This post is something new for me: an online prose score, in the spirit of Pauline Oliveros.
Harmonica Meditation
For unaccompanied ten-hole diatonic harmonica, in any key.
- Exhale completely.
- Put the harmonica to your mouth and take a deep breath all the way in, as slowly as you can. I recommend starting at the low (left) end of the harmonica and arpeggiating upwards, but you can play whichever notes you like.
- Exhale completely through the harmonica, as slowly as you can.
- Continue to inhale and exhale slowly and completely. Pay attention to the sound of the notes and chords, to their loudness, intonation, and timbre. If you can bend the notes or create articulations by tonguing or opening and closing your hands around the harmonica, do so.
- The piece ends on an inhale. Let the notes fade out gently as your lungs fill. When you take the harmonica away from your mouth and exhale, the piece is over.
This piece explores two things: the natural rhythm of breathing, and the dual tonicity of the harmonica. Here is a performance I recently recorded in the James Dolan Studio at NYU, in a single take:
Nice. I don’t know Oliveros’ work but it seems to have a similar spirit to the Scratch Orchestra (founded by Cornelius Cardew, Howard Skempton, and Michael Parsons), and maybe Fluxus? The Scratch Orchestra published a book of lovely text and graphic compositions that have a similar aesthetic called “Scratch Music”.
Thanks!
I’ve been doing Oliveros’ Tuning Meditation in class, it’s a great improv exercise that works at any level of musical ability or experience.