Video still from live performance © Tate 2005

Eight Clouds in the Shape of US Presidents

David Grubbs was commissioned to make a new 'aural' score for The Sound of Heaven and Earth.

Performance recording: Eight Clouds in the Shape of US Presidents by David Grubbs
Copyright for the content of this work remains with the original author/s ©
See below to download individual scores

"Camoufleur" is a term of derision coined by the abstract artist Ad Reinhardt. It was his name for an artist who gives a programmatic title to an abstract work. Barnett Newman, having entitled a series of paintings Stations of the Cross, was a camoufleur. Eight Clouds in the Shape of US Presidents is a work of camouflage. That is, unless you sense its abstract composition and programmatic title to be glaring at one another, irreconcilable. A mis-titling that opens a chasm of meaning. The wrong caption. Where do I get off calling it an abstract composition? For the audience, perhaps it is. But not for the six musicians who are listening to me whisper.

David Grubbs

Download individual scores created by David Grubbs for each instrument. Musicians listened to scores consisting of spoken word instructions via a CD player and headphones, resulting in intentionally long pauses in some of the scores.

Scores by David Grubbs
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

Instrumentation included: Bass by John Edwards, Bass Saxophone by Tony Bevan, Electronics by Andrew Morgan, Electronics and Flutes by David Toop, Harp by Rhodri Davies and Cello by Neil Heyde. The ensemble was put together by Andrew Morgan.

Produced in collaboration with Tate Modern, the Goethe Institute London and the London Consortium.