Tender Buttons; Objects, Food, Rooms

‘Tender Buttons: Objects, Food, Rooms’

Gertrude Stein’s groundbreaking stream of consciousness work (1914): ‘Tender Buttons: Objects, Food,       Rooms’ has been heralded as ‘a masterpiece of verbal cubism’. Her unique writing style challenges traditional alignments of words addressing instead their underlying sound and rhythm: ‘By departing from conventional meaning, grammar and syntax, she attempted to capture ‘moments of consciousness’ independent of time and memory.’ This contemporary interpretation of Stein’s work is a cross-disciplinary symbiosis of composition and improvisation, setting her unorthodox text for four piece vocal ensemble (SATB) and improvisers: drums/percussion/electronics and trumpet.

An extract from Tender Button […]:

A Method of a Cloak

A single climb to a line, a straight exchange to a cane, a desperate adventure and courage and a clock, all this which is a system, which has feeling, which has resignation and success, all makes an attractive black silver.