the principle of musical erratum is simple: you choose a keyboard - any keyboard - you draw each note at random - no note can be struck twice, but all are struck - the resulting whole is played without any particular modulation, "a uniformity de rhythm, anaccentuation" says Duchamp.tThe premises of minimal and aleatory art are thus expressed in "the green box", published in 1934 (although the writings date back to 1912-15). to do this, we chose to use a piano (a bösendorfer)


7 VARIATIONS ON A DRAW OF 88 NOTES
the pieces heard here were recorded on one single day - the beginning is lively, full of exploration (#1) - then it becomes gentler (#2) - almost feldmanian (#3) - we reach the hard core in the centre : 36 minutes that swallow up the everyday world (it's 4 pm, children are getting out of school, people are coming and going, cars rev up...) (#4) - then there is the magic inverse version (#5) - a strong reverse, tense, strung out (#6) - then, tenuous, ending as evening falls (#7) - the last note - no. 63 - is struck for the last time - it was also the first note, played six hours earlier...
THE CREATIVE ACT
the disk presented here is also the counterpart of another, 'the creative act', published by ourselves in 1994, and edited by marc dachy. It contains, besides the luminous lecture given on the creative act, in Houston, Texas in 1957, two interviews dealing with, among other things, the readymade and a reading of 'à l'infinitif'. we have completed it with an musical erratum played on a bellows harmonium by jean-luc fafchamps, together with a vocal piece originally conceived by marcel duchamp for himself and his two sisters, yvonne and magdeleine (sung respectively by jean-luc plouvier, marianne pousseur and lucy grauman).