Music For 100 Carpenters

Photo by Douglas Henderson.

Thank you everyone who took time to read my interview with saxophonist, composer Matana Roberts. And if you haven’t already, you might find my interview with author Ned Sublette interesting as well.

Soon, to complete the triptych, I will post an interview with my friend composer Douglas Henderson. I am participating in a performance of Doug’s Music For 100 Carpenters next month (November 7th and 8th, 8pm, at Peirogi Gallery's BOILER space in Williamsburg, NY) and I thought an interview about the piece would be of interest and provide a "way in" for those unfamiliar his work.

Doug’s work straddles some weird line in between the categories of music, sculpture, and dance and theater. He has presented works at the Whitney Museum at Altria, Dance Theater Workshop, and PS122 in New York and at Inventionen and daadgalerie in Berlin, among many others. Doug describes Music For 100 Carpenters as “a theatrical surround-sound music performance, enlisting 100 skilled and unskilled tradespeople. Prying at Stockhausen’s convolution of rhythm and timbre, 100 hammers, 100 blocks of wood and some 10,000 nails of varying sizes are brought to bear in a real-time, real-world articulation of complex computer synthesis. Under the guidance of job supervisors, thousands of hammer blows become waves of tonal murmur, threaded with rustlings of nails and occasional snarls of righteous indignation. The performers are organized into work crews with lists of tasks and closely timed schedules, and arranged in a circle around the audience. Toolbelts, sweat and lunchboxes are part of the score.”

If you’re interested in participating in one or both performances of Music For 100 Carpenters, feel free to email me, leave a comment, and/or visit http://www.douglashenderson.org/100Cdesc.html.

Mo later.