CHTIGR20 (The Island Game Rite)

This item is not in the library — it is a part of: C. Cardew (ed.), Nature Study Notes (full, 1969).

The following should be read only by the instigator of the rite. It should not be read out to those who are playing.
On a large card, large enough to enable all performers to read it cleary, write the following.

scratch-020-islands.png

C 1
D 2
A 3
B 4
E 5


Above are two islands. On one are a woman (A) and two men (B & C). On the other are two men (D & E). They are all shipwrecked. A on one island is in love with D on the other. Unable to swim, she asks B to get her across. B says he is too busy building a radio transmitter to bring help. She asks C. He agrees, provided that she lets him make love to her. She consents. The deed done, C takes A to the other island where D, on hearing of the bargain, says he will have no more to do with the girl, who then marries E.

Going on the above information, list these 5 people in order of your preference, writing the 5 letters down the left hand side of a piece of paper, and affixing to each letter a numeral in order 1-5 as in the example at right.


When all the performers have written their lists tell them that A represents sex, B=intelligence, C=power and opportunism, D=morality and E=security, and that their lists show the order of importance those thins have in their lives.
To realise the lists in musical terms the following categories have been prepared. Others may be substituted, depending on the wishes of the instigator and on the people performing the rite (the following tables, for example, assume that these people are musicians). But try to keep a correspondence between the identity of the categories (sex, intelligence, etc) and the actions they are made to represent.
Referring to the tables below, each performer should write down the 5 categories of activity indicated by the five letter/number combinatinos on his piece of paper.

A1. Play short, loud bursts of sound
A2. Play short, soft bursts of sound
A3. Play long stretches of sound with much activity
A4. Play long stretches of sound with little activity
A5. Play very little
B1. Play musical notes, carefully chosen
B2. Play musical notes, freely chosen
B3. Play noises, carefully chosen
B4. Play noises, freely expressed
B5. Play any old thing
C1. Play an instrument in your possession that no-one else possesses
C2. Play an instrument or object in the room of which there is only one
C3. Play an instrument which you and everyone else possesses
C4. Play an instrument or object in the room of which there are many
C5. Play an instrument or object in the room not being used by others
D1. Play with utmost regard for yourself and others, play unobtrusively, do not misuse the instrument or object
D2. Play with utmost regard for yourself, not necessarily noticing other people
D3. Play according to the other instructions (or just play) noticing but not necessarily responding to other people
D4. Play with little regard for yourself or others
D5. Play without regard for yourself, for others, or for the instrument or object you are using (it is not at all necessary to be wantonly destructive)
E1. Play sounds which you know can be produced
E2. Play sounds which you think can be produced
E3. Play sounds of whose possibility of production you have doubts
E4. Play sounds which you know cannot be produced
E5. Play sounds not caring about whether they can be produced or not

Performers may view the categories as being grouped in the following ways (representing the movements of the five people): 1 ABC/DE 2) B/AC/DE 3) B/ACDE 4) BC/ADE 5) BC/AE/D


Notes

The Island Game Rite. F: Evening Standard of 14.5.69.


Christopher Hobbs



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