Adorno and Nose (Whitman, James)

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James Whitman (2012/12/19)

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General Information

Work Title Adorno and Nose
Alternative. Title Eleven Songs for Solo Voice
Composer Whitman, James
I-Catalogue NumberI-Cat. No. IJW 1
Movements/SectionsMov'ts/Sec's 11 Songs
Year/Date of CompositionY/D of Comp. 2011
First Performance. 2011-09 in Vancouver, BC, The Western Front
First Publication. 2011
Librettist Barry Doupe
Language English
Average DurationAvg. Duration 40 minutes
Composer Time PeriodComp. Period Modern
Piece Style Modern
Instrumentation Solo Voice

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  • Adorno and Nose is a series of eleven songs installed as posters in bus shelter advertising spaces around the city of Vancouver. The songs are loosely structured around the theme of 'advice', as a mode of poetic address. Each poster consists of a song, notated as standard sheet music, the verse, and a drawn graphic. The songs are simple melodies, in major keys, which are accessible to anyone who has basic musical training such as high school band, lower grade piano classes, or has been an avid reader of Guitar World Magazine.

    The songs are invitations to play and divertissement, whether privately: humming or singing to oneself, or publicly: singing out loud to friends or strangers. Most music we hear in public precludes our participation, except as passive listeners, and since the greater part of music in public space is being used to sell things, whether through store ambiance or radio ads, what participation we are allowed is as passive consumers. Our interest is in the kinds of specific attention that happen when some of this is stripped away, when music is lifted out of the economies within which it is normally experienced.