blued, a remix after Joni Mitchell for alto flute, violin, viola and cello
(2020)
It is difficult to think of a song, any song, without the words. Consider all the ways songs are made – words first and then music, music first and then words, the haphazard fusing of sound and action given speech, the democratized & collective assembly of a rally cry given melody, the purposeful need to make something created solely to be remembered so one “knows” they need to buy that product while at the store or they “must” vote for that candidate while at the polls or they “will” thank their god while at the church. Songs are remarkable devices for connecting the written or the spoken with the act of musicking – to sing; to music a story, to song an emotion or remember a memory or be inspire to do something you hadn’t considered doing only moments earlier. So to take away the words of a song is a surgical act that assumes the music will survive without the text; that the message is somehow still intact even though it is no longer being told with the word and only with the sound.
Video
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