From book to performance and back : Öyvind Fahlström’s "The Large and the Small" and "The holy Torsten Nilsson"

• In 1953 the Swedish concrete poet and internationally renowned avant-gardeartist Öyvind Fahlström (1928–76) wrote the worlds probably first manifesto forconcrete poetry, inspired by the historical avant-garde and the neo-avant-gardethat at the same time was on its rise, but also by Pierre Schaeffer’s musiqueconcrète. The poetical techniques proposed in his manifesto laid the ground forFahlström’s later production in different arts, from concrete poetry to radioplays. His first radio composition Fåglar i Sverige (1963, Birds in Sweden)triggered a whole new genre, the international movement of text-sound-poetry(a.k.a. sound-poetry, poésie sonore). The second radio play (or blind music, ashe called it) Den helige Torsten Nilsson (1966, The holy Torsten Nilsson), becamea small success despite its strange story, and was aired in five differentepisodes by the Swedish broadcasting company. This radio play was composedfrom what Fahlström termed ”life material”, i.e. recorded (with a microphone andcheap tape recorder) sound from the constant media flow in his apartment inNew York, with himself performing the voiceover telling the story. Theremediated material was mainly taken from popular culture, as for examplehorror movies, but also real life filtered through TV and radio. His method wasinspired by Schaeffer’s musique concrète and William Burroughs’ cut-ups, towhich he added game strategies. The result was a highly original media-mix,where he performed an international spy history interwoven with sounds fromcontemporary media and life, a mix that at the same time reflected his politicalurge and interest for world politics.I will discuss role of the book for performance art in the 60s, where the printedtext was only one of the components in a larger intermedial cluster. I willexemplify my discussion with Öyvind Fahlström’s concrete poem “Det stora ochdet lilla” (The large and the small), which became the musical score for aperformed text-sound composition, and his radio play Den helige TorstenNilsson (1966) where the book was fabricated afterwards, to illustrate the‘fluidity’ of the book in the 60s.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Litteraturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Literatures (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Comparative literature

Litteraturvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)