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In November of 2020 Jennifer Bewerse and I launched an online presenting platform for experimental sound films. We co-founded this project as a way to reach people during the beginning of the pandemic and our platform has continued to flourish as we present films and visual art in new ways.
You can learn more on our website here
A while ago I started to make these maps for my uncle's magazine, GEIST, a Canadian literary magazine. The basic way to create a map is that you come up with a general theme and then search through the National Resources Canada website to see if there are any places with names that line up with your idea. If there are enough matches then you know you're on the right track and with a few brainstorming sessions you can make a pretty funny map. I've learned a little about Canadian geography along the way including the fact that the Yukon Territory is empty, Ontario is full of lakes and people on the East Coast will call something pretty much anything they can fit on a signpost. My personal favourite from the map below is "Itchy Fish Pond" in Newfoundland. I got the original idea for The Tactile Map of Canada as I was driving past Furry Creek just outside of Squamish BC with my mom a couple of summers ago (she writes the cryptic crossword puzzles for the magazine). I asked her if GEIST had ever done a tactile map before and she said that they hadn't but that they were starting to accept submissions from outsiders since the founder of the maps, Melissa Edwards, was going to step down. So far I've come up with some fun maps and I have a few more on the way.
Photo by Eron Rauch
2 Koans and a Canon was entered into the James Tenney Worklist shortly before his death in August of 2006. There are few performance notes included with the score, and as such I have had to research the answers to the questions this score raised. The original score contains the following dedication; “for Ann Holloway (on our Anniversary)” and is written in Tenney’s hand on heavy manila cardstock. To the best of our knowledge, any performance notes would have been spoken between Tenney and Ms. Holloway.
Last fall the Southland Ensemble programmed a concert of Jim's music and they asked me to play a solo on the concert. Two Koans and a Canon came to mind and so I began the process of researching just how to perform it correctly. There were no performance instructions offered as well no program notes and so I consulted with various Tenney aficionados before driving up to Lauren's to do a little sleuthing. I compared this piece to others that he wrote at a similar time or using similar notation and came up a plan for how to perform the work.
I was able to identify the tuning system, seven equal divisions of a semi-tone, as well as determine dynamics, use of musical affects (such as vibrato etc.) and decode some peculiar markings (a left-hand pizzicato with a circle around it and a sideways quarter rest that looks suspiciously like a mordent!). Then came the hard part, learning the actual music. I had someone make me a practice click track of the final movement as well as a max patch to create digital delay in lieu of the tape delay as indicated by the instructions.
And so, on December 19th, 2014, I performed Two Koans and a Canon at the Center for the Arts Eagle Rock in LA. Not wanting this prep work to go to waste, I decided to create a performance version of the piece so that it can be readily performed. I remember that Jim really wanted his music to be performed and didn't worry so much about publication rights and royalties and so it is very much in this spirit that I hope to offer this piece to the contemporary music community.
