Editing Nichols Collection 0005

;<em>Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork</em>
:A Song Cycle on Poems by Richard Brautigan
:[[Gene Nichols]]. Text by Richard Brautigan
:Stereo audio tape, with score
:Performed by Gene Nichols with the Neoteric Ensemble
:April 17, 1981
:Northern Illinois University
:Music © 1980-1981 Gene Nichols, text © 1971 Richard Brautigan
<noinclude>
:Collection of [[Gene Nichols]]
</noinclude>
:The second half of 1981's April 17 program was given over to these interpretations of Brautigan's 1971 poem collection ''Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork.'' Each segment is a separate poem, with its own instrumentation and score.
:Please contact us with more information about this work or the performance itself. Notes and commentary can be inserted along with each file below.
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0001.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0002.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_01.mp3|''Prologue: Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork'']]<br />4' 19"
</p>
<p>Dedication 1: for Diane Ragains
</p>
<p>Dedication 2: for Diane Ragains, '''Joe Pinzarrone + the Neoteric boys'''
</p>
<p>November 1980
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0003.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_02.mp3|''Two Guys Get Out of a Car'']]<br />0' 47"
</p>
<p>Things begin to look a little looser...
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0004.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0005.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_03.mp3|''Homage to Charles Atlas'']]<br />1' 19"
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0006.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_04.mp3|''Seconds'']]<br />1' 09"
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0007.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_05.mp3|''Montana Inventory'']]
<br />1' 32"
</p>
<p>Things become looser still...
</p><p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0008.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_06.mp3|''We Meet, We Try, Nothing Happens, But'']]<br />1'28"
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0009.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_07.mp3|''As Mechanical as a Flight of Stairs'']]<br />1' 26"
</p>
<p>A brief return to conventional notation...
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0010.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_08.mp3|I'll Affect You Slowly'']]
<br />1' 20"
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0011.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0012.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0013.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_09.mp3|''They are Really Having Fun'']]<br />6' 06"
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0014.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_10.mp3|''What Happened?'']]<br />1' 44"
</p>
<p>...followed by "Hot wailing"...
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0015.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0016.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_11.mp3|''Punitive Ghosts Like Steam-Driven Tennis Courts'']]<br />3' 44"
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0017.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0018.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_12.mp3|''Crow Maiden'']]<br />3' 10"
</p>
<p>The score flirts with orthogonality, then segues to something a bit more episodic and instructive: "Some instrumentalists apply light, fast 'karate chops' to the vocalist's back during this passage."
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0019.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_13.mp3|''Nine Crows: Two Out of Sequence'']]
<br />1' 26"
</p>
<p>Coffee (or something) has its way with the score.
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0020.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0021.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_14.mp3|''Business'']]
<br />0' 42"
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0022.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_15.mp3|''Voluntary Quicksand'']]
<br />0' 34"
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0023.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_16.mp3|''Death Like a Needle'']]
<br />1' 19"
</p>
<p>There's something about this work that wants to stay a secret. The published poem includes the comment, "...[I can't make the next two words out. I first wrote this poem in longhand]..." which Gene transcribes in the score, along with stage directions. This sheet (page 23) came to me with a folded-back top right-hand corner. It had clearly been fed into the copier that way, as the print runs right up to the bent edge. The page number is missing. 
</p>
<p>Of the twenty six pages of score, this sheet is the only one that misfed in the scanner. It survived, not without a struggle.
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0024.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0025.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_17.mp3|''We Were the Eleven O'Clock News'']]
<br />3' 09"
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0026.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_18.mp3|''Epilogue: The Curve of Forgotten Things'']]
<br />2' 54"
</p>
<p>The final note: "November 25-26, 1980; rearranged Spring, 1981 DeKalb, Illinois"
</p>

[[Category:Artifacts]]
[[Category:Ephemera]]
[[Category:Media]]
[[Category:Nichols]]
[[Category:NIU]]
[[Category:Neoteric Ensemble]]
[[Category:Performances]]