The meditators performed with these clay rattles made by Patty Osborne.
This is a work for meditators and sustainers that I wrote for a performance at the MorYork Gallery in November of 2014. I was influenced by the Mindfulness Meditation classes I've been attending where you accept that the nature of the mind is to wander and when you become aware of the fact that your mind has wandered you return to the present moment, often by focusing on the breath.
The Dog Star Orchestra performed this piece at the Mission 356 gallery in June of 2015.
This piece consists of 3 audible layers. The first is a sustaining ensemble that generates a slowly moving sound landscape with gentle changes in pitch and timbre. The second is a speaker reading a poem at the rate of one word every 20 seconds, give or take. The words are long enough apart that the listener can't follow the poem in any real sense. The final layer is that of the meditators/percussionists who are divided into two sub-groups who are following one of the following instructions.
either
When you perceive a shift in the general sound cluster, acknowledge this event by playing your instrument briefly and softly and then return your focus to the sound.
or
Focus on the sound cluster as well as you can while accepting that your thoughts will wander to other places. When they do, gently steer them back to the present and re-focus your attention on the sound. Once your thoughts return to the collective present sound you will acknowledge this event by playing your instrument briefly and softly.
Here is the poem by Mark Yakich
{On My Mother's Birthday}
My yoga master said
Draw all your attention
To the matt...
As with all things
Be present...
If you are cooking,
Cook...
f you are reading
A book, read...
And so when I
Visited her grave
I didn't bring flowers.
I got down among
The fire ants
And with car keys
Cut a pattern in
The grass
So that it looked
At the edges
Like frosting on a cake.
I stood in the center
And preteded to be one
Of 59 candles.
The ants began to bite
The ankles...
Higher and higher
They climbed...
And I fed the flame.