The Earth Worm Also Sings: A composer’s practice of deep listening

ARTIST'S NOTE The Earth Worm Also Sings A composer's practice of deep listening Pauline Oliveros Dedicated toJohn Cage The Earth Worm Also Sings is a response to "I Hear Therefore I Am: Listening in the Twenty-First Century," a paper given by Joachim-Ernst Berendt at a theme session of the Glenn Gould Conference on Music and Technology, 24 September 1992, in Toronto, Canada. I hear lam I receive what is. Listening No argument My body is sound Listening guides my body Sound is the fiber of my being and of all sentient beings without exception Is sound intelligence? The earth is also sound guided by sound and so are all things of the earth Rocks are her ears recording all of her events from the beginning My earth body returns to hers where the earth worm also sings Inside/outside vibrations My bones resonate My stomach, spleen, liver, kidneys, lungs and heart resonate These organs are sound contain sound The rhythms of my bodily life encoded in the theater of my mother's womb I listened from the beginning universal process cellular language familiar to all sentient beings without exception Pauline Oliveros (composer), Pauline Oliveros Foundation, 156 Hunter Street, Kingston, NY, 12401, U ,S.A. E-mail: . Received 27 February 1993. Manuscript solicited byJohn Michael Grey.© 19941SAST LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL, Vol. 3, pp. 35-38, 1993 35 Only deep listening returns me to this infinite source of all beginning, Abundance, fecund creativity Brilliant spark Sounding pulse Life unending Beauty of fading physical being toward that special mysterious silence zero vibrations Never zero in this life until the bones disappear The process of dying also sound sound of becoming another kind of being living dying pulsing dying listening to death returning to home in the earth where the earth worm also sings Shedding physical body like the earless snake shedding skin allowing spirit body to soar at home in the universe Gathering learning through hearing what is inside/outside space Learning zero vibration is not absolute Learning there is always living dying sound leading me deeper Learning I was born here to hear all my cells through my cells Each cell singing the song of its structure Space dance of creation in an architecture of sound I am a community of musical cells The dance inside/outside The sound is the dance is the sound Space in the sound dance is silence Space silence is the resting place of all sentient beings without exception Inside/ outside Space silence heard unheard felt unfelt Playful universe Inside/outside The most special pleasure Sound pleasure Densest bodily community Ear cells more dense than the sexual organs Primary pleasure ofone's own sounds and ofother's sounds One's own inside/outside/space/silence Pleasure shared by all sentient beings without exception throughout space and time even ifI have forgotten to listen Ear is always open even if in my filtering moments I am not open to receiving I hear if I remember. I hear more if I remember to remember I hear if I experience all the vibrations of my body 36 Oliveros, The Earth Worm Also Sings Vibration is the sole connection to the soul and other souls in the universe our spiritual musical home. Stillness the tool Through stillness I move hearing the most subtle vibrating pulsing patterns Dancing as if I were flying Energy of growth Emergence into new life Energy of process Living dying Never ending fascination Sound fascination Listening Is sound intelligence? Endless cycles of knowing becoming wisdom Listening from the stomach I satisfy hunger and reject that which would harm me Listening from the liver I purify what I have ingested Listening from the kidneys I discard what I don't need Listening from the spleen I redden my blood and increase my courage Listening from the lungs I sustain my life. I breathe and change my emotions Listening from the heart I open to life. Says Master T.K. Shih "The ocean is big but the heart is biggest." The heart has ears for the path myjourney is to take Listening from the center I do my dance Listening from the bones I know...