Saturday, November 29, 2008

Nigel Beale, "Audio Interview With Jaap Blonk"

Nigel Beale
Nota Bene Books,
http://nigelbeale.com/

Audio Interview With Jaap Blonk

Sound poetry has been defined as “verse without words.” Intended primarily for performance, pure sound texts typically ignore the role of meaning, and downplay structure. Sound poetry is primarily a 20th century phenomenon. Futurists and Dadaists pioneered early forms of it.

The poet Edith Sitwell coined the term Abstract poetry to describe poems she’d written which emphasize aural rather than literary qualities; “Patterns of sound” in the process of being invented. Rooted in the primitive and universal, sound poets are often motivated by a sense of the inadequacy of language.

As a vocalist, Jaap Blonk has performed around the globe exciting audiences with his powerful stage presence and childlike improvisation. We talk here,
http://nigelbeale.com/?p=975, in an interview conducted for The Biblio File radio program, about the noises humans make that aren’t words, how important they are in communication, and the way sound poetry utilizes them; about meaning found in intonation and getting booed, the pleasure of inventing structures, Dadaism and the breaking of rules, Johnny Van Doorn and A Bridge too Far; about the international phonetic alphabet, pitch, timber and the best English language sound poets. Listen, and brace yourself for the recital of a sonnet Jaap wrote in honour of Van Doorn.

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Nigel Beale is a freelance writer/broadcaster who specializes in literary journalism. His work has appeared in, among other places, The Washington Post, The (Manchester) Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Canadian Bookseller Magazine and The Quarterly Conversation. In his role as host of The Biblio File radio program, http://nigelbeale.com/, he has interviewed many of the world’s most admired authors; plus publishers, booksellers, editors, book collectors, librarians, conservators, illustrators, and others connected with the book.

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