Law Duo, Elka Bong Big Band, and the New York City Early Music ensembles Nautilus Renaissance Viols and the https://continuony.org/. Their Project piqued my interest, and I am always willing to travel to see Cilla Vee perform or, even better, participate. I suggested contacting some places we had visited in Rhode Island in 2019 when planning a performance and workshop that morphed into two other projects (one online and one in Asheville at the CCC) after COVID-19 hit regarding space availability. In turn, she suggested that Enno Fritsch, with his muselar and access to pipe organs, and I, with some visual art, join the evening's program as another act to fill the bill. Despite a lack of the cold, white stuff, Winter 2024 had both Enno and I snowed under, but it was too tempting an offer to reject outright. Nevertheless, we both immediately replied in the affirmative, excited by the idea and the opportunity. We'd figure out the rest.
Renaissance and Baroque
As used in this Project, Renaissance refers to the transitional period in Northern European (i.e., Flemish, British Isles, German, and Scandinavian) culture between the Middle Ages and the Modern Era of the 15th and 16th centuries. Inspirational to our Project from this period are the concepts of layering, invention, rebirth, and change or transcendence found in the Renaissance through the method of learning called 'humanism.' Inspired by the ideas and culture of Ancient Greece and Rome, attaining perfection of mind and body is to become the 'universal man,' in which no single identity, form, deity, or substance dominates. Still, a balanced and harmonious whole is achieved through polyphony. For example, in the Renaissance polymaths, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Leone Battista Alberti. These concepts are exemplified in Renaissance music with the emergence of polyphonic style, music as entertainment, and the increased education of amateurs with the emerging bourgeois.
The Baroque (ca. 1600 - ca. 1750) started with the ornamental elements introduced by the Renaissance —contrast, movement, exuberant detail, deep color, grandeur, and surprise — combined with new motifs to evoke awe. Eventually, 'evoking awe' grew to 'provoking' and shocking the senses. From there, the meaning of the word developed across the languages of Europe, "barroco" in Portuguese (1728), was defined as a "coarse and uneven pearl." The dictionary of the French Academy (1762) used the word to describe something "irregular, bizarre, or unequal." Likewise, in music, 'Baroque' was used in reviews to describe disapprovingly or attack music found to have an incoherent melody, unsparingly dissonant, that constantly changed the key and meter. Baroque meant something was just plain wacky. Still, the Baroque was a period of experimentation by artists and musicians who did not intend to be disrespectful but felt unconstrained by traditions. That openness allowed them to improvise, invent, and innovate new forms —for example, the concerto, the sinfonia, ballet, and opera— and the two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects that support and enrich them. Being wacky led to what we now understand as beautiful art.
George
Shortly after my conversation with Claire, I learned that another colleague, George Angelvoski, would be in NYC in early August. It might not seem strange, given that George is an artist, but he lives in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia. The last time we'd all been able to meet up in person was in March 2019. We had kept in touch throughout the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, on an almost weekly basis for the first months, online at the 'Café Decameron.'
Café Decameron
What was Café Decameron? In the tradition of an international artists café or Salon, I organized and hosted a weekly Zoom call during the lock-downs, which continued intermittently throughout 2021. When the pandemic began, I was writing a doctoral thesis with a university-provided account granting unlimited time on calls. I had already spent most of my days in my basement studio alone, and I was a regular worldwide online caller for many years. Still, the pandemic was different. My aim for Café D. was to gather people from various corners of the world who may or may not know each other and then to see what happens.
The invitation was open to anyone who wanted to join, and the call began on Fridays at 20:00 (UTC -4 or -5, depending on Standard or Summer time). Instead of using only virtual backgrounds offered by Zoom, I set up backgrounds in my studio, dressed up, grabbed a beverage or snack, and encouraged participants to do the same. I would ask questions and suggest discussion topics, whatever seemed appropriate. Various people attended, some who knew each other well, others who knew each other slightly, some who never met before; eventually, we landed with a core group. Time zones were challenging; Europe and Africa were out mid-night, but North and South America and Asia/Australia worked: Friday evenings and Saturday brunch.
George
Hearing George's name, a series of photographs he shared with us in the Café he was creating during the daily permitted exercise' lock-down runs' while still living in Singapore came to my mind along with the openness, passion, curiosity, and experimentation with which he approached creating art. George's artwork was lush, elaborate, and, indeed, baroque. His ability to create works that seek restoration and transcendence would fit perfectly with the muselar, the pipe organ, and the theme of Claire's and Tom's 'RNR' project. I could see a program and a project forming, so I reached out to George, who gladly accepted. In the meantime, Claire and Tom had secured a location, AS220, one of the venues we had visited five years earlier.
AS220
AS220 is a treasure for Rhode Island artists and all residents and visitors to the state and artists worldwide. The organization is modest on its website when writing that "AS220 has earned a national reputation synonymous with an egalitarian, accessible approach to creative community;" its reputation is growing internationally. It is a model for a successful, artist-run organization committed to providing a non-juried and uncensored forum for the arts. AS220 allows artists to live, work, exhibit, and perform in facilities and services available to artists to create original work. When I first moved to Rhode Island over 20 years ago and learned about AS220, I was astounded at what it did then, growing four-fold across the western edge of central Downcity as it restored three buildings. I am proud to live in a city with an organization like AS220 because, like the founders of this organization, I believe that freedom of expression is crucial for developing strong communities and individual spirits. I value the alternatives to conventional galleries, theaters, clubs, performance spaces, live-work, and private and public access studio spaces AS220 provides. Even if I do not personally use all of these, I benefit because the community benefits from having access to alternatives. Because all Rhode Island artists may share their original artwork at AS220, and AS220 embraces all the arts: theater, dance, poetry, photography, music, printmaking, creative "hacking," painting, puppetry, and beyond, I am confident that Rhode Islanders will continue to improvise, invent, and innovate new forms, like in the Baroque.
In the past twenty years as a Rhode Island-based artist, I have exhibited in an AS220 gallery, taken very affordable workshops and classes, attended exhibitions of friends and of artists I have never met but whose art I have grown to admire; I have attended performances of local, regional, national and international performers, and now I have also performed at AS220. I support this non-profit community arts organization however I can because they support not just me and my art but anyone who wants to make art, no matter who they are or what they do, enabling new art forms to emerge. I encourage others to support AS220 so that they continue fostering the freedom of expression and creative community here in Rhode Island and beyond.
Project Decameron: l'Umana commedia
With George, Enno, and I collaborating, the Project's visual and musical core began to take shape. What was it called? What was its story? Did it have a story in the sense of a traditional "Once upon a time…" narrative? What musical compositions and artworks would be included? Moreover, what would my role be because I did not plan to include visual artworks of my own making, and I am not a musician or performer?
The role I slipped into was similar to the one I played in Café Decameron: part sounding board, part channel, organizing and communicating to pull out the ideas of the others while driving the Project forward. Enno, George, Claire from the 'RNR,' and I were all part of Café Decameron. The spirit of it was alive in this Project from the start, so the name 'Project Decameron' seemed appropriate. Further, I suggested the extension of the title to include the 'human' comedy or, in Italian, l'Umana Commedia, the nickname given to The Decameron by its author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375), playfully in opposition to Dante Alighieri's 'Divine' Comedy. The human comedy, being human —life, death, change, rebirth, transcendence— that is what this Project is all about.
It has structure, but it is not a narrative per se; our story does not begin "Once upon a time…"; it is hundreds of overlapping, intersecting stories layered upon each other. Boccaccio's The Decameron, from which I took the Café's name, is a 'frame story,' a collection of short stories; 100 short stories told by a group of young women and men as they sought shelter from the bubonic plague pandemic (1346 -1353) in a villa outside Florence for about ten days in 1348, much like we were doing online in the Spring and Summer of 2020. Ours is also a 'frame story,' consisting of three stories of projected pictures and recorded sounds sandwiched between the clanging of medieval church bells.
Curiosity and Experimentation
Just as the Baroque built upon elements of the Renaissance, and the Renaissance was constructed out of ideas from the Ancient Greeks and Romans, Boccaccio borrowed most of the stories he included in The Decameron from earlier cultures and languages. Of course, I took Café D. as an homage to the situation we found ourselves in during Spring 2020; Boccaccio's stories are not new, but how they are framed and told is.
There is nothing new here or there, then or now, which is okay when there is openness and a willingness to go outside existing comfort zones to discover new relationships.
An eager wish to know or learn about the past by studying and questioning what already existed, then combining this information with the drive to experiment with newly improvised and invented forms, led to literary innovation in Boccaccio's tale; that's the author's curiosity at work. Curiosity is not driven by necessity but by the desire to gain knowledge, be challenged, experience something new or different, and enlarge one's viewpoint; without curiosity and experimentation, learning is hampered. So is creativity and art.
Project Decameron: l'Umana commedia
George and I, and then Enno and I, each separately, talked about what they considered including in the Project as pictures and music from their portfolios. I began thinking of how the pictures and music might work together in a performance. I gave my thoughts based on their selections and what I knew from what they had done previously. I made suggestions based on what they could do with what they suggested that they might not have considered. By late May, I had put together notes based on conversations and emails with each of them. By July 5, I had a draft order of the performance. So after, Enno and I flew with our younger son Lukas, who planned to play violin in the Project, to Germany, set to return five days before the performance. George flew to San Francisco from Australia a few days later to research another project before heading to New York City; he would arrive in Providence mid-day the day we were scheduled to perform.
Draft Plan and Order of Performance Notes, July 5
~7:30 PM Program begins with the playing of the recording of the bells of the Collegiate Church of Saints Blaise and John the Baptist —Braunschweiger Dom— (1173) in Braunschweig, Germany.
The muselar is positioned centered in the space that appears in the photo of the Psychic Readings Room BLACK BOX 7/25/24 as a 'performance' area, with the white painted, brick wall with a green eye light hanging on it; the instrument is flat against the wall with the lid open — it needs to be against the wall to support the opened lid. If possible, the performance area is dark. No light is shining on the muselar, or the light is low with no spotlight. With the final bell's toll, the projected image of 'Diamond-Lashd Eyes' (2010) appears. The projection provides the only light source for the space.
~7:35 PM 'Diamond-Lashd Eyes' (2010) is projected, and the recording of J.S. Bach's 'Dorian Toccata' performed by Enno Fritsch (1996) on the Walcker Organ in the Church' Unsere Lieben Frau' in Karlsruhe, Germany(recording length 5:24).
No performer is present in the space; the focus is on the visuals provided by the photograph, the instrument, and the sound of the Bach organ piece. The audience should be left to ponder these juxtapositions. Historical information will have been available to early arrivals, but it is also unnecessary to appreciate the work. The main point is that the experience gives rise to the audience's questioning of what they see and hear before them. When the recording ends, the projection ends, and the space is dark.
~7:38 PM 'What's Left of the Dream' (2020) abstract photographs and recordings of H. Praetorius' A solis ortus cardine' on the Rolf Organ, Johanniskirche, Karlsruhe, Germany (1996) (recording length 5:27), J.P. Sweelinck‘Malle Sijmen’ performed by Enno Fritsch on the Ahrend Organ, Stellichte.
Depending on what the projection surface and number or images, etc. will be, the set up of the space could be part of the performance, or it could be done by George, myself, or both. The ending of this segment may also require a breakdown or changeover for the final piece.
~ 7:48 PM 'Oral Repair' (2015) projections and a mix of the recording of 'Malle Sijmen' and live performance of 'Malle Sijmen' on the muselar with possible recorder, violin, other 'special guest's and their instruments, and audience members playing the prepared organ pipes to fill in/repair missing notes. The piece will be played twice. First, with Enno on muselar and recording, the second time with the other instruments and organ pipes to create a layering of sounds.
Depending on what the projection surface and number or images, etc. will be, the set up of the space could be part of the performance, or it could be done by George, myself, or both, or it may be the same as previous piece. The organ pipes may need to be brought into the space and placed more prominently.
~7:58 PM Program ends with the playing of the recording of the bells of the Collegiate Church of Saints Blaise and John the Baptist —Braunschweiger Dom— (1173) in Braunschweig, Germany, and the space goes dark as the bells toll out.
Space is cleared for the following performers.
Collaboration
A critical concern of Claire Barratt's creative practice, and one I concur with, is collaboration. A feature of the 'Mostly August 2024' tour for the 'RNR' Project is splitting the bill with local artists. When they secured the location at AS220, they inquired who might be interested in joining locally. Laurie Amat and Kristina Warren answered. Connecting with Laurie and Kristina through AS220 was delightful, another example of how this organization sustains creativity in our community by connecting people.
The Psychic Reading Room BLACK BOX
We were programmed into The Psychic Readings Room, a much smaller space on the second floor without a projector and a row of windows facing Empire Street, leading to questions concerning how our projections, and the Project as a whole, might function in the space. The other local artists expressed concerns about the size and acoustics in the space as well. But the other performance spaces were booked, and we were assured Psychic Readings was suitable. However, we did not end up performing in the Psychic Readings Room. Instead, about two weeks before the show, the venue was changed to BLACK BOX, a larger space with a projector on the ground floor, due to the cancellation of another performance. Very fortunate; Psychic Readings would have been a tight fit, and the projections would have been less impactful. Little did we know then how critical the projections' impact in the space would be to this iteration, much more than initially envisioned, thanks to another wave of COVID.
COVID
It was only fitting that Lukas woke up sick and tested positive for COVID two days before we were scheduled to perform. After all, we had been traveling the previous week, albeit masked. Still, the irony of the Project's relationship to Café Decameron was not lost. Enno and I tested negative, and George was notified. There would be no violin or recorder. Fingers were crossed that no one else would develop symptoms and test positive. Then, on Tuesday morning, Enno woke up with a scratchy throat. Keeping as great of distances as possible, we continued moving forward as planned. Wednesday, he woke up and tested positive. Time for a new plan.
Collaboration
Project Decameron: l'Umana commedia is a collaboration. As is frequently found in life and art, in Project Decameron: l'Umana commedia, boundaries and definitions are simultaneously quite distinct and, at times, overlap and blur. Time may be drawn out and equally fleeting. It is a frame story containing hundreds of other stories its players tell.
Primarily, the artists collaborating on the creation of Project Decameron: l'Umana commedia are myself, Enno Fritsch, and George Angelvoski. Claire Elizabeth Barrat is also a collaborator through the impetus given by her invitation, our collaborations over the past decade, her participation in Café Decameron, and her presence on August 14, as we prepared and as a spectator. She has also provided critical post-performance insight, as well. Lukas Fritsch, who intended to play the violin, was present on research and recording expeditions in Stellichte, improvised to George's video loops, and generally discussed this Project with us; he is a collaborator on Project Decameron: l'Umana commedia. And, finally, essential for any artwork, the viewer, listener, audience, or spectator, whichever term you prefer, is also present in its creation as a collaborator.
The Essentials: object + artist + spectator + curiosity + experimentation + innovation + collaboration + openness + transcendence = ART
When I teach art classes to artists and non-artists alike, I talk about what it takes to make an artwork 'art' to learn to look at, listen to, 'sense,' and appreciate what is being sensed 'as art.' I show a diagram I created based on British-American Philosopher Richard Wollheim's (1923 -2003) ideas of how we experience and appreciate art from his 1983 lecture and its publication Painting as an Art (1984).
It's a triangle —equilateral, isosceles, or scalene, does not matter. What is important are the three points; they stand in relationship to each other by creating a boundary for the field or space that forms between them. That space between is 'ART.' The top point is "the object," a painting or a sculpture. Still, it is better to call it "the work" because it can be ephemeral and non-objective, like a poem, dance performance, or musical score. In the lower left, that point is designated "the artist." The artist can also be called the creator, the interpreter, the performer, the composer, the writer, or the painter; you catch where I am going with this; whoever is on the left is more active in their relationship to the object or the work. The person on the lower left point actively makes the work happen.
Directly across from the artist, in the lower right, is "the spectator," AKA the viewer, the listener, the reader, the audience. Compared to the person on the lower left, that person has a passive role in their relationship to the object or the work. Standing at the bottom of the triangle, looking up in awe at the object sitting up at the top point, regardless of which point we are on, we tend to point at it and say either quietly under our breath or loudly for all to hear, "Look! That's ART!" Yet, we are wrong. There is a whole field between us and it. The field is filled with what each point, in relationship to the other points, brings to it. The object or the work brings the formal qualities and characteristics actively given to it by the artists while making it. From both the artist and the spectator come curiosity, experimentation, innovation, collaboration, openness, and transcendence in their interaction with the object or work and with each other. These are the essentials from which ART is made, and that's ART.
Collaboration
The plan was to have a layered mix of recorded and live music and projections. The first story would be empty of live performers playing music but feature a recording from one of Enno's organ concerts. The second story would also be a recording but on a different organ. However, while that piece played through the sound system, Enno would attend to the muselar, attempting to tune or make slight repairs to the instrument, playing a few notes or segments of another piece, adding a slightly disruptive layer to the work. The final story begins with a recording of the piece Enno plays as he works on the muselar, but he plays it on an organ in the recording. Then he would perform it "live" on the muselar. Finally, it would be performed as a mixture of recorded and live music, joined by Lukas (violin) and Robyn (recorder) playing select notes. Lukas and Robyn had been struck from the program due to COVID as Lukas's positive test on Monday, and now, less than 12 hours before showtime, Enno was also out. After informing George of the recent development, I looked closely at what we had. I concluded that Enno's live musical collaborations would have to be recorded.
Project Decameron: l'Umana commedia
Another complicating factor was that AS220, like most organizations in the post-pandemic era, still faces staffing shortages. No one was able to let us into the BLACK BOX until 4 PM, which was cutting it close with four people setting up; now, there were only two of us, and we hadn't seen each other in five years or been in the space yet. We had to consider this other shift in the program, too. I made a new to-do list to include the additional considerations, namely the organ pipes. Then, I recorded Enno playing the muscular in our dining room. We went over where sound files were located on his computer. I discussed possible scenarios with him and messaged George. After gathering the materials, including the organ pipes, with the tubing and small wind case Enno had constructed. Unfortunately, it would prove too much to incorporate with just George and me handling the logistics. By 4 PM, George and I were in the BLACK BOX; by 5 PM, we were working with Mike, the fantastic AS220 AV tech, that evening, and at 7 PM, folks started to arrive.
Exposed and masked, Robyn Thomas (left) and George Angelovski (right), AS220, BLACK BOX, August 14, 2024, Providence, RI, USA.
Pre-show
For the half-hour between the doors opening and the start of the evening's performance, we planned to have information available on the Northern European Renaissance and Baroque pipe organs, keyboards, and the relationship to visual art, precisely how these instruments are pictured in paintings of that period. People may not know what a muselar is, but the chance they have seen one in a painting by Vermeer is likely. We also wanted to provide a short guide or written program for those audience members who might be interested (knowing not everyone is) in the performance. Finally, Enno planned to display the organ pipes he had modified, which would be played by audience members during the final piece. Although the performance differed from how it was mapped out in the paper, we left it out anyway for people to read and take. It contained pertinent information about the slide show, the projections, the instrument, the recordings, and the artists.
Pre-Show projection of the manuals of the Ahrend Organ in the Gutskapelle Stellichte, played by Lukas Fritsch, whose hand appears to emerge from the muselar.
Picturing the People, the Spaces, the Keyboards, Muselars, and Pipe Organs in the Northern European Renaissance and Baroque.
A Virginal is a smaller and simpler keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family. It was popular in Europe during the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods (16th and 17th centuries).
Flemish Viginals emerged in the 17th century as two distinct instruments depending on which side of the front of the instrument the keyboard was positioned; those to the left were known as Spinets, and those to the right were known as muselars.
Produced exclusively in Northern Europe, the muselar's strings are plucked close to their center points, causing the instrument to produce a round, fluty sound of unusual power.
The instrument's body is rectangular or polygonal, with one note per metal string running parallel to the length of the case.
Virginals were initially constructed without legs, to be placed directly on the lap or tables when played; legs and stands were later additions to these instruments.
Nuns played them to accompany their hymns in convents and young women in the home.
Muselars and harpsichords appear as subjects in paintings of the era, including many by Johannes Vermeer.
Another term for muselar is the Dutch word' clavecimbael.' The young woman pictured in 'Young Woman Seated at the Virginals' is thought to be Vermeer's younger daughter, Elizabeth, and the instrument the same as the one pictured in 'The Music Lesson.' —Lloyd DeWitt, Assistant Curator, European Painting before 1900, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
TO MY CLAVIER
Thou faithful stringed array,
Echo my sighting soul!
Now fades the clouded day
To night, all sorrow's goal.
Found strings, obey my hand,
Help me my pain withstand-
But, no, leave me my pain,
My feelings; tender skein.
Disconsolate though I seem,
I love the sufferer's part;
When lonely tears out stream,
Still weeps a loving heart.
-Friedrich Wilhelm Zacharias (1726 - 77), Bad Frankenhausen, 1754.
The Gutskapelle St. Georg-Christophorus-Jodokus Stellichte, located in Walsrode, Lower Saxony, Germany, is a small, late Northern European Renaissance—Early Baroque chapel that was in private ownership by a single family until the 1970s. Its interior space appears frozen in 1610.
The organ case and prospect (front-facing) pipes are by Andreas de Mare (before 1600) and Marten de Mare (1610).
In 1986, German organ builder Jürgen Ahrend (1930 - 2024) newly constructed the instrument's mechanics using the materials and substance of the historical instrument.
The pipe organ is one of the oldest instruments in classical European music; its origins can be traced to 3rd-century BCE Greece.
According to the website of the long-running, weekly American radio program 'Pipedreams,' organs work like a big box of whistles.
In place of whistles, pipes sit on a hollow wind chest filled with compressed air by a blower or bellows.
Pipe organs are not only musical instruments and generators for artistic expression; they are feats of engineering.
The bellows were previously powered by water pressure or human interaction; now, they are more commonly driven by an electric motor.
Organ pipes are made of wood or a mixture of tin and lead.
Each pipe has been designed with an individual voice and produces a single pitch when selected from a keyboard or manual.
One of the most fascinating aspects of pipe organs is their versatility; every pipe organ is a unique instrument.
Sets of pipes are combined in ranks to form a standard tone or timbre relative to the instrument's tuning or temperament.
They contain many different ranks, and the character of an individual instrument is defined by the variety of differing pitch, timbre, and volumes players call forth from it by employing the pipes separately or in combination via the use of controls called stops.
The tuning of the Stellichte organ is in 'Meantone temperament,' as is the tuning of the copy of the 'Ruckers' muselar (built by Helmut Zorn, Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1996), the instrument at the center of Project Decameron: l'Umana Commedia's performance tonight.
'Sic Transit Gloria Mundi' is one of many Latin mottos connected with mortality and music found inscribed on ornately fashioned Virginals. Unlike the natural, unfinished cedar wood of the Rucker's copy, for this performance, luminous projections from three series of photographic artworks by George Angelovski are the visual accompaniment to the music. In English, this motto 'Thus passes the glory of the world' unites these enigmatic visual artworks — from the dark yet colorful abstract photographs of the series What's Left of the Dream (2020) stemming from the period of the COVID-19 lock-downs across the series of copperiness of the Polaroids alluding to an oral-aural Renaissance in Oral Repair (2015), and finally to the Baroque beauty, fashioned in haute couture of Diamond-Lashd Eyes (2010). The uncanny present beckons to reconsider their perception of order and chaos, abstract and figuration, as the eyes and mind linger inside the intensely evocative, vibrating spaces in the sublime and mysterious imagery of Angelovski's artwork.
View more of George Angelovski's art by visiting his website: https://georgeangelovski.com.
Our program opens with Luca Gans's recording of one of the most meaningful sets of medieval church bells in Germany. The bells are from the Collegiate Church of Saints Blaise and John the Baptist (1173)—aka 'Braunschweiger Dom'—in Braunschweig (Brunswick), Lower Saxony. Eleven of the twelve bells are antique; the three oldest and largest were cast in 1502. https://youtu.be/h6LM7Ecv-PM?si=_hEGykqzhavPse6–
From there, we find ourselves alone in the Black Box with muselar and Angelovski's 'Diamond-Lashd Eyes' (2010) in the 'Late Baroque' and a 1996 recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Dorian Toccata' [BWV 538] performed by Enno Fritsch on the Walcker Organ in the Church' Unsere Lieben Frau' in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Next, Enno Fritsch enters the Black Box and seeks to repair the muselar. At the same time, pictures from Anglevoski's series 'What's Left of the Dream' (2020) slowly manifest and dissolve before us as Fritsch's 1996 recording on the Rolf Organ in the Johanniskirche in Karlsruhe, Germany, of the Latin hymn 'A solis ortus cardine,' here composed by Hieronymous Praetorius (1560 - 1629), plays.
We segue into the final recorded organ piece, Jan Pieterzoon Sweelink's 'Malle Sijmen' recorded by Enno Fritsch in Stellichte on August 2, 2024, with a video loop of three pictures from George Angelovski's series' Oral Repair' (2015). Fritsch, joined by guests on other instruments, will perform 'Malle Sijmen' live on the partially repaired Muselar as the images loop into the mix.
Audience members will also be invited to join in, playing along on the organ pipes adapted for this Project.
Our program concludes with a replaying of Luca Gans's recording of the bells of the Braunschweiger Dom.
Project Decameron: l'Umana commedia is an offshoot of Café Decameron, a weekly international artists café-Salon-Zoom organized and hosted by Robyn Thomas (Providence, Rhode Island) held weekly in Spring 2020 during the lock-downs in the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic and intermittently throughout 2021. As is frequently found in life and art, in Project Decameron: l'Umana commedia, boundaries and definitions are simultaneously quite distinct and, at times, overlap and blur. Time may be drawn out and equally fleeting.
The pre-show images, this text, a video documenting tonight's performance, additional information on the content of this performance, the artists involved and their artwork, and follow-up events will be available within 14 days of this program at https://www.robynthomas-explorations.com/blog-2.
Enno Fritsch is interested in space, expressed architecturally and sonically. He is a Principal with LLB Architects, teaches at the Boston Architectural College, is a part-time church musician, and studied organ with Christophe Mantoux at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg. https://soundcloud.com/enno-fritsch
George Angelovski studied graphic design at Swinburne University of Technology (1999) before graduating with an MFA concentrating on photography from Transart Institute for Creative Research. https://georgeangelovski.com/
Robyn Thomas employs an interdisciplinary painting practice to research the perception of identity's multilayeredness and mutability through material and performative processes' resulting objects and actions. She has earned a Ph.D. (2022) and an MFA (2016) from the University of Plymouth (UK) and a BFA (1991) from Kent State University. While she teaches and enjoys opportunities to collaborate across various creative disciplines, she primarily paints and draws. https://art-robynthomas.com/
Lukas Fritsch is a rising sophomore at Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island. He plays his great-great grandfather's violin (fiddle), which Erik Talley, a Providence-based luthier, and Lukas' violin teacher, fully restored in 2023.
Documented
Videos documenting the development and performance of the first iteration of Project Decameron: l’Umana Commedia.
Enno experiments with air mattress wind chest for organ pipes.
Positively irritating, post-COVID test video of Enno at muselar, dining room table. Wednesday morning, August 14, 2024. Preparing to record 'Malle Sijmen.'
Positively irritating, post-COVID test video of Enno at muselar, dining room table. Wednesday morning, August 14, 2024. Preparing to record 'Malle Sijmen.'
Live video of performance, AS220 BLACK BOX; Wednesday, August 14, 2024.
Photos documenting the development and performance of the first iteration of Project Decameron: l'Umana Commedia:
Projection test of Oral Repair (2015) George Angelovski on suspended paper in Robyn Thomas's studio, Providence, RI, June 2024.
Projection test of What's Left of the Dream (2020) George Angelovski, on 18 x 24 inches translucent white acrylic against cedar wood lid of the muselar located in Enno Fritsch's studio, Providence, RI, June 2024.
Projection set up for Diamond-Lashd Eyes (2010), George Angelovski, AS220 BLACK BOX.
Projection, Diamond-Lashd Eyes (2020), George Angelovski. AS220 BLACK BOX.
Oral Repair (2015) video loop, George Angelovski projection on muselar, photographed by George Angelovski AS220 BLACK BOX and posted on his Instagram @angelovskigeorge.
A Few Words From Enno:
I was bummed on Wednesday that I could not participate in the Project Decameron but was even more dismayed about it after I saw the video of the event. It seemed that the auditory and visual juxtapositions and overlays (of rather unrelated things) came together in suggestive and purposeful ways. Although the muslear was not actively played and the improvisations on the organ pipes (with violin and recorder) did not happen, the event not only contextualized Clair's and Tom's performance, but showed the potential of this concept. For me the highlights were the slow progressing projections of George's incredible photographs, juxtaposed with quick comic like tooth series with the background with the organ music, the acoustical overlay of the Sweelinck recordings on the 1610 organ and the muselar, and the overall activation of the space.
The exciting potential to me in this is to refine this concept with multiple projections in a non-directional room and supplemented with multi-directional sound systems interacting with/ overlaying live performance. Supplementing the photographic projections with one of Robyn's larger paintings would further increase the contrast between the presence of actual objects and sounds, overlaid with projections and recordings of things that are absent. This seems to be an appropriate multi-dimensional approach to further the theme of the absent past (renaissance/baroque) with our times with random, but suggestive relationships.
I am looking forward to collaborating on the next iteration.
Summation and Future Iterations
As I wrote at the beginning, this post has been a mixture of documentation, archives, and personal reflection on the process of the first iteration of the collaboration, Project Decameron: l’Umana Commedia. Along with serving as the place to hold the memory of this artwork's first manifestation, it is also the site to capture ideas for future iterations. Conversations between collaborators continue. The organ pipes and the layering of the live muselar performance with recorded organ recordings, other unknown artists, audiences, and spaces wait to join.
