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Wounds like flowers opening: a discussion of Hysteria for trombone and four-channel tape

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2004

Cindy Cox
Cindy Cox
Affiliation:
University of California at Berkeley, Department of Music #1200, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA E-mail: cacox@uclink4.berkeley.edu
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Abstract

In this paper I discuss Hysteria, a work for trombone and four-channel tape. Abbie Conant, an internationally reco gnised trombonist, commissioned and performed Hysteria as part of her ‘Wired Goddess’ project. I chose five lines of poetry from John Campion's Tongue Stones: ‘matter/mater/meter/muthos’, ‘bowl of regeneration/quickener of wombs’, ‘follow the mysteries of your feet’, ‘Let dark ages be crucibles’ and ‘wounds like flowers opening’. With this text I created an implex of sonic images relating the body, fertility, menses and violence. The first line is particularly important and shapes the first two-thirds of the piece. The musical material complements the text and uses periodicity to suggest the body's heartbeat and breath. The heartbeat serves as a cantus firmus, occurring every five seconds, and pedal tones form the primary material for the trombone part and connect to the idea of breath. The punctuating gunshots occurring in the first half imply violence, and the dark red lighting suggests blood. The tape and trombone intertwine in a sonic world evoking the womb and regeneration. The four-channel tape heightens the sense of immersion that connected to the piece's resonance and dream-like atmosphere. The web of these associations constitutes an artistic reflection on the sensibility and experience of the feminine in a patriarchal society.

Type
Research Article
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , April 2003 , pp. 85 - 87
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I want to thank John Campion for the use of his text and his advice and help with this article. I also wish to thank Edmund Campion for his technical help with the tape for Hysteria, and Matt Wright at the Center for Audio Technology at UC Berkeley for his help recording and the use of some of his samples. I am grateful to William Osborne for the use of his one stereo recording of Hysteria. Finally, most importantly, I wish to thank Abbie Conant for her collaboration, inspired performing, and inclusion in her larger project, ‘The Wired Goddess’.
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