Communique #2: The Arcitext Orcestra



I close my eyes and the Architext Orcestra playsa-rounda-me.  Sixty paces from the car to the stairs (played in six groups of ten beat rhythms, each ten beat made up of two five beat call and response phrases).  With each of these rhythms, play each Capital as one beat.  Lower case notes are in-betweeners...


(TkTTkDT)(DkDkTTT)


Thirteen steps up from the carpark to the hospital foyer

D T T -  D T T -  D Tk D D T

The Machines in the hospital room play a non-repeating polyrhythm, one machine plays the bass notes, another the high tones


D - T D -  - D T -  D


Outside the hospital the Autumnal sunshine is literally perfect, and my walk from the hospital is filled with little significances.  In the doorway where someone sleeps, four stones and two pieces of plastic arranged like a protective charm, a symbol.

I sit at a long outdoor table at a cafe on Hindley Street, there are six others seated at the table with me, but it's not always about the numbers.  Some of them are discussing their aged care patients, the challenges of Alzheimers, the routines at dinner time and how one patient always sends his nurse away after every mouthful, only to call her back, saying we're not done yet.

We're not done yet.




The Arcitext Orcestra plays all around me.  The beeping pedestrian crossing, the ebb and flow of customers in the cafe, families, business meetings, university students.  It's not just about arranging numbers.  The call and response of youth and age and even sleep always, the limping, stepping, skipping dance....

So, homework?

The patterns are all around you, all the time.  Listen for them, play them in your mind, play them on your drum if you have the time.  Between lectures, between meal times, at meal times with the kids...these musical games can underpin every mundane activity and make a song and dance out of ordinary life.