I couldn't find a recording of Yoko Ono's Grapefruit. I hope I do one day.

So as I read through the book

of drawings and instructions I tried to find the ideal musical pairing. Like an imaginary somellier of
koans or I suppose, like match.com. Unsurprisingly, her own musical recordings didn't fit the bill. Her
songs are actually very concrete and sentimental. If I could draw a comparison it would be like the
uncertain cat in the box of Heisenberg. Whether Yoko's singing is like the favourable result for the cat
or not is a matter of taste and politics. I was not terribly impressed with mr Sean Lennon's free form
pianoisms during a performance of Kurushi. His playing was acceptable but so cliched that it took
away from the warbling sadness of nuclear holocaust Yoko's monodic song expressed. Maybe the
Lennon's weren't so good for her music either. Another recording I found had her singing with John on
a rendition of Blue Suede Shoes. But I think her mic was turned off.
My favourite musically themed piece from the book is VOICE PIECE FOR SOPRANO

Scream.
1. against the wind
2. against the wall
3. against the sky

Reading this and listening to her performances I am struck by the sensation of resistance, of an
ephemeral other. An oppositional other without which she and her music would not be the same. After
all, if you're going to scream, why not scream against the wall.
The search continued. I decided to move farther afield, because Beethoven's 4th Symphony wasn't
coming to close. Though at times he did seem to be railing mighty hard against something abstract and
eternal.
A search for algorithmic music (kind of instructional) led me here
http://www.timara.oberlin.edu/gnelson/gnelson.htm
where I listened to a piece called Refractions, for midi horn, given in the notes as a sort of
computerized extension of the physical horn. Here the situation was reversed from Yoko's conception.

The computer responded to the musician creating the music from a sort of comprehension of its
physical structure and nuance.
I decided to follow the rubric of Tape Piece 2, Room Piece and take the sound of the room
breathing I also bottled the sound of the room as instructed. The thing that occurred to me about Gary
Nelson's computer pieces is that though they are temporally complex and generate timbres that are
quite exotic and maybe unique, they certainly shy away from any sort of dissonant clashing of almost
any kind. The whole thing is very busy but rather placid in overall effect. The piece fractal Mountains
went the farthest in any direction that I could tell, but it still sounded like a clamour of tubular bells and
chimes hung out the window. Which reminds me of Piece for Orchestra Count al the stars of that
night by heart...This can be done with windows instead of stars.
Did the people who played music with Yoko on her album Approximately Infinite Universe get lead
sheets like this? I hope so. But if they did, did they do a good job? They just sound like they could be
on a Santana album. Not a bad thing but a bit of a let down. A bit of a cultural dissonance going on tha
still serves to lessen the impact of both sides. A bit of a cooling. A compromise. Like a beer and Sake
cocktail, it just doesn't mesh in anyones favour.

SECRET PIECE
Decide on one note you want to play.
Play it with the following accompaniment:
The woods from 5 a.m. To 8 a.m.
In summer.

One thing I find is that these two people, John and Yoko went around promoting peace but they were
really confrontational in their aspect
All pieces by Yoko Ono

except,
ALEX'S PIECE
Make an orchestral salad.
Ingredients are instruments.
Utensils are batons.
Chewing is rhythm.
Swallow at the cadences.