Prague

September 26th, 2005
6-9p, City Centre
Starting at Skolská 28 Gallery
Ending concert at NoD
Performance route
Workshops at Skolská 28
6pm, September 8, 14, 22
Lyde Performances
September 15, Rybanaruby
September 17, Dul Mayrau
September 24, Kladno

Event Postcard (pdf)

Main Menu

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Space Band Description
How it works
Bookings


Prague, Portland
Hillsboro, Caldwell
Den Bosch, Münster

Lyde Instruments
Lyde Notation
Hear lydes
Sound Art Workshops
Prague Space Band Video
Münster Space Band Video

Münster Review

(above) Skolská 28 Gallery...

The Elaborate Prague Proposal

This project will take place over a three week period and include a series of workshops leading to a main event. The workshops will be used to train volunteer performers to play my lyde notation and instruments in preparation for an event which will occur between and at 8 locations in Prague. These will be followed by a ninth location and performance where a more traditional concert will take place. The project will also include the public display of 8 performance flags displaying graphics of the lyde notation.

In Other Words

I will like to form a band - a Space Band - which will consist of up to thirty playing my lyde instruments on the move and in concert. Two week's prior to a main event, a series of workshops will be held where band members will taught to play the lyde instruments and notation. These workshops will be held Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings and be open to public. I will provide all the instruments. Musicians and non-musicians will be invited to play-neither seems to have any advantage with these instruments. At the conclusion of the workshops a mobile performance will occur between 8 stationary performance sites concluding in a final performance in a concert hall.

From The Beginning

I will arrive 2-3 weeks before the main event to take I Ching readings at 8 indoor and outdoor performance sites around Prague. I will sit at a small table at each of these sites and formally ask the I Ching "What sounds will be appropriate for this space in a performance?" Then, using the I Ching and traditional yarrow sticks, I will divine a set of hexagrams and related lyde notation symbols which will act as an sound signature for that site and a score for a future performance. These symbols, a set of 4 to 6 derived for each location, will then be transferred to cloth to create a large flag which will hang at the performance site for a week or more prior to the event. Therefore, 8 flag scores will be devined for 8 locations to create a network of 8 performance sites each situated within "marching" distance of one another. These flags could be fabricated at the workshops during the first week. The flag scores will be rehearsed at the workshops.

The Big Event

On the day of the main performance, a Saturday or a Sunday, the Space Band will gather in the early evening at the Centre, or some other designated point, and set off for the first location while playing their instruments in a Tibetan bell manner. As the muscians, thirty or more strong, moved through the narrow Prague streets, the tight cluster of ringing sounds will have the effect of sounding streets itself just as Phill Niblock's continuous drones bring out the unique acoustic peculiarities of a performance space. As the musicians approach a performance site, they will gradually become silent, become still and then begin a performance of the flag score associated with that space. After a 5 to 10 minute performance, the Space Band will set off for the next location playing as before-sounding the streets of Prague. This process will repeat itself until the final location, the ninth location, a concert hall where all 8 flags will be performed in a traditional proscenium manner.

Rough Three Week Schedule

Before Dan Senn's arrival: Eight parade route sites and a final performance site are determined. About 30 volunteer performers are recruited. Each become acquainted with the lyde notation as presented on Dan Senn's website.

Week one: Dan Senn arrives with instruments, prepares for workshops and divinates scores using I Ching at each site.

Week two: Three 2 hour workshops at CCM on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday evenings.

Week three: Three 2 hour workshops at CCM on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday evenings. Saturday, beginning in early evening, the mobile performance will begin concluding at final performance space.