Each Thursday evening at the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership to the Junto is open: just join and participate.
One of the underlying tenets of the Disquiet Junto is the exploration of music as something that is not simply listened to or performed — that the divide between audience and artist is more porous than the modern traditions of the music industry tend to suggest. The term “modern traditions” is intended here in contrast with older traditions, such as the campfire sing-along and the parlor piano. Add to those older traditions the way that songs once were transmitted primarily as sheet music, interpreted free of any doctrinal/canonical audio recording. It’s an idea that never went away — sheet music continues to be prepared and sold, and “guitar tabs” for popular songs are traded online with no more or less regard for copyright than are MP3s — but one that recently gained additional attention thanks to Beck’s announcement that he will release this December an “album,” titled Song Reader, solely as a set of sheet music.
An advance promotional image from Beck’s Song Reader (shown up top) will serve as the source material for this exploration. The fact that sheet music provides its own sort of content shift — changes that take effect unintentionally as a result of copying, transmission, transcription, dispersal, and translation — is explored here in that the source material is of low resolution, and appears to simply be a portion of a complete song.
The assignment was made early in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, August 30, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, September 3, as the deadline. View a search return for all the entries as they are posted: disquiet0035-becksongreader.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto). They appear below translated into Croatian, German, Japanese, and Turkish, courtesy of Darko Macan, Tobias Reber, Naoyuki Sasanami, and M. Emre Meydan, respectively:
Disquiet Junto Project 0035: Reading Beck. . . . .The project this week is to perform a rendition of a piece of sheet music. The sheet music in question is a single low-resolution image from the forthcoming “sheet-music album” to be released by Beck this December. The image was provided by the publisher McSweeney’s when it announced the Beck collection, which is titled Song Reader. You’ll find the sheet-music image here:
https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012.08-beckdowewedo.jpg
You can use whatever instrumentation you like. Feel free to interpret the sheet music as literally or abstractly as you choose, perhaps even interpolating the low resolution of the image into your piece. More on Beck’s Song Reader at:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader.
Deadline: Monday, September 3, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 1 and 4 minutes in length.
Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.
Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0035-becksongreader”in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: As always, you don’t have to set your track for download, but it would be preferable.
Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:
This track is an interpretation of a sample of the sheet music from the Beck collection Song Reader. The sheet music can be seen here:
https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012.08-beckdowewedo.jpg
More on Beck’s Song Reader here:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader.
More on this 35th Disquiet Junto project at:
Disquiet Junto Project 0035: Reading BeckMore details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info
Project in Croatian:
Disquiet Junto Projekt 0035: ÄŒitanje Becka
Ovotjedni zadatak izvoÄ‘enje je glazbenoga komada po notnome zapisu. Notni zapis o kojemu je rijeÄ je slika niske rezolucije iz skoraÅ¡njega “albuma notnih zapisa” Å¡to će ga Beck objaviti ovoga prosinca. Sliku je dao nakladnik McSweeney’s kad je najavio tu Beckovu zbirku, naslovljenu Song Reader. Sliku notnoga zapisa naći ćete ovdje:
https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012.08-beckdowewedo.jpg
Instrumente možete koristiti po volji. Notni ste zapis slobodni interpretirati onoliko doslovno ili apstraktno koliko poželite, a u svoj komad možete uplesti Äak i nisku rezoluciju slike. ViÅ¡e o Beckovu Song Readeru možete doznati na:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader.
Rok: Ponedjeljak, 3. rujna, minutu do ponoći po lokalnom vremenu.
Trajanje: Neka vam snimci traju između 1 i 4 minute.
Informacije: Kad stavljate svoj snimak na SoundCloud, molim vas dodajte i opis procesa planiranja, komponiranja i snimanja. Taj opis je kljuÄan element komunikacijskog procesa koji je u srži Disquiet Junta.
Naslov/Tag: Kad stavljate svoj snimak na Disquiet Junto grupu na Soundcloud.com, molim vas da ukljuÄite “disquiet0035-becksongreader”u naslov snimka te u njegov tag.
Downloadiranje: Kao i uvijek, ne morate omogućiti download vaÅ¡ega snimka, ali mi je draže ako to uÄinite.
Linkanje: Kad stavljate konaÄni snimak, molim vas da dodate sljedeću obavijest:
Ovaj snimak interpretacija je uzorka notnoga zapisa iz Beckove zbirke Song Reader. Notni zapis može se vidjeti na:
https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012.08-beckdowewedo.jpg
Više o Beckovu Song Readeru na:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader
Više o 35. Disquiet Junto projektu na:
Disquiet Junto Project 0035: Reading Beck
More details on the Disquiet Junto at/Više o Disquiet Juntu na:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info . . . . .
Project in German:
Disquiet Junto Projekt 0035: Beck interpretieren. . . . .Im Projekt dieser Woche geht es um die Interpretation eines notierten Musikstücks. Bei dem Notentext handelt es sich um ein niedrig aufgelöstes Bild aus dem im Dezember als “Noten-Album” erscheinenden Album des Musikers Beck. Das Bild wurde im Rahmen der Ankündigung des Albums mit dem Namen “Song Reader” vom Verlag McSweeny’s veröffentlicht. Du findest es hier:
https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012.08-beckdowewedo.jpg
Du kannst für deine Interpretation eine beliebige Instrumentierung verwenden und die Vorlage so streng oder frei umsetzen wie du willst – vielleicht inkorporierst du sogar den Aspekt der niedrigen Auflösung? Mehr über Becks “Song Reader” erfährst du unter:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader
Deadline: Montag, 3. September, 23.59 Uhr in deiner Zeitzone.
Dauer: Das Stück sollte zwischen 1-4 Minuten dauern.
Information: Bitte füge dem Stück eine Beschreibung deines Arbeitsprozesses bei, wenn du es auf Soundcould veröffentlichst – mit Planung, Komposition und Aufnahme. Diese Beschreibung ist ein zentrales Element im kommunikativen Prozess innerhalb der Disquiet Junto.
Titel/Tags: Versehe deinen Track mit dem Tag “disqiet0035-becksongreader” wenn du es der Disquiet Junto-Gruppe auf Soundcloud.com beifügst.
Download: Wie üblich wäre es schön wenn du deinen Track downloadbar machen würdest, aber es wird nicht erwartet.
Links: Füge deiner Track-Beschreibung bitte auch die folgende Information bei:
This track is an interpretation of a sample of the sheet music from the Beck collection Song Reader. The sheet music can be seen here:
https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012.08-beckdowewedo.jpg
More on Beck’s Song Reader here:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader.
More on this 35th Disquiet Junto project at:
Disquiet Junto Project 0035: Reading BeckMore details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info
Project in Japanese:
Disquiet Junto Project 0035: ベックをèªã‚€. . . . .今週ã®ãƒ—ãƒã‚¸ã‚§ã‚¯ãƒˆã¯æ¥½èœã‚’èªã‚“ã§æ¼”å¥ã—ã¾ã™ã€‚ãã®é¡Œæã®æ¥½èœã¨ã¯ã€æ¥ã‚‹12月ã«ãƒ™ãƒƒã‚¯ãŒãƒªãƒªãƒ¼ã‚¹ã™ã‚‹ã€Žã‚·ãƒ¼ãƒˆãƒ»ãƒŸãƒ¥ãƒ¼ã‚¸ãƒƒã‚¯ãƒ»ã‚¢ãƒ«ãƒãƒ ã€ã«åŽéŒ²ã•ã‚Œã‚‹ä¸€æžšã®ä½Žè§£åƒåº¦ç”»åƒã§ã™ã€‚ã“ã®ç”»åƒã¯“ベック・コレクション”ãŒç™ºè¡¨ã•ã‚ŒãŸã¨ãã«ã€å‡ºç‰ˆç¤¾ã§ã‚ã‚‹McSweeney’sã‹ã‚‰æ”¯çµ¦ã•ã‚ŒãŸã‚‚ã®ã§ã™ã€‚”ソング・リーダー”ã¨ã‚¿ã‚¤ãƒˆãƒ«ãŒä»˜ã‘られãŸä»Šå›žã®é¡Œæ曲ã®æ¥½èœã¯ä»¥ä¸‹ã«ã‚ã‚Šã¾ã™ï¼š
https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012.08-beckdowewedo.jpg
ã‚ãªãŸã®å¥½ããªã©ã‚“ãªæ¥½å™¨ã‚’使ã£ã¦ã‚‚ã„ã„ã§ã™ã€‚楽èœã‚’å—義é“ç†ãã®ã¾ã¾è§£é‡ˆã—ã¦æ¼”å¥ã—ã¦ã‚‚ã„ã„ã§ã™ã—ã€ã‚ãªãŸã®é¸æŠžã—ãŸæ–¹æ³•ã§æŠ½è±¡çš„ã«è§£é‡ˆã—ã¦ã‚‚ã‹ã¾ã„ã¾ã›ã‚“。低解åƒåº¦ç”»åƒã‚’補完ã—ã¦æ›²ã«ä½¿ç”¨ã—ãŸå ´åˆã¯ã•ã‚‰ã«åˆ¥ã®ç”»åƒãŒã“ã¡ã‚‰ã«ã‚ã‚Šã¾ã™ã€‚
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader
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This track is an interpretation of a sample of the sheet music from the Beck collection Song Reader. The sheet music can be seen here:
https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012.08-beckdowewedo.jpg
More on Beck’s Song Reader here:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader.
More on this 35th Disquiet Junto project at:
Disquiet Junto Project 0035: Reading BeckMore details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info
Project in Turkish:
Disquiet Junto Projesi 0035: Reading Beck (Beck’i Okumak)Bu haftaki proje, bir nota kağıdını yorumlamak hakkında. Bahsedilen kağıt, Beck’in Aralık’ta çıkacak olan nota kağıdı albümünden düÅŸük çözünürlüklü bir görsel. Bu görsel, yayıncı McSweeney’s tarafından, Beck’in “Song Reader” isimli albümünün duyurusuyla birlikte paylaşılmıştı. Nota kağıdının görselini burada bulabilirsiniz:
https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012.08-beckdowewedo.jpg
Ä°stediÄŸiniz enstrümanları kullanabilirsiniz. Notaları olduÄŸu gibi ya da dilediÄŸinizce soyutlayarak yorumlamakta serbestsiniz. Hatta görselin düÅŸük-çözünürlüklü olma durumunu da parçanıza yansıtabilirsiniz. Beck’in Song Reader albümü hakkında daha fazla bilgi için:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader
Son Teslim Tarihi: 3 Eylül Pazartesi, 23:59 (bulunduÄŸunuz ülkenin saatine göre)
Uzunluk: Çalışmanızın uzunluğu 1 ila 4 dakika arasında olmalı.
Bilgi: Yaptığınız parçayı paylaşırken, lütfen bu parçanın planlama, besteleme ve kayıt süreciyle ilgili bilgi de verin. Bu açıklama, Disquiet Junto’ya içkin iletiÅŸim sürecinin önemli bir parçasıdır.
Ä°sim/Etiket: Parçanızı Soundcloud.com’daki Disquiet Junto grubuna eklerken, lütfen “disquiet0035-becksongreader” kelimesini hem parçanın isminde, hem de etiket (tag) olarak kullanın.
Download: Her zamanki gibi; parçanızın indirilebilir olması gerekmiyor, ama öyle olması tercih edilir.
Linkler: Yaptığınız parçayı paylaşırken, lütfen ÅŸu satırları ekleyin:
This track is an interpretation of a sample of the sheet music from the Beck collection Song Reader. The sheet music can be seen here:
https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012.08-beckdowewedo.jpg
More on Beck’s Song Reader here:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader.
More on this 35th Disquiet Junto project at:
Disquiet Junto Project 0035: Reading BeckMore details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info/
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