Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)
Telegraph Music, 1949
watercolor and ink on paper
11 5/8 x 17 5/8 inches
The Charles Rand Penney Collection of Work by Charles E. Burchfield, 1994
Volume 36, Pg. 79
Apr. 7, 1926
I stand by the road listening to the March wind singing in the telephone & telegraph wires – their vibrating fills my whole being.  I lean against one of the poles to feel it shaking & hear the pounding & roaring of the wind-whipped wires.  This dead smoothed out tree hole connected with countless other dead tree holes by fine steel or copper wires, now became 80. 2.   Apr. 7, 1926 (con’t)  alive again, giving forth wild primitive music that sets the blood boiling and the imagination riotous.  It is wonderful to think about – Where do these holes come from – from Michigan or Northwest United States, Oregon or Canada.  The wire: are dug from the earth or blasted – smelted in vast roaring furnaces – are they singing of their birth places? Singing to the March wind?  It is wonderful to stand and listen – I became spellbound… 

Realized by Don Metz
Recording Engineer Tom Kostusiak

Performed by Bufffluxus
David Adamczyk, Violin
Michael Basinski, Vocals
Michael Colquhoun, Flute
Anthony Henry, Electric Bass
Don Metz, Electric Guitar
John Smigielski, Percussion



Telegraph Music

The Burchfield Penney Art Center is a museum dedicated to the art and vision of Charles Burchfield and the artists of Western New York state.