| REGISTERS/ (PEOPLE IN ALL) | ||
| by Clark Coolidge | ||
| 88 pages | ISBN 0-939691-10-8 | $9.95 |
| Cover by Alvin Curran | ||
Written between May '89 and August '92, these fifty sections of three-line stanza/chords continue Coolidge's fast-forward drive to explore how sheets of sound can be made to echo -- literally to REGISTER (PEOPLE IN ALL)--thought itself:
nerves rattle and glance interminable, the sphere of the bygone
syllable. Lit as if sound, a cascade to a bell.
"Music is another of Coolidge's grammars, which is to say that music provides the rules -- structure, the division of time, and the organization of pitch -- that underpin the work. There are playful allusions and riffings: 'Monk that took the blues on upon the surpassing swing/ but doesn't understand when someone puts them back in a bag.' Jazz with Schoenburg & CAge inflections: 'The orange piano turns lemon to the players of trained values.' Witty and polysonic."
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