SOCKS

An online magazine of Art, Architecture, Media, Culture, Sounds, Territories, Technology)

  • Media
  • Art
  • Architecture
  • Culture
  • Sounds
  • Territories
  • Visual Atlas

The Unplayable Score: Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz – John Stump

May 19, 2012 by Fosco Lucarelli 16 Comments

“Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz (from ‘A Tribute to Zdenko G. Fibich’)”, by American John Stump is a parody of a composition, meant to be impossible to play and including, in the score notations, absurd indications such as “release the penguins” and “Like a Dirigible” and “Gong duet.”.

And yet, there’s someone who actually played it. (From 3’50”)
Related:
John Stump Composer of Faeries Aire and Death Waltz
Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz – John Stump
absurd scores.

Other posts on SOCKS on interesting musical scores:

The Beauty of Indeterminacy. Graphic Scores from “Treatise” by Cornelius Cardew

Maulwerke (Mouth Works) and Other Compositions’ Graphic Scores by Dieter Schnebel

Graphic Scores by Martin Davorin-Jagodić

Fields of Indeterminacy: Toshi Ichiyanagi’s Fluxus Scores

Here’s a page from the score and some other nonsense compositions by the same author:

Related Posts

  • Illustrations by Chiara Dattola

    A little selection of works by our friend Chiara, whom we've just met here in Paris.…

  • Cani (Dogs), by Giacomo Nanni

  • Scissors Series by Chiara Dattola

    Personal sorrow gave our dear friend Chiara Dattola the strength to produce her more intense…

  • Makihiko, by Roberto la Forgia

    "Insomma cercate di capire: sono a casa dei miei genitori e la voglia di non…

  • John Hejduk's Diamond House A (1963-1967)

      In 1962 architect and educator John Hejduk (1929-2000) started a six-year investigation on the…

Comments

  1. nicola says

    May 19, 2012 at 5:00 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cysRztrR1G4

  2. denelle hobbs says

    September 21, 2012 at 7:49 am

    thank you for posting this. John Stump is my uncle and I have been wanting to get a better look at these pieces. need to find out where i can buy them.
    thanks!

  3. fosco lucarelli says

    September 26, 2012 at 10:36 am

    you’re welcome.
    Thanks for following Socks,
    fosco

  4. Arthur says

    January 24, 2013 at 2:01 am

    @Nicola – That YouTube video is not John Stump’s “Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz.” It’s some video game music that someone in Thailand got confused with the real music. Here’s a performance of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCgT94A7WgI

  5. Emmi says

    February 18, 2013 at 12:12 am

    @Arthur – you don’t happen to know the name of that video game song do you?

  6. derpity derp says

    March 23, 2013 at 8:50 am

    @Emmi – “U.N Owen Was Her?” from Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

  7. Kyle says

    March 24, 2014 at 6:38 pm

    Isn’t a waltz supposed to be in 3?

  8. Joey says

    November 21, 2014 at 12:07 am

    Omg playing this would be like snaping your fingers in half…..

  9. Wally Richardson says

    July 20, 2015 at 4:39 am

    Anyone have a copy of “In Silent Majesty”? No notes, just rests and tempo/articulation marks etc.

  10. Barbara Lee says

    January 25, 2017 at 7:30 pm

    I agree with Denelle Hobbs! [Sept 21, 2012] Where can we buy these marvelous masterpieces in hard copy book form? (A “book” is a thing with hard or soft covers on the front and back, and a spine or spiral… or something… to hold the front and back of the “book” together. The pages are between the front and back covers. They can be physically turned by hand, and one can use a “bookmark” to show the reader where s/he stopped reading and went to sleep. The “bookmark” is usually a narrow piece of heavy paper about 1″ x 6″ with advertising or some sort of lovely design on it. Bookmarks often have colorful little tassels on them to prevent them from falling inside the book, thus becoming useless. Conveniently, one can purchase bookmarks in stores where books are sold.)
    If you prefer to sell your creations online, please post them on your website, and for a
    $ PRICE $, allow us to print them out! Thank you for your delightful creations, and know that perusing them has cheated me out of some of my practice time. My only consolation is that no matter what pieces I must practice, NONE of them will ever be as wonderful and terrifying as your creations!

Trackbacks

  1. “Faerie’s Air and Death Waltz”: Song Mix-up | SkyeKnite says:
    March 30, 2013 at 11:53 am

    […] is the sheet music for John Stump’s “Faerie’s Air and Death Waltz.” Looks complicated? Well look closer and it gets even more complicated! “Release the […]

  2. Playing the unplayable Death March (but not releasing the penguins) | beltindes says:
    March 18, 2015 at 2:26 am

    […] Stump’s 1980 composition Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz (from ‘A Tribute to Zdenko G. Fibich’) is a parody of a composition and not intended to be played — but someone did! Read the […]

  3. Time to put the finishing touches to this year’s AIC entry! | adventures in comics says:
    April 2, 2015 at 4:23 pm

    […] http://socks-studio.com/2012/05/19/the-unplayable-score-faeries-aire-and-death-waltz-john-stump/ […]

  4. Fields of Indeterminacy: Toshi Ichiyanagi’s Fluxus Scores – SOCKS says:
    March 3, 2016 at 5:52 pm

    […] Scores by Martin Davorin-Jagodić The Unplayable Score: Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz – John Stump Radical Music: Llorenç Barber, Cuaderno de Yokohama […]

  5. Traish LaRue and the low-down, dirty, rotten, cornswogglin’, very bad day. | Memo Of The Air says:
    September 2, 2017 at 9:30 pm

    […] Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz by John Stump, and some other sheet music he wrote, knowing it would be impossible ever to play. http://socks-studio.com/2012/05/19/the-unplayable-score-faeries-aire-and-death-waltz-john-stump/ […]

  6. The Beauty of Indeterminacy. Graphic Scores from “Treatise” by Cornelius Cardew – SOCKS says:
    February 9, 2018 at 7:52 pm

    […] The Unplayable Score: Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz – John Stump […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr

Socks is a non-linear journey through distant territories of human imagination.

About | Visual Atlas | Topics

We are Mariabruna Fabrizi and Fosco Lucarelli from Microcities. Ask us anything

  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr


SOCKS is a project by Fosco Lucarelli and Mariabruna Fabrizi of MICROCITIES, Architecture Cityscape, Landscape.
Except where otherwise noted, the content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
Whenever possible we try to attribute content (images, videos, and quotes) to their creators and original sources. Please feel free to write us if you notice misattributions or wish something to be removed.
SOCKS is powered by WordPress.