1: WILDEST DREAMS
Form a circle. Set a pile of 30cm lengths wool in the middle. Ask each member to take as many pieces of wool as there are in the choir. Close your eyes. Hold the wool and take a few minutes to imagine your wildest dreams. Resist any urges to edit the dream. Open eyes. One person at a time, go around the circle and give one piece of your wool to each of the other members. When everyone has done this, you should now be holding everyone’s wildest dreams in your hand. Use an instrument to provide a base note. Sing your wildest dreams. Burn the wool.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY:
18.5.13 With a choir of 6 inside the yurt around the manhole at Kalevankatu 6, Helsinki.
2: ACE of SPACES
Heat the sauna to 100 degrees C. Ask each member to take a piece of firewood. Enter the sauna one by one. Place your piece of wood in the fire, throw a little water on the stones, and shout out loud. This cry represents your greatest power and deepest fear. Take a seat. When everyone is assembled, begin to play a drone on A on the guitar and sing the base melody. Members will join in and improvise with voice and instruments. Feel the heat. Sweat profusely. Let the song fill the whole space with the combined strength and weakness of the choir. Let broken parts heal and solid parts break. Celebrate the weather as it is.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY:
20.6.13 With a bunch of folks in the yurt sauna at Kahvila Tyyni, Töölönlähti, Helsinki.
3: KIRKA
Kirill “Kirka” Babitzin (22 September 1950 – 31 January 2007) was a popular Finnish musician. This score is based on his cover version of Bob Marley’s I shot the sheriff. In the chorus of Kirka’s version he gets the train to the Finnish town of Mikkeli.
Find a friend to do the Kirka score with. Have them go to their nearest train station at around the same time as you go to Mikkeli train station. Take a marker pen each. As close to the same time as possible, enter a train that has stopped at your respective stations. Go in and go straight to the toilet. Start humming Kirka’s version of I shot the sheriff. Write I ❤ Kirka on the toilet wall. Feel free to misspell his name. Imagine the vibration of your humming traveling along the tracks to meet your friend’s humming. Feel the track come alive. Exit the train before it leaves. When the train leaves, the score is complete.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY:
6.8.13 with a choir of 2.
4: UPON RECEIVING NEWS OF THE DEATH OF A FRIEND YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IN A LONG WHILE AND MAY NEVER HAVE SEEN AGAIN IF YOU’D BOTH LIVED TO BE 100
Find somewhere quiet and light a candle for your friend. Remember some of the stories you created together. Reflect on how the universe has changed by the mere fact of knowing he is gone, even if your paths hadn’t crossed for many years and may never have crossed again. Have a random memory from school physics class that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but merely changes. Wonder what human energy is and what it changes into. Wonder if it would be true to say that death and change are one and the same thing. Decide it would. Notice that change implies the birth of something too. Wonder if it would be true to say that birth and change are one and the same thing. Decide it would. Wonder if it would follow that birth and death are two sides of the same change-coin. Decide it would. Notice your friend is dead and not alive and dead is dead is dead. Fail to see what has been born here. Consider that nothing can be added to or subtracted from the universe. Consider that if something can’t die it can’t have been born either. Consider that even if your first car was sold for scrap and still exists now as parts of many other cars, it is not and never will be again the car you drove. Wonder how many parts had to be removed before it stopped being your car. Admit the universe is a paradox beyond rational thought and leave it at that for the time being. Sigh deeply and listen to the air rushing out of your body. Leave before the candle has burned out. Have second thoughts and go back to blow it out to be on the safe side. Take a short walk and think about other things for a while.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY:
14.8.13 with a choir of 1.
5: COME ON DIE HAPPY
Imagine lying on your death bed. Imagine looking back with a smile on a life in which you indulged all the whims and notions that turned you on, no matter how irrational and nonsensical they may have appeared to others. Decide to live that life. Notice how happy that makes you feel. Notice the fear that also arises with the image of your death bed. Have one half of the choir focus on happiness and the other half focus on death. Take a little time to let the feelings sink in. Have the happy side of the choir sing their happiness in whatever way it expresses itself, and have the other half sing their death. Have the two groups remain separate at first, then encourage them to become conscious of each other, intermingle, and start weaving their sounds together. Let this evolve, peak and come to a natural rest. Feel free to move. Indulge a whim or notion.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY:
17.10.2013 with a choir of 2
6: GET A HAIRCUT AND GET A REAL JOB
Get a haircut.
Get a real job.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY:
Unperformed
7: FRIED EGGS
Take an egg. Fry it in a pan. Listen to the sizzle. Eat the egg.
Put on proper ear muffs.
Take another egg. Fry it in the pan. Listen to the lack of sizzle. Remove ear muffs off and eat the egg.
Put the ear muffs on again.
Take another egg. Fry it in the pan. Listen to the lack of sizzle. Keep ear muffs on and eat the egg.
Take the ear muffs off.
Take another egg. Fry it in the pan. Listen to the sizzle. Put ear muffs on and eat the egg.
Wash up.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY:
27.1.2014 with a choir of 1
8: WAITING FOR A BUS
Go to a random bus stop. Wait for the bus. Listen to try and hear it at the earliest opportunity. When the bus arrives, let it come and go. Walk off. Reflect on any perceived difference in the passing of time compared to waiting for a bus when you really need one.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY:
Unperformed
9: SPIRIT BOAT
BACKGROUND:
While shamans most commonly travel to the spirit world alone, there is a tradition that allows the whole village to journey together in a spirit boat.
In Finnish mythology the border between the living and the dead is marked by a river. We will mythologise based on this mythology.
A voyage to the land of the dead is not without risk but it can yield great rewards: dead people – known or unknown – may be found there to answer questions, offer advice, give gifts and receive unwanted burdens.
METHOD:
PREPARATION
Gather a group of willing souls and select one person to direct the voyage by asking who would like to do it and appointing the first to respond positively.
The captain of the spirit boat must steer a strong and sensitive course, powerfully leading the oarsmen from the bridge and intuitively responding to and interpreting their cadence and rhythms. The captain may find it useful to wear a special item of clothing as a symbol of rank to give a little added confidence.
The first thing you need for an imaginary river trip is an imaginary boat. Mark out the boat as you see fit, with a line in the sand, with rocks or sticks or anything else that comes to hand. Cushions, jumpers or shoes may work well. Leave a doorway. Keep the boat empty. Let silence fall. Have the captain enter the vessel and greet each crew member individually as they enter and direct them to a space so that they are more-or-less evenly spaced around the inner edge. If you are not at the edge, don’t fret: your imaginary oar will work just as well as anybody else’s.
When everyone is in position, all faces should be covered to avoid being recognized in the Land of the Dead. Pulling your t-shirt over your head or your hood down over your eyes will suffice.
SETTING SAIL
The captain should shout to the crew to set their imaginary oars and provide a rhythm for them to begin paddling to. Feel the water resist your imaginary oar. The crew should cry out with every stroke.
No counting. No drums. Voice only.
As the boat gathers momentum the rhythm should gradually increase. Approaching the Land of the Dead the captain should give the order for silence from the crew and keep the rhythm alone. The captain should also call for all imaginary oars to be laid down and for the crew to play dead to avoid detection from the river guards. The captain will navigate and allow the river to carry the boat downstream and guide the boat safely to the shore. The captain will announce that the boat has arrived and the crew will invite in the people they want to communicate with. The captain will allow some time for communication and will then signal for the oars to be set again as the boat pulls out.
RETURN
The homeward journey is upstream and demands a different tactic. The momentum must be strong and vocal to propel the boat forwards against the current. The guards will approach the boat to help because returning boats need extra hands to make headway upstream. There is no avoiding them this time, and the guards will not let the crew leave. They must be scared off, so when the captain sees them approaching the signal should be given for the crew to shout, scream, holler, whoop and yell at the top of their lungs. If done properly this never fails to make the guards retreat. Remember to keep paddling. Upon reaching safety, paddle the boat home in glorious union. The captain will gradually wind things down and bring the oars to a final halt when the boat has arrived home.
AFTERMATH:
Remain in your place. Stretch out and make yourself comfortable. Take a few minutes to absorb the experience in silence. Search for a sound that encapsulates your adventure. On the captain’s signal, everyone should let their own particular sound ring out among all the others. Try to stay true to your sound and not let those around you influence its pitch, but let the volume, texture and rhythm change and allow it to elongate or contract into short staccato bursts. It will be clear when this song has been sung.
TRANSITION:
(17 SCORE 361)
Close your eyes
Applaud for 17 seconds
Listen to the applause
TIME:
The journey should last around 20 minutes.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY:
Unperformed
10: SHITE
Go to a football match. Wait until the supporters around you begin to chant the name of their football team and shout SHITE! as loudly as possible in the gaps. Listen to their chant change in response. Become acutely aware of your surroundings.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY:
Unperformed
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