The Best All-Around Asemic Songbook in the World

[Thom Courcelle]

I have kept this amazing piece of art from Nancy Bell Scott to myself for too long now, and it's time to share it with the world...

the front

the back

the inner workings

 

This piece was special because Nancy catered it to our similar interests--we both have a history in music.  But more than just a repurposed old song book and musical ephemera, Nancy has let her delightful sense of humor shine through in her additions, juxtapositions, and artistic incorporations.  My photo representations are likely too poor to detail Nancy's hand-scripted addendum to the Song Book's claim of containing "Songs for Every Purpose: School, Community, Home..."  Nancy adds:

Car

Beach

Dentist Chair

Laundromat

Movies

Nail Salon

Barnyard

Park Bench

Kentucky Fried Chicken

Truck Weighing Station

Vet Waiting Room

Holding Cell

Cemetaries

Airplane

YMCA Pool

The Dump

Sidewalk

Gutter

Manhole

Stop Sign

 

I laugh to think what else she could have come up with, but unfortunately she ran out of room on the page!!  And laugh I did anyway...

 

The front of the piece is a "new" sheet music with an asemics musical notation.  Them there's definitely some musical notation-ish stuff going on, but it's in an asemics key that I don't think could be played on any pianer. The asemics are paired brilliantly with the Musical Dictionary "Preface" that serves as the staff paper under Nancy's new music. I'd feel bad if I didn't quote the text of that page for everyone's delight, so here it is:

"Ever since Tinctor, about 1475, wrote the first music dictionary--that 'Terminorum Musicae Diffinitorium'--there has been an endless succession of books dealing with musical definitions.  This is but natural and proper, since the musical art is constantly changing, and a music dictionary, unless frequently revised, easily drops behind the times. The author has endeavored, in these pages, to bring together and classify such material as the modern music teacher or student needs to have at hand in an accessible shape, and to give as far as possible the latest developments in the field. 

"As the average teacher is often timid in the matter of pronouncing foreign words, an English phonetic spelling has been added in almost every instance. Yet it will be best for the student to familiarize himself with the rules for pronouncing each language (which are also given since it is sometimes impossible to reproduce the exact sound of a foreign word in any English spelling...

"These points and the addition of some of the chief popular errors in music, the addition of a list of works of reference for the most important topics, and the inclusion of some of the most recent details of research, may be sufficient excuse for the making of yet one more dictionary."  --Louis C. Elson

 

I--as well as everyone else--have been delighting in Nancy's exploration of Asemics and art.  I have particularly been fascinated with how she creates her collage as a kind of trompe l'oeil, darkening or blackening the edge of one collage piece connecting to another.  The effect is stunning.  I think this about a lot of artist friends here: I completely admire, and am sometimes jealous of, the kind of licentious productivity exhibited by folks like Nancy.  Licentious in the best sense of an artist throwing restraints to the wind and discovering a groove through the immersion of "doing." Collage is an art form that is made by "destroying something else" to create something new.  Sometimes we have to destroy something in order to know it, to find the core of it, what makes it tick, and re-invent it or find how it fits in a new paradigm we can create for it.  I try to remind myself of that principle all the time with my art--to not think of a certain drawing or painting as too precious, and when I get stuck, to remember that sometimes one has to take drastic measures with an artwork to mold it and bring out its "true" form.  You have been doing fearless, amazing, jealousy-inducing work, Nancy!  Thank you for gifting to me this amazing sample of your most recent artistic chapter. I'm loving every morsel of it!

 

Also, the prescription on the inside that, "Corn is the Best Medicine," did not escape my notice!  COB-tastic!  Viva COB-asticity!!

[Thom Courcelle]

Thanks, Nancy. I likes words--that's why I use so many of them I think! But truly, as Theresa states with her Church of the Air 'Hallelujah,': I just sees it, and I knows it's the truth. One can only declare being battered by the wings of beauty if one is inspired by Beauty, herself. i.e., I (and my blogging) am nothing without the inspiration provided in droves by so many friends and amazing artists.

You are right about there being some particular nature to which IUOMA members are prone and which makes for such a delightful community. When I tell family and friends about my involvement here, I have tried to grasp what it is that makes it such a comfortable arena. I know that I once described it as "mature," for lack of a better term. Anyway, we're lucky. And thank you everyone for your nice comments. This was a great piece--De Villo was right... amazing to see asemics "migrate" into the fringes of language (and one definitely can consider music as a communication tool or language). Your a ground-breaker, Nancy!

[Nancy Bell Scott]

By the way, a bit of the asemic music is downright corny, don't you think? :--)

[Nancy Bell Scott]

You are truly a master at the blog, Thom. The first post you made happened on the day I first looked at length around IUOMA and wanted to participate, and that was no coincidence -- I remember the inspiration I felt from your enthusiasm and appreciation for art and artists very well. That post, and people's responses to it, made the perceptiveness and welcoming nature of this place obvious. Thank you!

[Bifidus Jones]

holy cow--brilliant

[DKeys]

Nancy keeps sending out these beautiful expressions of herself into the world. I keep wondering how all these amazing pieces would look put together as an unbound book since to me they seem to be an ongoing dialogue. What is she trying to say???

[cheryl penn]

Lucky you!!! And FAB commentary :-) X

[De Villo Sloan]

Great Thom, I've been hoping to see asemic work incorporating music (as well as notation). You have some altered book action here too, I think. Your commentary makes Nancy's work shine even more brightly. I REALLY enjoyed your meditation on collage at the end too.

[Yvonne Neldel]

Oh my god...this is such a precious masterpiece of work! I am so impressed- you are such a lucky one!