Rrrrrrr... 4 Soli für Stimme und Begleitung (1981)
(for voice and tape)

As I started to think about the Radio Phantasy, I imagined d’Alembert engaged in the tedious work on his Encyclopaedia, often nodding off over the pages of his manuscript, all of whose entries began with the letter "R" . In his half-sleep, the precise meanings of the definitions would overlap, very unscientifically, with the possibility of combining them by instinctive association, or in a way that blurs their sense.

I only had to modify this idea just a little for my knowledge – in Diderot’s sense – to be illuminatingly expanded, and for the project to be made feasible. Thus I changed the starting point from a broadly conceived encyclopaedia to a music dictionary: I got hold of a paperback example, and immediately found myself in the midst of infinitely multiplying domains, ranging from compelling semantics to the farthest reaches of musicological poesy.

The work Rrrrrrr… consists of 41 independent pieces of music, all beginning with the letter "R". Each segment (I organ; II choir and piano; III percussion duo; IV winds, double basses and percussion; V solo voice; VI jazz trio) is published in a separate volume. A performance of the pieces results in the Radio Phantasy Rrrrrrr…

1         revolution speech: political oratory of a martial, exhortatory or even elegiac character, directly related to revolutionary uprisings and usually delivered vocally or distributed on leaflets.

 The truth is marching on! She has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat. Hail, ye heros! heav’n-born         band! Who fought and bled in Freedom’s cause, and when the storm of war was gone, enjoyed the peace your vallor won. Let revolution be our boast, ever mindful what it cost. Firm, united, let us be, rallying round our liberty; as a band of brothers joined, safety and independence we shall find. Defend your rights, defend your shore. Let no rude foe with impious hand, invade the shrine where sacred lies, of toil and blood the well earn’d prize. Truth and Justice will prevail, and ev’ry scheme on bondage fail. Farewell! You may never press me to your heart again. Hark! I hear the bugles sounding the signal for the fight. Hear the battle cry of Revolution, how it swells upon the air.

Words by Julia Ward Howe (1861), Joseph Hopkins (1798) and G.F. Root (1862)
           Compilation: Mauricio Kagel

2        rural blue: original form of blues with free-flowing melody, ametrical and unaccompanied.

          Have you met Miss Mabel Green
          Who makes all kind of gel-a-tine?
          …
          If it look like jelly, shake like jelly
          it must be gel-a-tine

         If you change to pass her way
         You will hear her singing most every day
        If it look like jelly, shake like jelly
        it must be gel-a-tine
        mmmmm

        Mabel’s cooking is a treat
        Her jelly roll cannot be beat
        She always keep them fresh and clean
       Clean her jelly down in between
       If it look like jelly; shake like jelly
       it must be gel-a-tine                                          

       Can’t get away, ’tain’t no bluff
       She shure knows how to strut her stuff
       Now try her once and you will see
      Why she’s in her company
      If it look like jelly, shake like jelly
      it must be gel-a-tine

      Telling all you men she will treat you nice
      To get her jelly go and pay her price
      There’s no jelly in town sweet like mine…
      it must be mmmmm gel-a-tine

      Charlie Lincoln (Hicks): If it Looks Like Jelly, Shake Like Jelly, It Must Be Gel-a-tine

3        rappresentazione sacra (It. sacred drama): an early Italian form of the non-liturgical sacred drama, cultivated especially in Florence during the 15th and 16th centuries and accompanied by music (canzone, lauds); an early forerunner of thesacred oratorio.

La giovane, vedendo venire l’abate, tutta smarrita, e temendo di vergogna, cominciò a piangere. Messer l’abate, postole l’occhio addosso, e veggendola bella e fresca, - ancora che vecchio fosse, sentì subitamente…
gli stimoli della carne, … e fra sè stesso cominciò a dire:
”Deh, perché non prendo io del piacere quando io ne posso avere?”

Giovanni Boccaccio: Il Decamerone (Giornata prima, Novella quarta)

4        railroad song: songs sung mainly by black North Americans during railway construction (until c. 1940) or while wandering through the USA in search of work. Often accompanied by onomatopoetic vocal sounds to mimic characteristic train noises.

          That old ΄Frisco train left a mile a minute
          That old ΄Frisco train left a mile a minute
          Well it’s that old coach, I’m gonna sit right in it
          I’m on my way
          to ΄Frisco town

          You can toot your whistle, you can ring your bell
          You can toot your whistle, you can ring your bell
          Well I know you been want’ it by the way you smell
          I’m on my way
          to ΄Frisco town

         If you was sick I wouldn’t worry you
         If you was sick I wouldn’t worry you
         …
         I’m on my way
         to ΄Frisco town

         That old ΄Frisco train left a mile a minute
         …
         Well it’s that old coach, I’m gonna sit right in it
         I’m on my way
         to ΄Frisco town

         Memphis Minnie: ΄Frisco Town

M. K.