Very much enjoying being in the middle of a substantial messy sequence of interlocking pieces currently sitting under the banner Paraphernalia. I recently premiered one of these pieces with the wonderful Berlin based performance duo Aside and I thought I’d share the score here. It’s a video score and the piece involves copying the actions of the hands in the score, in this case Donald Trump shaking hands, with objects attached to the arms to make sounds.
Pretty pleased with the editing and find watching it compelling albeit pretty distasteful. The harrowing power-play evident in his handshakes – tapping the other person’s hand, sharp pulling, distasteful brevity – are, to me, strangely musical. It’s also great when Macron beats him at his own game.
Part of this sequence is looking at chamber music relationships alongside stylised real-world situation (so I’m making a trio that corresponds precisely with the final showdown in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and another which is based around the bits of TV shows where someone catches their boyfriend/girlfriend/partner/husband/wife in bed with with someone else. Suggestions for quartets, quintets, and sextets welcome…