Now That the Audience Is Assembled
- Author: Grubbs, David
Primarily, in the beginning, this is a discourse on-and through-rhythm, on what it means to pause and to repeat, on all t he many shades of the same and its other, of noise and silence. That...
Now That the Audience Is Assembled
- Author: Grubbs, David
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Primarily, in the beginning, this is a discourse on-and through-rhythm, on what it means to pause and to repeat, on all t he many shades of the same and its other, of noise and silence. That...
About
Following his investigation into experimental music and sound recording in Records Ruin the Landscape, David Grubbs turns his attention to the live performance of improvised music with an altogether different form of writing. Now that the audience is assembled is a book-length prose poem that describes a fictional musical performance during which an unnamed musician improvises the construction of a series of invented instruments before an audience that is alternately contemplative, participatory, disputatious, and asleep. Over the course of this phantasmagorical all-night concert, repeated interruptions take the form of in-depth discussions and musical demonstrations. Both a work of literature and a study of music, Now that the audience is assembled explores the categories of improvised music, solo performance, text scores, instrument building, aesthetic deskilling and reskilling, and the odd fate of the composer in experimental music.
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- Now That the Audience Is Assembled
Awards and reviews
Primarily, in the beginning, this is a discourse on-and through-rhythm, on what it means to pause and to repeat, on all t he many shades of the same and its other, of noise and silence. That the book is able to make you pause and think about all these things while being itself rhythmically (and musically) interesting is no small feat. On top of that, it also manages to be very funny. And like all best comedy, now that the audience is assembled is ultimately a matter of ... timing." -- Robert Barry
Now that the audience is assembled, a new book-length poem by musician David Grubbs, reminds us that listening can feel stranger than dreaming." -- Chris Richards
