favola in musica

We stole the title of this work from Pauline Oliveros (along with her entire reflection on listening). The original Bye, Bye Butterfly was a feminist electronic fantasy based on the symbolism accompanying likely the most famous of Puccini’s heroines, Cio-CioSan. Our butterflyis not a woman. Instead, in accordance with its biological nature and the semantics of Polish sign language, it is Deaf. Its entire world is Deaf, asit is devoid of acoustic vibrations. This is the reality in which our favola in musica takes place. How to talk in this reality about sounds, listening, and music? We tried to use sign language poetry, percussion, and low-frequency vibrations. Because sometimes you can listen better from the outside, even if you can’t hear anything. And you can remind yourself that listening creates parallel worlds, breaks down walls, but also has the power to kill. Listening is not only a practical and aesthetic choice, but also an axiological and metaphysical one, from which there is no turning back. So which pill will you choose: red or blue?

Michał Mendyk