This Story from Speech Songs by Haworth Hodgkinson
In 2007, having recorded virtually no new music for ten years, I made my first explorations into digital recording and sound processing. Two short pieces based on recordings of readings of my own poetry were the immediate result. The first of these, "This Story", takes the straight reading of the poem as a framework, applying various glitch-like transformations to short fragments of the speech. The piece was slightly revised and refined in 2014. The poem opens my collection "A Weakness for Mermaids", and I often use it to open live poetry performances, so it seems appropriate that it should also open this album.
Tracklist
| 1. | This Story | 1:02 |
Lyrics
This Story
I'm telling you this story
about what happened in the pub
the other night
and as I tell the story
I'm editing details;
making minor alterations
to who said what
and in which order,
and removing the characters
who seem irrelevant
or inconvenient
to the point I'm trying to make.
After several retellings,
embellished and enhanced,
my story will be complete,
and my story
will have become
the truth.
© Haworth Hodgkinson
from A Weakness for Mermaids (Koo Press, 2007)
Credits
Music composed, performed and recorded by Haworth Hodgkinson, 2007/2014.
License
All rights reserved.
Composer, improviser and sound artist based in Aberdeenshire and inspired by the landscapes of the North of Scotland. Solo performances often combine poetry with live music. Has worked on many collaborations with writers, dancers, actors, musicians and visual artists.