The Wild Bull - Morton Subotnick

 

The Wild Bull

The Wild Bull

A Composition for Electronic-Music Synthesizer by

Morton Subotnick

Coordinator: Teresa Sterne

Cover Art: Bob Pepper

Cover Design: Elaine Gongora

Art Director: William S. Harvey

Nonesuch STEREO H-71208

1968

From the back cover: The first side of this record was almost complete when I came across "The Wild Bull". I was very impressed by the poem and quickly began to feel an affinity between the poem and the composition I was working on ... in fact, the first three notes of the work seemed to me a kind of human/wild-bull moan... and later I added a human breathing sound to one of the notes.

There was never an attempt to "portray" the poem (I don't think music is about that), but at the same time it became harder and harder to disassociate myself from the pathos and restrained cry of personal loss which spoke to me from such a distant point in time. The state of mind which the poem evoked became intimately tangled with the state of mind my own composition was evoking in me. To title the work after the poem seemed natural and to offer the poem seems equally natural. – MORTON SUBOTNICK

The Wild Bull

The wild bull, who has lain down, lives no more,
  the wild bull, who has lain down, lives no more, 

Dumuzi, the wild bull, who has lain down, lives no more, 

  the wild bull, who has lain down, lives no more.

O you wild bull, how fast you sleep!
  How fast sleep ewe and lamb! 

O you wild bull, how fast you sleep! 

  How fast sleep goat and kid!

I will ask the hills and the valleys, 

I will ask the hills of the Bison:
"Where is the young man, my husband?"
  I will say,
"He whom I no longer serve food"
  I will say,
"He whom I no longer give to drink"
  I will say,
"And my lovely maids"
  I will say,
"And my lovely young men?"

"The Bison has taken thy husband away, 

  up into the mountains!"

"The Bison has taken thy young man away, 

  up into the mountains!"

"Bison of the mountains, with the mottled eyes! 

Bison of the mountains, with the crushing teeth! 

Bison!  – He sleeps sweetly, he sleeps sweetly, 

He whom I no longer serve food sleeps sweetly, 

He whom I no longer give to drink sleeps sweetly, 

My lovely maids sleep sweetly,

My lovely young men sleep sweetly!"

"My young man who perished from me 

  (at the hands of) your men,

My young Ababa who perished from me 

  (at the hands of) your men,

Will never more calm me (with) his loving glance 

Will never more unfasten his lovely bright clasp 

  (at night)

On his couch you made the jackals lie down, 

In my husband's fold you made the raven dwell, 

His reed pipe-the wind plays it,

My husband's songs – the north wind sings them."

Sumerian, c. 1700 BC; translated by Thorkild Jacobsen. From Most Ancient Verse, selected and translated by Thorkild Jacobsen & John A. Wilson; published by The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (U. of Chicago Press).

Reprinted by permission of Professor Jacobsen and The Oriental Institute, whose kind cooperation is gratefully acknowledged.

Also from the back cover: Morton Subotnick was born April 14, 1933, in Los Angeles, California. He earned his undergraduate degree in English Literature from the University of Denver and his Master of Arts in Composition from Mills College, where he studied with Leon Kirchner and Darius Milhaud. While in California, Subotnick co-founded the Mills College Performing Group and the San Francisco Tape Music Center. At this same time he held posts as Assistant Professor of Music at Mills College and Musical Director of Ann Halprin's Dancers' Work- shop Company.

Since 1960, Morton Subotnick has been working with tape, and his present involvement with mixed media includes the theatrical. He was Musical Director of the Repertory Theater at New York's Lincoln Center during its first season, and since the Fall of 1966 has been involved with the Intermedia Program at the School of Arts at New York University. (The purpose of this program is to bring together artists who specialize in various media-film, theater, tape, etc.). Subotnick is also Director of Electronic Music at the Elec- tric Circus.

Prominent among his electronic-music works is Silver Apples of the Moon, composed in 1967 for Nonesuch Records on a commission from Nonesuch directed specifically to the LP record medium-the first in Nonesuch's con- tinuing commission series. Both Silver Apples and The Wild Bull (also a Nonesuch commission) were composed on the modular electronic music system originally built for Morton Subotnick by Donald Buchla at the San Francisco Tape Music Center.

The following are excerpts from press reactions to Silver Apples of the Moon on Nonesuch.

"... the piece is a beauty... Subotnick here transcends all the clichés." – High Fidelity

"... one of the finest electronic pieces in existence... the release is out of this world." – San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

"... merits the attention and interest of everyone interested in the music of our time."– Hi Fi/Stereo Review

"... fascinating new full-length work... decidedly an important. young composer."  statement by a promising young composer. – American Record Guide