Chimes (Dillard and Baldwin)
I begin the performance with a quick explanation of what will happen.
“So I’m gonna give you some direction, I’m gonna read a thing, then we’ll go. So I am inviting all of you – asking you to participate in this. Um … Just ring the chimes. I’ll ring them first, before anyone else does, but just ring them as you feel so called to do. We’re gonna have some music together”
I follow this by reading an excerpt from Annie Dillard’s essay “The Present” from her book “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”, originally published in 1974.
“It opened on time: where else? That Christ’s incarnation occurred improbably, ridiculously, at such-and-such a time, into such-and-such a place, is referred to – with great sincerity even among believers – as ‘the scandal of particularity’. Well, the ‘scandal of particularity’ is the only world that I, in particular, know. What use has eternity for light? We’re all up to our necks in this particular scandal.”
This is followed by my reading of an excerpt from James Baldwin’s 1957 short story “Sonny’s Blues”.
“All I know about music is that not many people hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations.”
Afterward, I do as promised – ringing the chimes and playing guitar in response. After another self-ring, audience members began to come up to me and ring the chimes themselves, which I would respond to with the guitar. The ring and response invoked a sort of jam session feel, inviting participants as well as myself to actively listen and respond based off that listening wherever we would see fit.
I included these two excerpts to introduce the ideas of chance and listening – noticing the particularity of a moment and appreciating its individuality, choosing to participate in that moment. I also wanted to connect this musical performance to a longer history of literature, thus the selection of two well known (and personal favorite) authors.
The chimes are hung on a wooden object of my own creation. An object that could have multiple uses, but is created specifically for this set of windchimes – engaging this particularity in another way. The amp and I are placed on either side of the windchimes in order to create a sort of stage for the three of us. This stage implies a pressure on the audience, or a separation between them and the performer. That separation makes the invitation of joining in the performance potentially uncomfortable for the audience – as was proven in the performance. But who is skilled or qualified enough to play the windchimes? My request for others to join is in many ways actually very simple.
I’m interested in how this kind of request and performative act can encourage myself and others to engage in a new kind of awareness of a present moment – of that “scandal of particularity” and how the result of that awareness might allow music to enter us. That good music is always particular, and always present.
This piece was performed in the Fall of 2024