Fay Victor and Myra Melford, Workshop Performance: October 3, 2019

Fay Victor and Myra Melford begin with Victor's recitation of “A Poet and His Song,” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, to Melford’s composition “Be Melting Snow.” They perform "Talk Talk” (Victor/Jochem van Dijk), introduced as a musical tribute to Prince. Next, a free improvisation that incorporates a text by Victor on "Lone white wolves," from her work-in-progress titled “Mutations for Justice.” Victor and Melford discuss improvisation, the intersection of poetry and music, identifying the end of an improvised song, and storytelling through emotion and body rather than the mind, followed by a performance of Melford’s composition “The Kitchen” with Victor's lyric “The Sign at the Door.” Victor reads, unaccompanied, “I Sing” (from her record Sound Noise Funk, 2018). Victor then deploys a found text from a 1971 interview with Muhammad Ali for the BBC, with improvised accompaniment by Melford. Victor talks about using sound as an instrument, followed by her poem “Round Fingers” performed to an untitled composition by Melford. Next, they perform “Liquid Fire,” lyric and composition by Victor. Melford poses a question to Victor about the difference between writing lyrics and writing poetry. In response to a question from the audience regarding poets voicing their work, Victor leads the audience in a vocal exercise, focusing on projection and breath management. Melford responds to a question about choices she makes when improvising and accompanying a text. The two of them discuss editing and self-correcting while improvising, and embracing mistakes. To conclude, Victor sings from a text by Alan Watts on how to find happiness, titled “Zen Buddhism,” with Melford improvising on keyboard.