A Skeleton Key to Five Drawings by Joseph E Yoakum

About two years ago I sat down to write an exegesis of one of my strangest, most personal, and I suspect least understood efforts, the short album Five Drawings by Joseph E Yoakum (2012). It's an old attic of a piece, creaky and dusty, full of trunks that haven't been opened lately. There is background noise; there is a great deal of what my friend Ben Hjertmann memorably called "fake silence" (a favorite concept in my recent music). In other words, I chose not to sweep the attic. I haven't dared write anything so messy since.

Here is the music, and a PDF of my Skeleton Key, which offers some further context and explanation, admittedly more autobiographical than musicological.

yoakum_skeleton_key.pdf
File Size:	156 kb
File Type:	pdf

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Additionally, just for kicks, there is this "bibliography" I composed around the time I was writing the first Yoakum drafts.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Books -- Thought for Food (2002)
Ornette Coleman Quartet -- Change of the Century (1960)
Steve Coleman and Five Elements -- Harvesting Semblances and Affinities (2010)
Chick Corea / Bela Fleck -- The Enchantment (2007)
Miles Davis Quintet -- Miles Smiles (1967)
Julius Eastman -- Gay Guerrilla (1979)
John Fahey -- The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death (1965)
Peter Garland -- String Quartet no. 1: “In Praise of Poor Scholars” (1986)
Brian Harnetty / Bonnie “Prince” Billy -- Silent City (2009)
Charles Ives -- Piano Sonata no. 1 (1902-1910)
-- Three Places in New England (1910-1914)
The Microphones -- The Glow Pt. 2 (2001)
Charles Mingus -- The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963)
Charlemagne Palestine -- Strumming Music (1974)
Fausto Romitelli -- Professor Bad Trip (1998-2000)
Giacinto Scelsi -- Konx-Om-Pax (1969)
Salvatore Sciarrino -- Infinito Nero (1998)
The Sea and Cake -- Nassau (1995)
Kenny Werner -- Lawn Chair Society (2007)