Tomorrow night (Wednesday) at the Metro Gallery, the Contemporary Museum’s Mobtown Modern music series will present a performance of John Zorn’s infamous game piece Cobra. Unlike a lot of the music Mobtown Modern presents, there’s no actual written score for Cobra—the players in the ensemble improvise all the musical material. However, far from being an improvisational free-for-all, the improvisations (or ‘cobras’) are shaped and guided by a strict and elaborate set of rules. Here they are:
I’m going to assume that unless you’ve been involved in a performance of the piece before, that the “score” for Cobra you see above makes absolutely no sense. No worries. As a matter of fact, we (the ensemble and yours truly) spent a good amount of time in our early rehearsals just familiarizing ourselves with the rules, clarifying them, and actually creating exercises that would help us translate them into sound. Before getting into the details of each command though, let’s take a quick look at how a performance of Cobra is actually run.
When you really get down to it, the rules of engagement that Zorn lays out for Cobra are basically a set of parameters that allow the musicians to shape their improvisation. Of course, choosing parameters before starting a free improvisation is nothing unique to Cobra; it’s a common improvisational strategy that allows the musicians to focus their performance a bit. What is unique to Cobra, however, is that these parameters, or rules, aren’t chosen by the musicians, but rather dictated to the musicians by a single leader, or “prompter.” The individual chosen as the prompter brandishes different cue cards, each containing one of the commands, and then gives a downbeat, which signifies the beginning of whichever command is on the card. By doing this, the prompter can exert almost complete control over the formal outcome of the improvisation. (N.B. Remember, there is no music written down; it’s all improvised.)
Sounds easy enough, right? Well, it actually gets a little more complicated fun. Though the prompter has the final say in what command is put into play, the musicians in the group have the ability to make suggestions to the prompter about which cue card should be used next. If you look back at the “score,” you’ll notice that each set of cards is identified not only by color, but also by a part of the body as well as a number. Here’s an example:
One finger to the mouth doesn’t mean to keep the noise down, it means that the guy who should probably comb his hair is suggesting that the prompter call the “Pool” card. What’s that? Well, rather than make this a completely epic post by explaining each command in this space, why not take a gander at the annotated photo set over at Mobtown Modern’s Flickr account, where you’ll find pictures of each one of the cards along with explanations about what they mean. And, of course, to see them in action be sure to stop by the Metro Gallery tomorrow night at 8pm!
Update: Click here to listen to yours truly and Contemporary Museum Executive Director Irene Hofmann talking with Tom Hall on Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast about tomorrow’s performance of Cobra.
The Contemporary Museum’s Mobtown Modern Music Series presents John Zorn’s COBRA this Wednesday (February 24) at 8 p.m. at the Metro Gallery (1700 N. Charles Street). Tickets are $10 general admission and $5 for Contemporary Museum members and students with a valid ID.
