Soup kitchen during General Miners Strike, 1926 c., Walsall Wood
Soup is fundamental. The best soups usually just happen. An old bone, some celery tops, anything forgotten, discarded, remembered, left-over, ridiculous can become a soup. Soup is anything. Everything. Necessity, play, and inspired improvisation are its only requirements, as in all good cooking. The following is a description in the form of a recipe of a soup made by Musica Elettronica Viva in the fall of 1968 in its studio in Rome.
Take one large room – empty and clean it. Place in it:
1 large steel drum;
1 old upright piano (with player);
1 R.A. Moog Synthesizer (with player);
1 homemade synthesizer;
2 large resonant glass plates;
1 Agip 5 liter lubricant can (empty);
1 East African thumb piano;
1 chromatic toy piano;
1 set of glass wind chimes (8-40 cm in length);
3-4 TV aerial poles of varying lengths (suspended);
6 diverse suspended cymbals;
3 tuned Indian cymbals;
3 camel bells;
1 set of bongos;
3-4 old cow or goat bells;
1 wood block;
1 set of sleigh bells;
1 toy xylophone;
3-4 slide whistles of varying ranges;
1 duck call;
1 English police whistle;
1 siren whistle;
1 Yugoslavian double pipe;
4-5 assorted bird calls;
3 Jews harps;
3 diatonic harmonicas;
2 bandoneons;
1 soprano trumpet (with player);
1 soprano sax (with player);
1 sopranino sax (with player);
1 violin (with player);
1 violoncello (with player);
1 trombone (with player);
1 flugelhorn (with player);
voices;
several assorted pots, pans, metal covers, tin cans, springs, electric bells
and buzzers, metal sheets, percussion sticks and mallets, plastic scrapers,
ping pong balls, and bottles;
2 tape recorders;
1 radio;
1 short range radio transmitter and receiver;
5 air microphones;
20 contact mics. and cheap Japanese mic. mixers connected to 2 Uher mixers connected
to 2 amplifiers connected to 4 good loudspeakers.
To the already indicated players, add a small number of invited player-friends. Slowly add up to 30 listener spectators. Gradually blend the players with the listeners until all become a harmonious mixture, indistinguishable from the sounds they make or hear. Bring to a boil slowly and simmer for 2-3 hours.
Alvin Curran
The M.E.V. studio
Rome, Feb. 1969
Published as "Thoughts on Soup—A Recipe" in The Drama Review 14, no. 1 (Fall 1969): 97; in Italian as "Ultimi pensieri sulla minestra-una ricetta," Almanacco Musica 2, Bertoncelli/Bolelli, Il Formichiere, Milano, 1979; p.21; and as "Last Thoughts on Soup—A Recipe" in The New Generation of Mystery: Künstler des XXI. Jahrhunderts , Maria de Alvear, ed., p. 54.