David Cunningham – Grey Scale

Cover photograph from the videotape 'Snow Scale' (1975) [...].

Error System
The players play a repeating phrase. As soon as one player makes a mistake that mistake is made the basis of his repetition unless it is modified by a further mistake. Thus each player proceeds at his own rate to change the sound in an uncontrollable manner. On no should 'mistakes' be made deliberately to introduce a change into a performance. In short - sustain your errors.

The water piece and the guitar piece are analogous to this process. However the process is automatic here, an inherent quality in the machinery used.

The numerical sequence used in Ecuador and Bolivia is: 11221111223332112222331112332233331122232 repeated three times. The last time an extra 11 is tagged onto the end. Each number refers to a bar, repetitions of a specific number are uniform.

Notated according to the Ecuador system, Venezuela is 11223344556677 etc. for each player except the musician supplying the constant pulse.

℗ & © 1976 David Cunningham.
Superior Viaduct PO Box 193563 San Francisco, CA 94119 USA

- 12" square insert
- sequential track positions on sleeve
- the Piano catalog number does not appear on release
- etched matrices, except for the MPO logo & job number