retrace our steps, graphic libretto

RETRACE OUR STEPS (a secular oratorio in 4 acts)

is a vocal/instrumental spectacle based on texts by gertrude stein, guy debord and jenny bitner. the work explores the relationships

between idealism, alienation, and consumerism.TRACK LIST

1. Retrace Our Steps, Act I2. Retrace Our Steps, Act II3. Retrace Our Steps, Act III4. Retrace Our Steps, Act IV

RECORDED, EDITED AND MIXED BY marlon luna and paul bailey. mastered by johnathan marcus

(opharion recordings)MUSICIANS:

nicole baker, mezzo-soprano soloist and speaking part; karen hogel, soprano; nike st. clair, alto; sean mcdermott, tenor; and

paul cummings, basssam formicola and sam fischer violins; victor lawrence, cello;

sean ferguson, electric guitar; matt menaged, electric bass; kyoko kamei and carl stronach vibraphone; eric hendrickson, keyboard;

scott mcintosh, bass clarinet(commissioned by the cerritos center for the performing arts)

AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD WWW.PAULBAILEYENSEMBLE.ORG,

ITUNES, EMUSIC, RHAPSODY...January 2008

We cannot retrace our stepsDo i want what we have got

ACT I

text.gertrude.stein

Going forward may be the same as going backwards

we cannot retrace our steps retrace our steps

All my long life all my life

but... we do not retrace our steps

All my long life and herall my life

but... we do not retrace our steps all my long life and her

all my life

Here we are her, in marble and goldDid I say gold

in marble and gold and where

Where is where

In my long life of effort and strife dear life, life is strife

In my long life it will not come and will not goI tell you so, it will stay

In the pay but...

ACT II

text.guy.debord and jenny.bitner

I am trying to devise the perfect pamphlet, a pamphlet if given to enough people

could change the worldIn societies where modern conditions of

productions prevail

All life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles

I wonder if such a pamphlet is possible and what it would say

Separted by his product, man produces all the details of his world with ever increasing power and thus vfinds himself ever more separated

from the world

I am intrigued by the belief that a pamphlet could change a life. I remember those given to me with the images of a man burning amid fiery flames, and inside it said: “Change your life. Do you know you will burn in hell if you don’t

change your ways?

What hides under the spectacular oppositions is a unity of misery

I wonder: if written in the correct order could the correct words make a difference

in someone’s life?

What hides under the spectacular oppositions is a unity of misery

I wake up in the middle of the night in a sweat. I am gripped by the knowledge that I have nothing to say-That even if I could write

a pamphlet everyone in the world would see, I would fail.

...The spectacle is nothing more than an image of happy unification surrounded by desolaion and fear

at the tranquil center of misery

That I can’t say love each other. Or stop and look at things. Or don’t concentrate wealth. Everything I have to say has been said a million times better, plus it’s a cliché. Plus...and here’s the kicker-it doesn’t change anything. The inevitability of history hits me like a mallet over the head. There is no

room for a Thomas Paine in the world today-even though I want to be Thomas Paine, filled with

revolutionary zeal, making pamphlets on a Xerox machine.

The remains of religion and of the family and the moral repression they assure

merge whenever the enjoyment of this world is affirmed-the world being nothing other

than pseudo-enjoyment.

I am not a genuine pamphleteer.I have nothing to say. I have nothing to write...

If I had something to say, I would be the first to say it, loudly, outrageously,

and articulately...

Behind the masks of total choice, different forms of the same alienation confront each otherall of them built

on real contradictions which are repressed

Still I start a regimen of giving pamphlets to strang-ers. I have discarded the idea (did I ever have it?) that I have to give my pamphlets to everyone.

Now I have a sincere and real belief that it is far better to give the pamphlet to one person. That person, when handed the custom-made pamphlet, will wonder, “Was it written just for me? Was it written for anyone

and I just happened along?

What hides under the spectacular oppositions is a unity of misery.

ACT III

text.guy.debord

the spectacle is materially the expression of the separation and estrangement between man and man.

Man’s appropriation of his own nature is at the same time

his grasp of the unfolding of the universe

When art, becomes independent it depicts its world in dazzling colors

A moment of life has grown old and it cannot be rejuvenated

with dazzling colors

It can only be evoked as a memory

The greatness of art begins to appear at the dusk of life

ideas improve.

The meaning of the words participates in the improvement

plagiarism is necessary progress implies it

but do I want what we have got

ACT IV

text.gertrude.stein

has it not gone, what made it live has it not gone because now it has had

in my long life, in my long life life is strife

I was a martyr all my life not to what i won

but what was done

In my long life In my long life

Do you knowbecause I tell you so,

or do you know, do you know

my long life, my long life.

fine