Artist: Ergo Phizmiz
Title: The Faust Cycle (or The House of Dr. Faustus)
This is day two of listening to this extremely experimental piece. I have to say, some of the things that I initially suspect are coming true. The narrative is turning into a twisting and turning shaggy-dog story. As I mentioned on my day one piece, the grandfather of this type of piece is Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. This is a book I have attempted to read numerous times throughout the years, and have never been successful. The problem with reading the book isn’t the narrative form or style, rather it is the period in which the novel was written. I always seem to not quite get a lot of the jokes, an therefore some of the tangents that the narrative is going through.
The other most notable novel which this piece may be compared to is James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. However, unlike the Sterne novel, I have never attempted to read the James Joyce novel. However, I have read several other works by James Joyce, and have enough respect for those works to know that it would take an extremely long time to read, and fully understand. I know there are scholars who have dedicated a substantial portion of their careers to this one book.
My current experience with this piece is similar to my attempted readings of Tristram Shandy. I seem to be losing track of some of the narrative elements as we twist through the layers of sound collages and musical interpretations. I suspect, however, that I may be able to understand the piece better if I could focus on it completely.
I did, however, review the release notes on the Headphonica about this piece, and can see now where there is another perspective to the whole concept. This can also be seen as an audio form story cycle. This does make it easier to accept that there are different segments to the piece, and that it isn’t necessary to link each segment to the overall piece. However, I still have my suspicions that there is more to this piece as even Tristram Shandy can be seen as a story cycle.
As it is, even without completely linking the narrative to the sound collages, I am enjoying the piece. Whether I am in a narrative section, or in the musical sections, I am enjoying the piece.
