12 PIECES 1969/70
Rainbow Grass
A square yard of grass is masked off and sprayed a luscious rainbow sequence with non-toxic colourant. How long before the birds make this their home?
Part 2: Fooling the birds. A square yard of grass is masked off and sprayed with green non-toxic colourant.
2/1/70
8 groups of players
Duration free. Thudding / Clashing / Soughing (as of wind blowing through a forest) / Ringing / Sharp tapping / Moaning (not necessarily vocal) / Bass Moaning (not necessarily vocal) / Shrill sounds. Each group takes one of the above categories.
Dec. 1969.
For about 15 players
Each person should make only one sound. Each person should spend a week preparing that sound. That sound could be of any duration, but in performance should only have a natural life, that is, not be unnecessarily shortened or extended. The sounds should be quiet. They are all to be made simultaneously.
26/12/69
Slow Percussion
One dozen hammer blows: 1st version: One every half-hour, on carbon paper placed on drawing paper. 2nd version: One a day, on soft wood. 3rd version: One a month, on lead. In all cases the time or date is printed or inscribed under each hammer-blow print.
16/12/69
Time Walk
With the help of a friend, make a note of as many things done in a single walk from one end of your street to the other. Try to make an accurate time scale for your walk. Having made this score, perform it at the same time on the same day the following week. Repeat actions even if circumstances don't warrant them. Try to avoid new actions if at all possible. Two weeks later, at the same time on the same day, repeat the performance, this time taking twice as long over everything.
16/12/69
Breath
Five or more players sit around a pile of assorted whistles, plastic flutes, mouth-organs, etc. Each player may choose any instrument and may change that instrument for another at any time. Sounds are produced by the normal exhalation of breath, that is, by unforced breathing out with an instrument between the lips.
27/9/69
Names
At a previously determined point in a period of activity, members of the performing group simultaneously shout out their names.
29/7/69
Mealtime
In a situation of maximum amplification, the performers eat a meal. They are accompanied by prerecorded tapes of pouring rain and the sea, and by constantly changing stage lighting.
18/8/69
Rainbow Pig
A pig camouflaged with bright colours is allowed to wander in an enclosure filled with suspended percussion instruments.
18/8/69
Body Music
All cough together for 10 seconds. A conductor should indicate an abrupt beginning and end.
15/12/69
Body Music 2
Drum with the fingertips on the frontal bone of the skull. Obtain different pitches by varying the aperture of the mouth. For a group of performers the aim should be for all to acheive the same pitch, then to stop.
15/12/69
Humming Tops
As many humming tops as there are people. Everyone plays them for as long as they like.
6/7/69
(from Source: Music of the Avant Garde, Vol. 5 No. 2, 1972, p. 74)