DADA DAY, by Alex Reed

DADA DAY

by Alex Reed

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1.	Manifesto (Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, 1920) 00:50		buy track
2.	piano cutting - D-A-D-A 00:03	info	buy track
3.	To Make a Dadaist Poem (Tristan Tzara, 1920) 00:45		buy track
4.	Madrid (Marie Laurencin, 1917) feat. Dr. F 00:10		buy track
5.	piano cutting - from Daphénéo (Erik Satie, 1916) 00:15		buy track
6.	Excerpt from Dada Lives! (Richard Huelsenbeck, 1936) 01:19		buy track
7.	piano cutting - Dada Day (version 3) 00:19	info	buy track
8.	My Craziness (Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, ca. 1925) [feat. Mononymous Rae] 00:20		buy track
9.	Sunday (Philippe Soupault, 1920) feat. Dr. F 00:16		buy track
10.	Birdlike (Raoul Hausmann, 1946) 00:39		buy track
11.	piano cutting - 3 Melodies no. 1 (Erik Satie, 1916) 00:23		buy track
12.	The Day of a Musician (Erik Satie, 1913) 02:52		buy track
13.	piano cutting - Dada Day (version 2) 00:21	info	buy track
14.	Poem no. 48 (Kurt Schwitters, ca. 1920) 00:29		buy track
15.	Flame (Philippe Soupault, 1918) feat. Dr. F 00:11		buy track
16.	The First Heavenly Adventure of Mr. Antipyrine, a.k.a. Dada Manifesto no. 1 (Tristan Tzara, 1916) 02:40		buy track
17.	piano cutting - Ballet Mecanique (George Antheil, 1924) 00:07		buy track
18.	Excerpts from Provocations (Benjamin Péret, 1926) 00:24		buy track
19.	piano cutting - Music of Changes (John Cage, 1951) 00:05		buy track
20.	Excerpts from The Pinecone (Francis Picabia, 1922) 01:02		buy track
21.	piano cutting - Prelude no. 8 (Ruth Crawford, 1928) 00:11		buy track
22.	[untitled] (Denise Lévy, 1925) [feat. Mononymous Rae] 01:08		buy track
23.	piano cutting - Advertisement (Henry Cowell, 1917) 00:03		buy track
24.	Three Monologues from Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights [Dr. Faustus, A Deep Voice, Mephisto] (Gertrude Stein, 1939) 03:07		buy track
25.	piano cutting - Dada Day (version 4) 00:32	info	buy track
26.	Notes on Existence (Mina Loy, 1914-19) 04:07		buy track
27.	Black Dada Nihilismus (Amiri Baraka, 1964) [feat. Mononymous Rae] 02:58		buy track
28.	Sophie (Jean Arp, 1946) feat. Dr. F 01:24		buy track
29.	piano cutting - op. 5 no. 1 (Anton Webern, 1909) 00:22		buy track
30.	Information Please (Paul Éluard, 1921) 00:47	info	buy track
31.	piano cutting - Dada Day (version 1) 00:41	info	buy track

about

It's the third Sunday in June, but instead of celebrating "Father's Day"...

how about you unmask the tyranny of meaning, and advance a radical aesthetic commitment to the arbitrary?

I give you DADA DAY.

So here's a flanneur's passage through some primary texts of Dada, chosen whimsically more for their aesthetic range and spark than any historic canonicity. Most of the big names are here, but so are some marginalized ones.

Interspersed are tiny cuttings from musical works buttressing the movement from various angles. (Literally seconds long, they're akin to the individually cut-out words in Tzara's poetry.)

A modernist submovement circa 1915-1925, Dada had blurry borders (temporally, socially, ideologically, geographically), so let's not get hung up on whether Lévy and Ernst were "actually" surrealist instead, or on the strictness of the musical cuttings.

Likewise, Dada had its political limits—to which (among other things) the inclusion of Baraka's "Black Dada Nihilismus" speaks. The overarching point here is to demonstrate an affection for this moment in art history, help reframe it creatively and critically, and to point out the ongoing relevance of the challenges it offers our world.

Content warning: track 27, that infamous piece by Baraka, speaks of pretty deplorable things, including but not limited to SA. If you prefer not to hear it, skip it.

Most of these texts are translated from French (and occasionally German), not by me. Many came from Robert Motherwell's 1951 book The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology. Some (like Hausmann's "Birdlike") are recorded here for the first time. Put on your dancing shoes and get down to this wall of words.

Thanks so, so much to Mononymous Rae and Dr. F for lending their ideas and voices.

credits

released June 18, 2023

cover: The Elephant Celebes, 1921 by Max Ernst

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Alex Reed New York, New York

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