Three Footprints: Instructions for performing with Parsons’ Cove
Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg
October 9, 2005
- Lay the tunebook out on a table in front of where you are sitting or standing, with the book unfolded, so that all of the pages are visible.
- Notice the size and shape of the video still on each page, the relative size of the page itself, and the proportions of the top, foot, edge, and spine margins.
- Notice the texture, weight, and color of the paper on which the book is printed. Notice the inked backs of each page, and the presence or absence of a dimpled texture – the result of grains of sand ground into the printed pages.
- Notice the scene depicted in the video stills on each page. Notice the lines traced by lighter and darker grains of sand, the glisten of the saturated beach, the placement of stones, wood, and seaweed, and the furrows and depressions carved by the waves’ action against the stones on pages 1, 7, 12, and 18. Notice the water rushing into pages 2, 8, 13, and 14, clouded, churning and swelling through pages 3, 4, 9, and 15, and retreating on pages 5, 6, 10, 11, 16, and 17.
- Notice the three footprints in the sand on pages 1, 7, and 12.
- Imagine overcast sky, low tide, late summer, cool water, warm air.
- Think of this tunebook’s proportions, rhythms, presence, and imagery as musical form. Perform in three gestures, one for each footprint and the wave that washes it away.