sprinklers galore

[adelaidesean]

Through 1983 and 1984 I tortured John Drake, my music teacher, with a large number of small pieces for piano. I couldn't play and software to play it for me didn't exist (in my house, anyway) so I'd write them out and bring them to school for him to find his way through. Poor guy.

Four of them became a suite for piano that I submitted for examination, the name of which now escapes me. The important thing is that the pile of music as a whole was called "The Overlong Tales of the Manifold Automated Sprinklers" and contained such movements as:

"The Voyage of the Automated Sprinkler"
"The Further Adventures of the Automated Sprinkler"
"The March of the Automated Sprinklers"
"The Dance of the Automated Sprinkler"
"The Search for the Lost Automated Sprinkler"
"Requiem for an Automated Sprinkler"
"The Lonesome Death of the Automated Sprinkler"
"Attack of the Killer Sprinkler"
"Odyssey of the Automated Sprinkler"
"The Dark Side of the Automated Sprinkler"
"The Rise and Fall of the Automated Empire"
"Le Loi Des Machins Automatiques Qui Aspergent D'eau"

You can listen to the first two movements of the finished suite here and here. I detect hints of Bernard Herrman and Tangerine Dream when listening to these things, but only very, very faintly.

(The poor quality of the recording is brought to you by dodgy transfer from an old 4-track reel to cassette in the 1990s, thence to MP3 a couple of years ago. Sorry. It does add to the time-travel ambience, though.)

Comments

[mortonhall.livejournal.com]

your music teacher was JOhn Drake? John Drake, secret agent man? ;)

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

And occasional Prisoner. :-)

[satimaflavell.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed those, Sean. Sometime when you're not busy (HA!) you should have some of your juvenilia put down on a CD. It deserves to be heard, I reckon.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks. I'm glad you liked them. I'll put one of the other "sprinkler" tracks up later.

As to a CD, these are probably the most listenable. Some of the other pieces I'll put up here are really hard work!

[satimaflavell.livejournal.com]

OK, I'll settle for a sprinkler CD:-)The two I've heard are indeed very listenable.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

My younger self is pleased. :-)

Here's the third movement, just for you:
http://www.seanwilliams.com/other/audio/piano-3.mp3.

[satimaflavell.livejournal.com]

And very nice it is, too. If I can't have a CD I'll collect the set one at a time, like gaming cards:-)Is that you playing, BTW?

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Definitely not me playing. I can barely manage chopsticks. :-) It's a family friend who also happened to be a piano teacher.

(Thanks again.)

[satimaflavell.livejournal.com]

:-)

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

Dude, I'm feeling tortured just reading all those titles!!!

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Indeed! I feel sorry for the archivist at UQ.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

What did sprinklers ever do to you?

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Sprinkled me?

[damienw]

joke: I'm surprised there isn't a "Pop-up of the Automated Sprinkler"
true: I like the note of (presumably unintended) religiosity in the last title

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Serious response to your joke: the world needs a pop-up book about pop-up sprinklers. Its time had come!

I was a religious kid, so who knew what I intended? A diet of bible studies (thanks to my dad) and Robert Anton Wilson really messed with my brain.

[damienw]

heh, me too. it seems to have mostly worn off, but there's a bunch of scripture in my brain as a legacy.

of course, i'm not seriously suggesting that one can probe the intentions of an artist through shallow reading of their work years after the event, just noting the association in my mind.

(eddie izzard: in my mind. eg, "i'm driving my mercedes... sv asidein my mind ...")
um, i'll stop now. clearly i need to get out more.