HW: Barney Bubbles

[Jon Jarrett]

On Fri, 3 Aug 2001, Michael Crook wrote:

> That's the abridged version, the one I saw heavily involved Pythagoras
> and, as Steve said, it was quite an extensive piece of work.
>
> > A string of existence whereby the spirit realm occupies the upper portion
> >and the material is at the lower, and one where the galaxies are spread out
> >across, and band members have speakers strategiclly positioned to form
> >intersections of sound creating interactive new mental tones in the minds
> >of the audience, and  of how the positioning of the performers (standing)
> >on painted platforms, each unique and attuned especially for each
> >player,are able to bring out the ultimate individual part to throw into the
> >mix of interplay with the audience bouncing back at the band and forming
> >unity, manifesting in various hues of color as reflected in the painting on
> >the amplifiers????  sort of a hub and wheel where the stadium is
> >participating on the full scope of awareness????

        This is all quite a lot like the piece on the reverse of the
poster that came with _The 1999 Party_, so I'll quote that just in case
that's what people have been seeing.

        "SPACESHIP HAWKWIND

        "The basic principle for the Starship and the Space Ritual is
based on the Pythagorean concept of sound. Briefly, this conceived the
Universe to be an immense monochord, with its single string stretched
between absolute spirit and at its lowest end absolute matter. Along the
string were positioned the planets of our solar system. Each of these
spheres as it rushed through space was believed to sound a certain tone
caused by its continuous displacement of the ether. These intervals and
harmonies are called `The Sound of the Spheres'. The interval between
Earth and the fixed stars being the most perfect harmonic interval. The
musical intervals do not coincide with the reality of their actual
positions but the following arrangement is generally accepted for the
musical intervals.

                "EARTH to MOON          one tone
                MOON to MERCURY         one half tone
                MERCURY to VENUS        one half tone
                VENUS to SUN            one and a half tones
                SUN to MARS             one tone
                MARS to JUPITER         one half tone
                JUPITER to SATURN       one half tone

        "The sum of these intervals equals the six whole tones of the
octave. The octave or harmonic scale contains sounds within its own
frequency--these sounds ranged by increasing sharpness are called
`notes'--do re mi fa sol la ti do.

        "When the colours of the spectrum are added to the musical notes
and their respective planets we end up with the following analogies:

                "DO     MARS            RED
                RE      SUN             ORANGE
                MI      MERCURY         YELLOW
                FA      SATURN          GREEN
                SOL     JUPITER         BLUE
                LA      VENUS           INDIGO
                TI      MOON            VIOLET

        "By drawing the diagram on this page [I'm not trying this in
ASCII, sorry] and positioning the band and equipment in their normal line
up we arrive at this solution.


                "DEL and BOB            JUPITER/MARS/SUN
                DAVE and DIKMIK         SUN/MARS
                NIK and LEMMY           SUN/VENUS/MERCURY
                SIMON                   MOON/EARTH
                DANCERS                 JUPITER/SATURN/STARS

        "Assuming the stage are to be our solar system, the audience
becomes space outside our system and the perimeteres of the stage become
near space. Near space being divided into our Zodiac system. This system
provides a sympathetic feedback both in colour , shape and invisible
geometry. The music can awaken the starship, but its fuel must be
audience/Hawkwind mind energy. We were born to go. God bless all who sail
in her.

        "To break away from our system and enter deep space will need a
booster. Each musicnaut comes under and controls a sphere of influence. To
boost this, each person feeds into a computer/lifepack while at the same
time, the lifepack is scanning for information and broadcasting the
musicnauts [sic] amplified impulses. Each sensor will be placed in the
appropriate `space' situation.

        "Around the immediate area of sensors are light poles. One for
each zodiacal sign, an inner space (four elements) and an infinite outer
space. As these are the borders of near/outer space, they will be coloured
to their appropriate element:

                EARTH           WHITE
                AIR             GREEN
                FIRE            RED
                WATER           BLUE
                INNER/OUTER     PURPLE"

        I would guess there is more after this but that's all that there
is on the sheet. The graphic is pretty impressively difficult to see, and
this is all printed on a starfield in a font where punctuation is very
difficult to discern. But that's pretty much it. Is that the sort of thing
we're after here? Yours,
                        Jon

--
           Jon Jarrett                     "Two men say they're Jesus,
          (01223 514989)                   One of 'em must be wrong..."
   jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk              (Mark Knopfler)