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NOTE: Spoilers below.



The work (see artist's statement below, as well)  BTW (by the way), 
this ties in with my work on the so-called 
"iconosphere" and the concept of "iconicospheric cross products"; ie, 
taking ideas from one area (eg, musical arrangments) and translating 
them into "foreign terms" in another area (eg, using musical arrangements
to create video arrangements, or even creating a quantum mechanical
model of say "a certain duck" -[What? (here)]-

START AGAIN

The work consists of three phases and represents "yet another cycle".

The first part introduces the "mysterious duck", the second introduces 
"the problem", and the third part is "the resolution". The concept 
(prbably not very well implemented at this point) is again the 
concept of existence, change, return to balance. 

I had in mind some different music, but (so far) there are only about
20 or 50 different pieces that i've found in the P/D.

Oh, well -- until i can find something bettter....

Regardless, i suppose i should talk about the two choices of music
that i did make.

If you haven't encountered Dimitrii Shostakovitch's music...
He was Russian and born just before the revolution and
*somehow* managed to survive the Stalin period. Time 
and time again, he was "called to task" about his works
being "too western" (ie, too capitaitically influenced, 
decadent, etc). His auto/bi-ography is related in the
book "Testamony" -[Link here]- which
he dictated to a friend of his -- absolutely superb reading
(but a bit on the "dark side"). The book was made into
an extremely good addaptation with Ben Kingsley as
Shosty. 

Mainly, Shosty (i have always affectionately refered to him
as that -- when i took Russian, we had to take a "Russian"
name, natch: i became "Dimitrii Gianovich Termoriv").

Anyway, Shosty would wirte a symphony (eg, #4) and "get into
trouble" so, we "act proerply" and write the next one (eg, #5)
which would "sound acceptable" to the various parties in
the Polit Bureau -- but, in reality they express a vey strong
(and obviously obtuse) THEME of independence which totally
escaped the critics. Indeed, as Shosty sed, "If you don't understand
my 5th symphony, then you understand *nothing* about my music"
(pretty much an exact quote).  It's taken me over 10 years of
working thru his works and especially the 5th, so i feel that
at least i "somewhat" understand it.

One of the major insults (to the critcs) was his 9th symphony
(which is barely a half hour long, and features American themes 
in the 1st movement). He had to actually stand in front of the
soviet congress and denounce his work, it was withdrawn and
his 10th symphony was officially now known as the 9th -- he
composed a "quite serious work" which of course, has hidden
currents of rebellion as well. 

His 9th was written as hope/celebration of the end of the war,
and his 6th is almost completely parallel to Beethoven's 6th
(the pastorial), it's probably one of my favorite ones since
it forms a SET of the 6/7/8 th symphonies. And brackets 
the World War II period. The seventh was "smuggled" out of
Russia as "hope" that the Soviet Union was still surviving
the brutal attack by the Nazi's in their Blitzkrieg on the
Eastern Front (which had so successfully wiped most of
Europe under their control). The 8th begins (what i 
consider) the "darkness" that came about as Stalin
began to tighten his grip on his own people -- sending
possibly as many of his fellow countrymen into "the 
camps" as the Nazi's did. This is pretty graphically
displayed in both the book and film and brings us
back to the fact that of all of the Ally nations, Russia
lost the most men and women -- and many at
Stalin's own hand. 

Anyway, by reversing the two pieces (the 3rd movement 
of each) in the 9th it's very dour and down-beat (ie, that
thiere IS no hope, it is on;ly *partially* resolved by the
4th and 5th movements (again another "no no" -- as
any *proper musician* knows: Symphonies have ONLY
(and EXACTLY) 4 movements. 

But, then in keeping with the role' of the "Mysterious Duck"
(modeled after Picasso's "Columbe Volante" -- LINK HERE -----
)
and may be thought of as a sort of "deus ex machina"
(god out of the box -- ie, resolver of all problems; refer
to Molier's play "Tartuuf" ??sp??).

And of course, the main aesthetic is that vid expresses the
hope of the author (ahem, your present narateur) that
there WILL be hope for our much tattered world.

The first version (now posted) doesn't have the right amount
negative footage. Much to be done, much to be done.

The nice thing about using "classical" music is that (again the
right and proper, music loving public knows) all movments
are fairly long, thus, allowing the vid artist to pack in as
many vids are required (as well as *pausing* for emphasis)
without having to loop the music. 

-- Frank.


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