Saint Cecilia
Cecilia, whose name means 'blind', lived for three days after the executioner failed to de-capitate her. He broke her neck and then tried to cut off her head, when he failed in his task, he ran away in fear. She sang hymns while she waited for death, blindfolded. She sounded a trismos, a steady whistling noise, a rasping chirp that is a sound solely for the dead. Oh Cecilia you're breaking my heart. You're shaking my confidence daily.
Shakin' my cocaine and saltine. A misheard lyric. A misplaced sound.
Oh Cecilia I'm down on my knees and begging you please to come home. Your blood pearl necklace of tangled fences. A song heard in dreams that carries us across the breach of sleep. A bridge, the middle 8. Richard Pryor's funeral pyre. Bob Dylan's burning guitars and boxcars. Clickity clack clack, don't step on a crack, or you'll break your mother's back. Bridges burned and backs turned. A structure seeks stasis by balancing forces in tension and compression. Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Bridge Verse Chorus Verse again. Sea shanties, football chants, cowboy songs, church house songs, song of songs, protest songs, drinking songs, poor ol' me songs and ballads. If your dictionary doesn't have it then await further instruction from Egyptian kings at the candy store. Borrow a Jimi Hendrix riff, add a bird's screech. Trismos. Beg, borrow and steal suicides, accidents, disappearances and suspicious circumstances on a lake they call Gichee Goomee. Minstral songs, pop songs, rebel songs, dance reels, gospels, bad man ballads, national anthems, sing-a longs, lullabys, madrigals and spirituals. There's no treatment at the beginning of the song, just a 57 marshal with a pick up on the guitar. An envelope generator responds to the playing and uses that info to dynamically control the bypass filter. Unlike typical auto-wah pedals, it produces considerably more complex effects. The filter is opened up and the drums spread back out and pan across the full stereo spectrum. The melatrone gives that string sound. The sound seems to come out of nowhere. As the chorus begins there's a last note that rings through. It just plays one note, so its not really there long enough for anyone to notice that it is going on but it is what makes it feel that something really big is about to happen before the chorus starts again.
Oh Cecilia you're breaking my heart. I'm down on my knees and I'm praying.
How long does it take a soul to forget the body? A different day means that the atmosphere and the air in the room is different and these subtle differences create a different sound. You see, said the blind woman, trismos tricks, the weather affects the way the microphone hears what's being played.
Can anyone tell with absolute certainty the difference between the sound of the air and the sound of its vibration?
This essay was first published in the exhibition pamphlet Look What They Done To My Song Matt’s Gallery, London (2007).
The life-size sculpture of The Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia by Stefano Maderno, marble (1600)