YOKO ONO’S SOUND INSTRUCTIONS
Welcome to a poesía lenta, voice, poetry and sound. In this program we will explore some of the instructions written by Yoko Ono in her book "Grapefruit" a book of instructions and drawings published in 1964.
For my non-Spanish speaking colleagues and friends, I am transcribing the programs into English. These transcripts can be found at issuu.com/juliabejarano Thank you and sorry for my english.
In Ono's own words:
Something that emerged from the instructions, but has not yet fully emerged, that is not structured enough, is never structured enough... like an unfinished church with the sky for a roof.
Yoko Ono was born on February 18, 1933, in Tokyo-Japan. Her father, Isoko Ono, was a banker and classical pianist. Her mother, Eisuke Ono, was a wise woman about samurai warriors. Yoko had piano lessons from a young age. Her family survived the destruction during the 1945 bombing raids by being locked in a Bunker. After the war her family moved to the United States, to New York.
Always interested in art, in 1956 she dropped out of college and moved in with Toshi Ichiyanagi, an experimental musician who was studying at the Juilliard School. At that time Yoko worked as a secretary and taught at the Japan Society. From there she had contact with many artists, and would begin a tremendously interesting artistic career.
In Ono's words:
Life is only half a game. Molecules are always on the verge of half disappearing and half emerging. Someone said that I should also put half a person in the program. But we are already halves . It's sad that air is the only thing we share. No matter how close we are to each other, there is always air between us. It is also good that we share air. No matter how far apart we are, air unites us.
An instruction is only a Little bit of the action. Now let's listen:
COUGH PIECE
Keep coughing a year.
1961 winter
VOICE PIECE FOR SOPRANO
Scream:
1. Against the wind
2. Against the wall
3. Against the sky.
1961 autumn
PIECES FOR ORCHESTRA
No.1
Peel No.2
Peek No.3
Take off
1962 summer
A PIECE FOR ORCHESTRA
Count all the stars of that night by heart. The piece ends when all the orchestra members finish counting the stars, or when it dawns.
This can be done with Windows instead of stars.
1962 summer
BUILDING PIECE FOR ORCHESTRA
Go from one room to another opening and closing each door. Do not make any sounds. Go from the top of the building to the bottom. Go from the top of the building to the bottom
1963 winter
BODY SOUND TAPE PIECE
Make body sound tapes of different people at different times. Of the old, young, crying, longing, excited, calm, doubtful, etc.
1964 spring
TAPE PIECE IV
Moving piece
Take a tape of the sound of the stars moving. Do not listen to the tape. Cut it and give it out to the people on the street. Or you may sell it for a moderate price.
1963 autumn
COLLECTING PIECE
Collect sounds in your mind that you have overheard through the week. Repeat them in your mind in different orders one afternoon.
1963 autumn
SNORING PIECE
Listen to a group of people snoring. Listen till dawn.
1964 spring
ECHO TELEPHONE PIECE
Get a telephone that only echoes back your voice. Call every day and talk about many things.
1964 spring
BEAT PIECE
Listen to your heart beat.
1963 autumn
EARTH PIECE
Listen to the sound of the earth turning.
1963 spring
WATER PIECE
Listen to the sound of the underground water.
1963 spring
ROOM PIECE III
Stay in a room for a month. Do not speak. Do not see.
Whisper in the end of the month.
1963 winter
THREE MORE SNOW PIECES for solo orchestra
No 1
Send snow sounds to a person you like
No 2
Walk in the snow without making footprints.
No 3
Find a hand in the snow.
1964 spring
The first edition of Grapefruit was published in 1964 in Japan by Wunternaum Press, whose owner was Yoko Ono. This edition has 150 instructions in English and Japanese, divided into 5 chapters: Music, Painting, Event, Poetry and Object. It also has dedications to John Cage, La Monte Young, Nam June Paik, Isamu Noguchi and Peggy Guggenheim, drawings made by Ono intertwined with the instructions and photographs and documents about Ono's exhibitions and performances.
The name Grapefruit was chosen as the title because Ono believed that the grapefruit was a hybrid of orange and lemon, and therefore, a reflection of herself as a "spiritual hybrid". The instructions read in this podcast are part of the music chapter.
My intention with this program was not to make a great analysis of Yoko Ono's work but to give a little historical context and to present the instructions that I like the most from her book. Thank you very much for listening and I hope to see you in the next program.
The sounds we hear along with the narration of this podcast are an interview with Yoko Ono called A thing called Life by Luciana Chanel, songs and screams of Yoko Ono herself, and whispers and fragments of my own voice.
