Arthur Jarvinen 1956-2010

Art Jarvinen passed away yesterday.  He was a composer and a percussionist and a bass player.  He called himself a physical poet.  He created stuff.  Lots of stuff.  Much of what he created was music.  Other times he created things which pushed the boundaries of music.  Sometimes he pushed those boundaries quite hard.

I considered Art one of my closest friends.  We met in the late seventies.  He performed on Independent Composers Association concerts.  He was in music ensembles (EAR Unit, The Mope, Antenna Repairmen) which played my music.  I was in an esemble (XTET) which played his music.  He started a publishing company (Leisure Planet) which published my music.  We both worked for Frank Zappa.

I didn't always understood what motivated Art.  Nor did I always understand his music.  A performance of a Jarvinen piece could leave you scratching your head.  Sadly, our last few conversations left me scratching my head.  There will always be things about Art which I will never understand.

Art kept a website, arthurjarvinen.com.  There's a bio and lists of his compositions and recordings.

I'd like to point your attention to three projects which will tell you more about Art than I can.  All of them are well worth your time.

First, The Invisible Guy.  I'm listening as I write this post.  I love the music to The Invisible Guy - although I often find it difficult to reconcile with Art Jarvinen the person.   Art called it:

a real soundtrack for an imaginary spy film
Fifty episodes of music and written narrative,
inspired by the surf music/spy movie genres.

There are dozens of tunes you can listen to (you can also tap your foot or sing along) - while reading about the adventures of The Invisible Guy himself.  You want to know about Art's musical influences?  Try listening to The Invisible Guy.

Second, an interview Art did in 2008 on Kalvos and Damian.  (Look for show #539.) Kalvos and Damian are two guys who are not named Kalvos or Damian.  However, in two hours they covered a lot of Things Jarvinen.   This is the best overview of Arts career of which I'm aware

Third, Mister Composer Head.   Mister Composer Head is a blog.  Well, it was a blog briefly in 2007.  An anonymous blog.  Well, there's no point in keeping the secret now.  Art Jarvinen was Mister Composerhead.   Back then I wrote this bit to describe how the project started:

1. David asked Mister Composer Head to write some guest posts.
2. Mister Composer Head did one.
3. Mister Composer Head then did another. And another. Mister Composer Head REALLY got into it.
4. David suggested that Mister Composer Head should have his own blog. But Mister Composer Head didn't want to do that.
5. So David is doing it for him.

I also wrote text for the Mister Composer Head header:

MISTER COMPOSER HEAD.  Being the comments of Mister Composer Head, composer of music, thinker of thoughts, writer of words, player of instruments and teller of stories who says what he wants to say and doesn't care how you react as long as we keep his name out it.

Art told me he really liked that paragraph.  Damn it, Art, you should have written more.

Here is a previous MM post, Independently Celebrating Independence, about a 4th of July pig roast thrown by Art and his wife Lynn and by Robert Fernandez (a fine and friendly percussionist and Antenna Repairman who knows how to do many things, not just roasting a pig, like the Cubans do.)  And here is another, Trixie - the Independence Day Pig, about an earlier similar event.  (It includes video of Art playing a simantron.)

Here is a search of all MM articles which mention Art.  There are a bunch.

Here are excellent tributes to Art by Kyle Gann and Jack Vees and on the CalArts Blog
and on Kill Ugly Radio (a really fine blog).  The last is about Art's work for Frank Zappa and the infamous While You Were Art incident and it quotes from this fascinating interview Art did in 2007.

Mona Hostetler, whose composer son Randy passed away at a very young age and was a close friend of Art, wrote this remembrance of Art Jarvinen.  I like the story of the performance with the toaster.

You can read about and listen to my performance of one of Art's compositions: Arthur Jarvinen - Carbon for Bass Clarinet Solo

Read about the memorial for Art held on October 30, 2010.

Leslie and I send our sincerest condolences to Art's wife, Lynn Angebranndt.  

Art Jarvinen Tags: Arthur Jarvinen. . . Mister Composer Head. . . The Invisible Guy

Mister Composer Head Goes Solo

Mister Composer Head, for whose blog "Mister Composer Head" I've been serving as amanuensis, has mastered the art of posting his own writing to his own blog (thereby avoiding the bottleneck created by his amanuensis).

In fact two weeks ago he added 5 (count'em, five) new posts to M.C.H. Nothing since then. The ball's in his court.

I created a Feed Digest feed to automatically announce recent M.C.H. posts here at Mixed Meters. Look over in the left column not too far from the top. (You can also click on Mister Composer Head in the M.M. Index at the top of the left column.)

For each C.Head post you'll see the title, the date and the first hundred characters of the text - sometimes cutting off abruptly in the mid...

Click on any title to be taken to that particular post.


Mr. CoHead asked if I'd add some of my pictures to his posts - but I begged off by suggesting that he could easily learn how to embed pictures directly from my blog(s) into his. Here's hoping he takes the bait and learns the trick of web plunder.

(In fact, if anyone else wants to use some of my pictures, please get in touch.)

Meanwhile, I saw the Composerheads in person at a recent avant-garde function. I can report that they seemed well and in good spirits and were enjoying the program considerably more than I was.

Feed Tags: ComposerHead. . . blog feeds

Mister Composer Head Talks About Sincerity

I've just posted a new essay by Mister Composer Head, over there on the blog called Mister Composer Head. Mr. C. writes about sincerity in performing music. The story revolves around his own experiences singing a country song in concert and the various reactions it received.

You can read Mister Composer Head Talks About Sincerity by clicking on this sentence.

He also talks about the relative sincerities of Bruce Springsteen and Gloria Estefan and the effect of stardom on them.


Here's a personal comment: he says a nasty thing about editors. As a some-time editor of music and as Mr. Head's amanuensis-ist I would like to point out that my contribution to his posts is limited to adding a few pictures and highlighting a few sentences in red - sometimes for good reason. Nothing else. All spellings are Mr. C's own. Whatever.

One more thing - he tells a very touching story about singing while thinking about his wife Mrs. Composer Head. I think that bit of the story is actually about the power of music because Composer Head is not someone you think of as having tears in his eyes. Nope.


Sincere Tags: ComposerHead. . . sincerity. . . Carl Perkins. . . I'm Sure to Fall. . . editors

Mr. Composerhead Tells A Cage Story (OR TWO)

A whole month went by during which Mr. Composerhead's overworked amanuensis (that's me) didn't post his writings over on his blog, Mister Composer Head.

But I have just remedied that situation and you are highly encourage to read

Mr. Composerhead Tells A Cage Story (OR TWO)

Before he tells his Cage story (or two) Earle Brown's teaching method and pianists Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky are mentioned. Then a number of more or less complementary words are discussed. These words are:

• nice
• bad
• tough
• tits
• harmless
• interesting

The last, of course, is the well-known all-purpose any-meaning complement that composers find ever so tiresome. Mr. Composerhead wisely suggests some ways that "interesting" might find a second life.


Finally, after a highly amusing mention about his own spatial orientation to things he has trouble comprehending, Mr. Composerhead tells two John Cage stories.

In my opinion the first one is somewhat strange.

And so is the second.

You can decide for yourself - here again is the complete post at Mr. Composerhead's blog:

Mr. Composerhead Tells A Cage Story (OR TWO)

Anger Tags: ComposerHead. . . John Cage. . . Earle Brown. . . Aloys Kontarsky. . . Alfons Kontarsky. . . words

Mr. ComposerHead Asks Himself – WHY TO BLOG?

I've posted a new Mister Composer Head article on Mister Composer Head which is Mister Composer Head's blog. You'll remember, maybe, that I have become Mister Composer Head's amanuensis - basically converting his emails into his blog posts by hand.

To read the entire post you must go to his blog. His new post is entitled
Mr. ComposerHead Asks Himself – WHY TO BLOG?

Mr. C.H. laments: "It would be nice to hear a new album, a new artist, that excited me like I was in the days of my youth, the way Captain Beefheart, or Stockhausen, or the Beatles did."

Later he tells this story: "I attended a local event recently that almost made me wish I had a notebook handy. I jotted things down in the car later, so I wouldn’t forget. It is still possible to hear a concert of new music and go home inspired to write some more of your own." which leads him to make some comments about "The Guardians of Art"


Then he asks how one can find art that inspires - he makes references to

• "Beginner's Mind"
• Joshua Tree
• mashed potatoes

Other creative artists Mr. Compser Head mentions in this post are:

• The Handsome Family
• Johnny Cash
• Leonard Cohen
• The Band
• Frank Zappa
• Richard Brautigan
• James Joyce
• Kurt Schwitters
• Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• Allen Ginsberg

Awww - why don't you go read the whole thing just the way he wrote it: Mr. ComposerHead Asks Himself – WHY TO BLOG?


Inspirational Tags: ComposerHead. . . inspiration

Mr Composer Head: The Right Tool

(Editors note: This post will also appear in Mister Composer Head, a new blog dedicated to the posts of (wait for it), yes, Mister Composer Head himself.

He refuses to start his own blog, although he should (in my opinion). So I've started it for him.

For a while I'll post his writings both here and there in identical format. But eventually, like maybe the next time, I'll post an announcement here, with excerpts - the Reader's Digest version - and my three readers can click over there to read the whole thing. Hey, that would be way cool, huh? Or what?

The red squiggle pictures don't have anything to do with this post - but I had them ready and was going to run them anyway. That's what Mr. Composer Head gets when he lets me run his blog. /David - Mr. Composer Head's Amanuensis)


Okay, so folk wisdom has it that you should use the right tool for the job. I can go with that, and I have quite a few tools. In fact, I have most of my power tools thanks to an N.E.A. grant. They stopped giving those to composers right after I got mine. I wonder why? Never mind.

But what about the right tool for the song? Where does folk wisdom get you on that one?

“If I had a miter saw (and I do) I’d miter saw in the morning…”

Hmm, not quite there, let’s try

“If I had a complete set of socket wrenches - both SAE and Metric …”

Maybe not.

“If I had a radial arm saw…”

Now that one’s good, because I don’t have a radial arm saw, but would like one. Where’s the N.E.A. when you really need ‘em? Are you starting to catch my drift?

“If I had a cordless screwdriver,
I’d cordlessly screwdrive in the morning.”

I sort of like that, but I’m not convinced by the image of a Cordless Screwdriver of Justice, which is what the song is getting at.

So you need to have the right tool for the song.


What is the right tool for the song? Obviously, a hammer. But why?

Because it sings smoothly, has a kind of authority that, say, “wood rasp” lacks, and most importantly, “hammer” is both a noun and a verb.

You can have a hammer, and hammer with it, in the morning or the evening as you like, all over this land.

But you can’t really “plumb bob” in the morning. Even if I could, I wouldn’t want to.

Although a “level” of Justice does seem to make some sense.

So anyway, you have to have the right tool for the song. And you can’t just make this stuff up.


There are rules that we do not make, but by which we must abide.

So, for example, why did people, in the 1980’s, start making verbs out of nouns? Because you have become a parent, you are therefore “parenting”? That is so lame. I think I understand why people try that, but that’s just not how language works, as far as I can tell.

Just try composing the salutation for a letter to someone you don’t actually know! Ha! Try sidestepping gender specificity. NOT easy to do. Language likes gender differentiation. There’s a Hammer of Justice for ya!

“Hey, I got your Hammer of Justice…”

Which reminds me of another song about a tool.

“I’d rather be a hammer than a nail…”

Simon and Garfunkle. My sisters were huge fans, and always said they liked “folk music”. Sorry gals. S & G were (still are I guess) pop stars. Folk music is another thing altogether.





Right Tool Left Tool Tags: ComposerHead. . . the right tool. . . National Endowment for the ARts

Mr. Composer Head: Don't Fix It If It Id Not Broken!

(Mr. Composer Head has graciously and anonymously provided another guest post while I consume the other things on my plate. I thank him for all his efforts. Click here to see a list of Mr. Composer Head's previous Mixed Meters appearances.

I'd like to point out that Mr. C.H. provides no images, a hallowed M.M. tradition, hence I scrounge those myself as best I can. There are no pictures of Composer Head's actual composer head. Instead I've substituted the well known Mr. Potato Head - whose head, I'm sure, is equally big and brainy. /David)


Mr. ComposerHead Saze…

Don't Fix It If It Id Not Broken!

Okay, so most of my music is released on my own label, recorded at home, and the CDs are burned one-at-a-time as needed – which is not frequently. That makes it possible for me to make my music available.

Okay, so I stick labels on the CDs to make them look nice and finished and if you pay attention you'll notice that it's a LABEL, not printed on the CD. Of course then you'll look at the back of the CD and see that it's a ONE-OFF, not pressed from a glass master at a big factory. That might seem cheap. IT IS!!!! That's why I do it.


One astute consumer, noticing these details, wrote to complain, thinking I was dealing bootlegs, and asked if the artist was getting any royalties from the sale. He also felt a little cheated because it wasn't a "real" CD, and it was also kind of short.

I refunded $5 of his $15 purchase price, via PayPal, and explained why I make my CDs this way, and that, yes, the artist gets royalties. I get ALL of them.

He wrote back about the five bucks saying "I guess you didn't really have to do that".

He was right – I didn't. But I digress…


Anyway, as someone doing things as described above, I have always been thankful for CD Stomper, a simple and efficient way to make a nice label and stick it on your CD very quickly and easily. I have even recommended it to students, friends, and colleagues. A Great Product for us DYIers.

Then they fucked it up. And don't "they" always?!


The other day I ran out of labels and needed to burn a few CDs. So I went out and got a Big Honkin' Box O' Refills, and what did I find?

Instead of the super-mindlessly-simple peel 'em off-and-stick 'em ons that I have grown to love and depend on, they now have TABS – not just one, but two, one on each side, plus a dubble donut hole in the center. So, you have to gently pull the tab so as not to rip the label, and while lifting the label GENTLY put your finger in the sweet spot to pull away the unwanted donuts, and once you manage to get the *^$%#*ing label on the disk, you have to GENTLY try to remove the tabs without ripping the edge of the label – which I can do about one out of three times.

So, now I get to spend about three times longer than I used to putting a label on one CD [thank God there's not much demand for my work!], and the end result is no better than it used to be with the old labels about one third of the time, and worse the other two thirds.


My point (besides bitching that the world is not made to my specs)?

Some things cannot be improved. So don't try to do that to them. Heinz ketchup. Coke. These things are either perfect, or beyond repair.

But I think there are people who have jobs - probably well-paid, with benefits – and their job is to find ways to "improve" whatever product.

Those people should go kill themselves before they do more damage.


I suggest that some things are as good as they can be [that's not the same thing as "perfect". I heard Morton Feldman say, in a lecture, "My pieces are perfect". I thought that was about the most fucked-up thing such a good composer could possibly say. But I digress…]

Anyway,

This brought to mind what Frank Zappa did with some of his best recordings, early works that I consider true classics, as good as music gets. He "improved" them, by having the drum parts re-recorded, many years after the albums were history.


My teeth hurt whenever I hear Chad [Wackerman] playing drums on Cruisin' With Ruben And the Jets. (Sorry Chad. I know he made you do it.)

Frank said, regarding We're Only In It For the Money, "Some of those snare drum parts were me playing with brushes on a telephone book".

Know what Frank? That's the album we bought, and that's the album we love.

I guess my point is that some things can't be improved. Brings to mind Cage's essay "How to Improve the World – You'll Only Make Matters Worse".


I often wonder about composers who need to revise after a premiere, like that's part of the creative process.

I think you're supposed to get it right the first time. Or learn from the experience, and write something else.

Mr. C/H


Rant Tags: ComposerHead. . . Mr. Potato Head. . . CD Stomper. . . Coca Cola. . . Heinz Ketchup. . . Frank Zappa. . . Chad Wackerman. . . Morton Feldman. . . John Cage

Picture Sources:
The C.D. Stomper
The Morty Pictures
Frank Zappa with Milk and Cookies
The Coke Bottle Building Picture
The Girl With Her Giant Bottle of Ketchup.

Mr. Composer Head: What's In A Name

This is another anonymous guest blog by Mr. Composer Head (formerly known only as "Composerhead" but now identified as male, hence "Mister" before C'head. Here is his description of how he came to be called Mister Composer Head. /David

Okay, ....

So ...

I was in Aspen, playing contemporary music with some group.

I was typically wearing at that time gas station type blue work shirts, with names sewn on badges, names like Dot and Art and Manuel. You can get these garments - names included - at thrift stores, real cheap. That's what I did.

One of the Aspen students told me he was really impressed that I wore gas station shirts, with other peoples' names, he thought that was very cool. It was.

So, ...

I'm in my apartment providing cocktails for a couple of younger composers who are both guest composers in Aspen. They get their music played - I get to play it. I get paid.

So what?

So, ....

I asked younger-more-famous-composer-featured-guy what he was going to present in his master class.

He said something like "I'll just play them some tapes of my stuff and ask if they have any questions".

I laid into him with something like "WHAT? You can't just go in there and wing it. You have to at least think about whether you even have anything to say. Use your music to make a point, present an argument, make them go home crying, think you're an asshole, but you have to at least try to give them something, something to think about, if not use."

He said "Jeez, you really take this seriously don't you?"

The other younger-featured-composer in the room had, in a previous conversation with me, referred to the guy I'm talking about as "Mister Composer Head".

I thought "I can use that!"

Here are some travel pictures of Mr. Potato Head from Punk Vinyl.

Why He's Called Mister Composer Head Tags: Mister Composer Head. . . Composer Head. . . Aspen Music Festival. . . Music. . . young composers. . . cocktails. . . Music Festival

Notes from ComposerHead

(This is a guest posting from an anonymous reader named ComposerHead. Thank you ComposerHead. I guess Mixed Meters now has three readers. /David)



Notes from ComposerHead

I like best the notes I could have written, but didn't.


There are only two kinds of notes. Ones next to each other, and ones on top of each other.


I like the ones next to each other better than the other kind. Although I will say it's kind of amusing to imagine the implied other ones.

You can quote me

ComposerHead



ComposerHead Tags: ComposerHead. . . Notes. . . Music

(BTW - only the text came from ComposerHead (really). The illustrations were my choice. /David)