Travel on an experimental budget

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Two friends asked me if I would be coming back this year to the Donaueschinger Musiktage. I looked at the program, and realized that I couldn’t miss it. The offerings are rich and diverse, and some of the programmed composers (Aperghis, Pauset, Johnston) are hugely interesting to me already, in addition to those that I might discover when I’m there. And knowing that I’ll have the chance to see some great people I met last year seals the deal.

These days I only have an irregular job, so money is tight. But there are at least two advantages. There is no problem getting away for a bit, and I had time to research the cheapest flights.

Anyone who has been to Donaueschingen knows very well that there is no airport in the area. German rail tickets are only 29 euros between most destinations if you buy them far enough in advance, so I decided to visit some friends in Munich for a few days on the front end of the trip. I’ve had a great invitation to Freiburg after the festival. Then I found out that trains go directly to the Frankfurt airport, so that makes it a cheaper and easier trip for the return flight.

For the flight search, I had been using Sidestep, which is the most comprehensive search engine for all the standards–Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire, OneTravel, the airlines, etc. The cheapest flight I could find on Sidestep was $730. That felt like a strain. Then I found cFares. For the same places and cities, I found a flight for $634. I could have gotten that right away, but they also offered a $45 rebate on the ticket if I purchased a one-year $50 platinum membership. That $5 difference is a small price to pay for equivalent rebates for the next twelve months. They have a great interface, and the search took me straight to the booking at this site. When I tried running that same search at lessno, though, I wasn’t given the option of a multi-city trip. So cFares was really the only place I could have found that combination.

Another very useful site is Farecast, which will tell you whether to buy now or to wait, based on their assessment of the price trends for that particular combination of cities. I’m eying another trip, but I’ve been informed with 72% confidence that prices are dropping or steady. Farecast is also a good search engine, and occasionally locates prices that are lower than Sidestep’s. But for this particular flight, cFares comes in $42 lower with my new platinum member rebate, and still slightly cheaper ($3) without it. Hopefully Farecast is right and the price will drop further, but it already looks pretty good.

All of these sites are links on bookingbuddy.com, which works very well for everything except multi-city/open jaw trips. Just enter the cities and dates, and click on the tabs for Sidestep, cFares, and farecast. Sidestep includes most of the others, so there is no need to open all 17 windows. That would be a mess. But poke around and see what works best for you. You’re likely to save at least $100 off a standard search with a few extra minutes’ effort.

While I’m on the subject, flycheapo.com was an invaluable resource last year when I was traveling from city to city in Europe. Flights frequently have base prices of a single pound or euro, and are very often cheaper than train fare. Flycheapo tells you what budget airlines fly any route you look up. There are so many airlines it’s impossible to keep track of them all. I used Germanwings, Air Berlin, Ryanair, and EasyJet, and they all worked out just fine for me. Just make sure you don’t book your flights at such an early hour that you can’t take public transportation to the airport. I speak from experience. My taxi to the nearest bus to London Stansted cost far more than the flight to Stuttgart.

Wegolo is a similar search engine that pulls up prices for budget airline flights worldwide. I don’t have much experience with it, but it looks promising. It’s especially useful since many of these airlines do not appear on regular search engines.

There we are. That’s my longest post to date. But it is important. We are a global community. When we hear each other’s work, meet, and collaborate, that community is strengthened. Sometimes it’s a financial and logistical ordeal, but these efforts are rewarded in spades.

A Call for Scores?

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Last year, I was working on a piece for superball and bongos. The score was presented as a cartoon. (Perform these actions. Who knows what the resulting pitches and rhythms will be?) As I was finishing a draft of it, a 7-year-old arrived at the house, and it was only natural to show him what I had written and to demonstrate the piece. When I finished, he said, “Can I try the last one?” Of course he could. That “last one” is the most difficult action, and the most surprising sound in the piece. He balanced the larger bongo between his knees as instructed, his feet not reaching the ground, and worked at chasing the ball with the head of the smaller bongo. After a couple minutes, he got it. I couldn’t have been more pleased.

What thrilled me was that he had become interested enough to want to make that sound himself, and that then there was no barrier to his ability to make it. He didn’t need to know musical notation. It was a cartoon. He didn’t need to have mastery of an instrument. (Who in the world has mastered playing bongos with superballs? I wrote actions that I could perform myself, and I’m no percussionist.)

Active engagement with sound is crucial, especially in experimental music. (There may be exceptions, but I’m not going to talk about them now.) When people find opportunities for that engagement, they prepare themselves for future experiences of experimental music. Larger and readier audiences are all to the good, in my thinking. Based on a number of recent conversations, I really think that I can start to build these audiences among the people I already know.

I’ve hatched a scheme and named it: Sound Playground. Here’s how it goes.

1) Collect scores that meet these criteria:

  • Self-explanatory text or graphic score: no prior ability to play or read music required.
  • ‘Instruments’ are common, inexpensive, or not required at all.
  • Can be performed in solitude
  • Promises some unexpected or engaging results.

2) Pick a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to open up the house to friends and neighbors. Invite them over.

3) Gather all materials needed for the chosen pieces.

4) Set up the scores and materials for one piece in each room of the house. The front and back yard are also available for appropriate pieces.

5) On the day of the event, one person can go into each room at a time. Someone may be in the hall to explain anything in the piece, but the visitor gets to play in solitude. These are not performances.

Starting and ending events of similar ensemble pieces, proper performances, or food are possible, but not crucial. I just want people to be able to come and play, in both senses of the word.

I’d love to build a collection of pieces that match these criteria. So far I’ve found appropriate pieces by Christian Wolff, David Dunn, Alvin Lucier, Michael Pisaro, and myself. There must be many more. If you know of others, or plan on writing one, let me know. If you’d like to try making this kind of event yourself, stay tuned for reports of success or failure. Or just do it and bring back your own report.

I don’t see any obstacle.

Mauricio Kagel (1936-2008)

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Mauricio Kagel died yesterday.

You can read about him in today’s Guardian.

The richest online Kagel offering is at UbuWeb, where eight videos are available to view or download at no cost. The video aspect is crucial to capture the theatricality built in to so many of Kagel’s works. Match is there, as is an incomplete (36 minutes out of 100) version of Ludwig Van. Acustica is also a great listen.

If all that leaves you wanting more, scroll through the books, CDs, and DVDs available through this slideshow: