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. (In what I take to be the spirit of the work, though, I have made each Flash player a separate instance; so, if you like, you can play all the poems at once.&mdash;[[User:Gongmaster|daa]])
: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]]
<flashmp3 id="01">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_01.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="02">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_02.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]<flashmp3 id="03">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_03.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="04">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_04.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="05">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_05.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="06">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_06.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="07">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_07.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="08">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_08.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="09">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_09.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="10">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_10.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="11">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_11.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="12">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_12.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="13">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_13.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="14">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_14.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="15">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_15.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="16">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_16.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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. Of the twenty six pages of score, this sheet is the only one that misfed in the scanner. It survived, not without a struggle.&mdash;[[User:Gongmaster|daa]])
</p>
<p style="clear:both;">
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0024.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
[[File:Score_Neo_810417_0025.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]
<flashmp3 id="17">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_17.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]
<flashmp3 id="18">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_18.mp3</flashmp3><br />
[[Media: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]]