Poems by Steve McCaffery:

• Command Filter with Negative Entailment

• Envoi

• Negative Statement

• Writing a Sand Thinking

My love of change ringing came about many years ago, when I first read Dorothy L. Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey novel, The Nine Tailors. The basis of the detectives hunt revolved around a message encoded in the changes in a peal, a three hour long series of bell ringing containing 5,000 or more changes without breaks or repeating a row. I would listen to Bells on Sunday on BBC Radio 4. In the short burst of church bells I began to love the sounds, patterns and how they flustered the spirit; and after many years, I began to think on how to use this for poetry.

This poem is one among a long series of poems I have constructed based upon change ringing. This is an English method of ringing church bells to produce a rich cascade of sound set in a predetermined series of order. This order is based on weaving basic sequences of ringing, set in rounds, by moving down the scale of bells. Change ringing produces very different sounds than the hymns and songs played on carillon bells. The bells are hung dead, in a different style of frame allowing the bells to swing through an arc of 360 degrees, to produce a rich sound called a good strike. And unlike hymns or songs, these pieces evolve as they dissolve, open as much as they close in on the ideas initially started by the first line.

The ringing of a set of bells in a precise relationship to one another creates a transcendent sounds upon which one can meditate. The sequencing of the bells are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… from the highest-pitched bell to deepest ringing bell. After each sequence, or round, the order of the bells is changed slightly in a prearranged way. With 5 bells, there are 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1, or 120, possible changes, which take about 4 minutes to ring. With 6, 7, or 8 bells, the number of unique changes is 720, 5,040, and 40,320, respectively. To produce different variations, bells are made to change places with adjacent bells in the row, for example:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

2 1 4 3 6 5 8 7

These rows are the musical notation of change ringing. No bell moves more than one place in the row at a time, although more than one pair may change in the same row. In order to ring a different row with each pull of the rope, ringers have devised methods for changing pairs in orderly ways. These place changes produce musical patterns, with the sounds of the bells weaving in and out.

The poems in this series of works are set up for performance. They are scored for people in place of bells. These poems range from pieces set for three readers in a plain hunt up to an hour-long quarter pealset for ten readers. The number of performer can range from three people all the way up to twelve. A plain hunt is the simplest method where all the voices hunt in or out, following the idea of odds out evens in, ‘in’ refers to going down to the lead, (the front) the first word is the second, ‘out’ refers to going up to the back and the first bell to reach the back is the fifth. Then they all plain hunt up to the back and down to the front in turn. The first section is set in colors to illustrate how the patterns function and weave in and out. The other sections are set in black text so that the group of performers can find their own way in the pieces.

This poem is based upon the Sheffield Surprise Major, and as such set for eight bells. Thus this poem should have eight voices to perform it fully. This poem is set as a half peal, having 2,520 lines. The book is, unnecessarily, divided into 70 page-length sections that would be conjoined together to fit as one full performance. This was done for several reasons but ease in reading it was the foremost consideration. You can see a diagram of how this poem follows a program of the eight positions below.  The significance of the 70 sections is to honor the 70^th birthday of our honored guest, Steve McCaffery. Yet this is only one of the many ways in which this poem honors Steve McCaffery. Being a revered sound poet, this style of poem embodies the ethos of his life’s work.  The program texts used in place of the bells are language snippets and text clusters taken from poems, essays and other prose pieces written by Steve. The originals are readily available online, mostly from the University at Buffalo’s Electronic Poetry Center and a link is provided below.

How to read these poems on the page is entirely up to the reader. They are based upon the scoring of a series of changes, using the method as a starting point in which to make a poem. There are improvisations, deviations and out-right errors if these viewed by a real Change Ringer. But to that group I offer consolation by saying that this is an entirely different form of art, like a movie is to screenplay as a screenplay to a novel. To the rest of the audience, it is just poetry, enjoy.

Electronic Poetry Center: Steve McCaffery

http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/mccaffery/

·      Untitled for RC from RIF/T

·      Carnival at Coach House Books

·      ATTRITIONS from Deluxe Rubber Chicken

·      CORRIGENDA IN TWO STANZAS from Deluxe Rubber Chicken

·      NO TITLE PLEASE I’M NOT WELL from Deluxe Rubber Chicken

·      Afterword to Verse and Worse: Selected Poems 1989-2009

·      “The Unreadable Text” from Code of Signals pp. 64-99

·      “Sound Poetry – A Survey.”

·      A Short Conclusion (in memoriam Jackson Mac Low).”

Red Onion “Gelée” and Pumpkin mousseline

Creamed Royal Trumpet Mushrooms, Satsuma Marmalade

Browned Butter, Toasted Black Rice, Apple Brunoise, Belgian Endive

Jamón Ibérico, Pearl Onions, Garden Radishes, Watercress Leaves

Cardamom Poached Cranberries, Piedmont Hazelnuts, Garden Fennel Purée

Apple-Ginger Mignonette

Fromager d’Affinois, Manchego, Beecher’s Reserve Cheddar,

Cambozola Black Label, Port Salut & Comte

Classic Crème Brûlée

with Quince Poached with Star Anise

Roasted Northern Spy Apple

with Maple Ice Cream