Cover My Eyes

Last year, I received an email from an artist and protester in the year 2217 with a dire warning of the future. His email is below.

Hello Solomon,
My name is Tsoulumenn Phrancke and I come from the year 2217. This inter-temporal email has been sent at great cost. 
I have an important warning for you about the dire state of your future world and an imperative task for you that will instigate great change in our present. I apologise, some words may be redacted, CADP has strict censorship measures which [REDACTED] organisation has mostly bypassed. This email is cloaked as a collaborative musical email artwork.
Let me first explain the historical context of our present situation.
After the gay agenda-Alt left-Political correctness alliance militia seized
control of the world in 2053 in a devastating coup, society fell under the
control of the Curators for Artistic Development Party (CADP). Since the late 21st century the world has suffered under the brutal
oligarchical rule of CADP. With a fully automated world by the year 2057, the only means of meaningful existence was art, as decreed by the CADP; it was legislated that all people must make art and the presentation or acknowledgement of old art was prohibited. Gradually the great art of the past was purged from the world. 
All new art is systematically destroyed after one year of existence. The possession of contraband art is punishable by death. The CADP’s secret police force, the Militia for the Prevention of Generic, Hackneyed and Pastiche Art is ruthless in its pursuit of contraband material and artistic appropriation. 
The money system was abolished in 2088 and social status was determined by the quality of one’s art as assessed by the CADP curatorial committee. All forms of education except art were prohibited; maths, science and business were systematically written out of the syllabi. 
Our organisation has, at great risk, learnt the utilitarian skills of the past that have been designated to machines. Sport was banned in the 2062; there have been massacres at underground rugby matches where the Militia have brutally murdered players and spectators.
Art is a prison for us, it has no meaning, no use and the brutal taste of the CADP determine the paths of our lives.
Bearing our grievous present in mind, I have an important task for you. We imagine the great artworks of the past and pour over the few remnants of art books that remain hidden. One name that looms large over all others in music is Beethoven. We have [REDACTED] no surviving audio of his works. We see references to the fame of his fifth symphony but we cannot hear it.
We have selected you, Solomon Frank of 2017, as our inter-temporal messenger to bring us Beethoven’s fifth symphony as many times as possible. Find and compile as many recordings of the work (only the first movement, because that’s the famous one)and bury them in a disclosed location.
Let this past celebrity masterwork be a rallying call to overthrow our artistic dictators in 2217. We seek to return to a world of artistic indifference; where the arts are secondary to business, the economy and sport. We seek the sweet release of familiarity in the small amounts of conventional art we do consume. Let art seep to the fringes where it once was letting society function in aimless utilitarianism.
In your time, let this action be an artwork and my message, a dire warning of the inevitable future.
When I say as many recordings as possible, I mean every single performance available; the more versions we have, the more we can instigate artistic longevity, which our society no longer allows for.
Circulate my message to everyone you know and publish it on the internet.
Yours [REDACTED], Tsoulumenn Phrancke
The year 2217

For this interpretation of Phranke’s instructions I have compiled 228 recordings of Beethoven’s fifth symphony movement 1.
Full performers list: https://www.dropbox.com/s/c8ly8d3xpyo2twr/Performers.pdf?dl=0

Beethoven Symphony No. [REDACTED]

Performed and recorded at 'Meg Burstow Presents': Live at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University Foyer, 12th July 2018. 

Band: Meg Burstow (keys/comp./arr.), Helen Svoboda (bass), Charles Hill (drums), Adelina Martinez (voice), Merinda Dias-Jayasinha (voice), Matthew Copley (flugelhorn), Andrew Saragossi (tenor saxophone), Brodie Mcallister (trombone). 

Audio recorded/mixed/mastered by Sam Hogg
Video filmed by Tae Young & edited by Joanna Letic

In Space (Original)

i -Concertante
ii - Cadenza
iii - Then, Hero
iv -Adagio, Scherzo

Performed by Sanctuary String Quartet (Dan Lopez, Wayne Brennan, Raquel Bastos and Ely Streatfield)

Luce Quartet

Chamber musician and composer.
Born in Albury, regional New South Wales, studied violin and viola in Canberra and Brisbane.
(Carolina Dolan - photographs)

Luce Quartet

Alys G Rayner

Recent comments

Jaidyn Chong

Related tracks