Silent When Loaded — Mussmann/Bruce Archive

SILENT WHEN LOADED 1985

Created in collaboration with composer Semih Firincioglu and Claudia Bruce, Silent When Loaded offers a mesmerizing atmospheric exploration of the formal devices of mystery and suspense.

“Ranging from free association to the colloquial, the text of Silent When Loaded is both spoken and sung to use language in a most expressive and dramatic fashion. The live musical score for piano, clarinet, cello, double bass, and voice by composer Semih Firincioglu is woven throughout the work so that it takes on an integral role in the performance”.

-Sam McMillan, January 13, 1986 Press release

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

November 10, 1985

written, designed, and directed by LINDA MUSSMANN

in collaboration with CLAUDIA BRUCE

music composed by SEMIH FIRINCIOĞLU

performed by BRIGITTE BLEY-SWINSTON, CLAUDIA BRUCE, JAIME EINBINDER,

MARGOT LEVERETT (clarinet), SEMIH FIRINCIOĞLU (piano), BEVERLY AU (cello)

lighting technician MARK SCHUYLER

Mark Schuyler operating the light board during rehearsals at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Semih Firincioğlu, interviewed in The New Haven Register:

"In the case of this presentation I’m taking familiar themes — like “St. Louis Blues” — but using them in unfamiliar ways. The music has a tension-producing, crime quality which we know from mystery movies and, in fact, I listened to several Hitchcock soundtracks while writing it. But I’m using basic elements like, say, a pizzicato note on the cello. We all know what that sound means and everyone hushes down when they hear it, waiting for something to happen. But in this piece it never happens.”

Merce Cunningham Dance Studio, NY

February 1986

written, designed, and directed by LINDA MUSSMANN

in collaboration with CLAUDIA BRUCE

music composed by SEMIH FIRINCIOĞLU

performed by BRIGITTE BLEY-SWINSTON, CLAUDIA BRUCE, JAIME EINBINDER, INGRID REFFERT, MARGOT LEVERETT (clarinet), SEMIH FIRINCIOĞLU (piano), BEVERLY AU (cello), PAUL EVANS MITCHELL (double bass)

lighting technician MARK SCHUYLER

production assistant PAULA SLOAN

photographer JOANN BAKER

Jack Anderson, The New York Times:

“The stage was filled with teacups, which everyone kept rearranging. Films showed rural scenes and waterways. A text concerned time, distance and the problems of listening, seeing and remembering. There were swayings to statements about new-mown hay and whirlings to phrases about colors, doors and the August moon.

Lists of places and dates were recited. Sometimes they appeared to be connected by free association. At other times, they were bound linguistically, as when a dancer murmured, “New Haven, New Paltz, New Orleans,” and several other cities with “New” in their names. Cryptic remarks about “China” could have referred either to the country or to the teacups. And the constant shifting of the cups suggested the performers were pondering the way lives can be measured.

…

Uncertainties and ambiguities increase. As they did, one might have realized that just as it was hard to say what was happening in this production, so one may also have trouble remembering what one did yesterday or last year. In “Silent When Loaded,” all steps and sounds seemed loaded with significance. But one could never predict how and when they would fire.”