{"id":12442,"date":"2014-10-27T11:11:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T15:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=12442"},"modified":"2014-10-27T11:11:39","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T15:11:39","slug":"eric-mottram-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/eric-mottram-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Mottram Lives!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Old Eric Mottram friend\u00a0John Whiting<\/strong> has done us all a great favor by making available some of his tapes of Mottram\u2019s most amazing graduate seminar from the early seventies, \u201cAmerican Imagination of Synthesis,\u201d which I myself also took around 73\/74 (my cassette tapes have in the main gone bad \u2014 so, double thanks to John!) Here is his latest web announcement:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more exciting than something you don\u2019t know!\u201d<\/span>
\nEric Mottram<\/strong> (in whose case it was remarkably little)<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\"mottram001\"<\/a>In 1966 I was on the American Embassy\u2019s list of available speakers on American cultural topics. Elizabeth Singleton in the Cultural Affairs office phoned me and asked if I could do a talk on the San Francisco beat poets. I said I\u2019d love to, and would like to do it like a radio documentary with lots of recorded examples and linking commentary in between, but I no longer had the materials.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me introduce you to Eric Mottram,\u201d she replied, \u201che\u2019s the best! I read American Lit with him at Kings. He has lots of recordings and he\u2019s always helpful. Come around to the embassy for lunch and I\u2019ll introduce you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest, as they say, is history. Lunch stretched to a three-hour conversation in which he offered exactly the material I wanted, including recordings that had been made for and at KPFA \u2013 stuff I had long been familiar with. Mutual passions ripened into friendship and he was best man at Mary\u2019s and my wedding in 1968.<\/p>\n

Eric knew more about American culture, both past and present, than anyone I\u2019d ever encountered on either side of the Atlantic. He became my mentor, in fact my guru. (I dislike the word, but it conveys the reality more succinctly than any other.) Ultimately I enrolled in the Institute of United States Studies to do an M.A. with him, not as part of a career plan, but simply to get my mind stretched.<\/p>\n

His seminar that year was titled \u201cThe American Imagination of Synthesis\u201d. It introduced us to a series of interlocking selections that included such unlikely but enlightening juxtapositions as Norman O. Brown, William Burroughs, Ezra Pound, Norman Mailer, Alfred Korzybski, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Wilhelm Reich. (The latter\u2019s The Function of the Orgasm<\/em> was an education in itself \u2013 a nobly romantic work whose seminal (!) value extended from the classroom to the bedroom.)<\/p>\n

Over the next two years I recorded virtually every lecture and seminar Eric presented, both at the Institute and at King\u2019s College \u2013 countless hours of unique insights into how much happier and better the world could be than the mess we had inherited.* Without this website, which I have now begun to put together, what would happen to these tapes? All over Europe and America, official archives are so strapped for money that they can no longer afford even to give storage space to private collections, let alone catalog them and make their contents accessible to scholars. For instance, a virtually complete private collection of mint condition classical LPs from well over half a century was recently disposed of piecemeal through Oxfam because no institution was prepared to accommodate it!<\/p>\n

And so I decided to spend who knows how long\u2013perhaps the rest of my life?\u2013digitizing some of Eric\u2019s seminars and lectures and making them publicly available. As I copy them they are appearing here:<\/p>\n

ERIC MOTTRAM: SEMINARS AND LECTURES<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

At least two of these tapes have already had a public hearing. In 1982 both of my Eric[k]s were in London at the same time and I got to introduce them to each other. They came to my studio on November 2nd and Erik Bauersfeld, who was drama and lit director at KPFA, interviewed Eric Mottram for KPFA broadcast<\/strong><\/a> with occasional interruptions from me in the control room. (They were having so much fun I couldn\u2019t stay out of it!). In this exchange between two compulsive and eloquent communicators, Eric Mottram\u2019s contageous enthusiasm comes across as vividly as in all those seminars so deeply etched in my brain. Can such sheer mental and spiritual energy ever dissipate?<\/p>\n

Eric then stayed on to record one of the very few poetry readings<\/strong><\/a> he was ever able to do under studio conditions.<\/p>\n

When Eric died in 1995, his enormous archive went to Kings College. Poet Bill Griffiths was hired for a couple of years to put it in order and partially itemize it, but then the money ran out. If you Google Eric\u2019s name, you get few hits that are dated since the turn of this century. The only online recordings of his voice that I\u2019ve been able to find, either in interview or poetry reading, are those linked to here on my own website. History? It\u2019s so yesterday!<\/p>\n

In 1995, Peterjon and Yasmin Skelt put together a festschrift, Alive in parts of this century: Eric Mottram at 70<\/em> (click on Erik\u2019s picture at the top of this site to see the cover). I had the honor of leading it off and Mary ended with a recipe for Rhubarb Breakfast Crumble:<\/p>\n

\u201cEric says he has rhubarb for breakfast. However, when dinner guests eagerly accept second helpings of a gournet concoction of chicken, limes and coriander, he has been heard to exclaim, \u2018Oh NO! I was hoping to have some of that for breafast!'\u201d<\/p>\n

As a brief summary of who and what Eric was, I can\u2019t improve on what I wrote almost two decades ago:<\/p>\n

Eric survived his 70th<\/sup> birthday by less than three weeks, dying on January 16, 1995, just a few days after I had brought him together over dinner with John Kenny<\/a><\/strong>. When Mary drove Eric back to the tube station he exclaimed, \u201cI\u2019ve never met an intelectual trombonist before!\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 3 there was a public celebration of his life held in the Kings College Chapel, in which a selection of poets, musicians and friends paid him a memorably creative collective tribute. No institution, including King\u2019s, expressed an interest in my recording of the event and so it sat idle for fifteen years until I finally made it public in another website. It consists of the following; to listen to each item, click on the preceding number:<\/p>\n

A Celebration of the Life of Eric Mottram, 1924-1995<\/strong><\/p>\n

King\u2019s College Chapel, March 3, 1995<\/p>\n

1<\/strong><\/a> Introduction and links by William Rowe<\/a> <\/strong>\u00a0
\n<\/strong>2<\/strong><\/a> Reading by Bill Griffiths
\n<\/a><\/strong>3<\/a><\/strong> Reading by Jerome Rothenberg<\/a><\/strong> (recorded for the occasion in America)
\n4<\/a><\/strong> Performance by Paula Claire
\n<\/a><\/strong>5<\/a><\/strong> Reading by Eric Mottram. (recorded at October Sound, November 2, 1982)
\n6<\/a><\/strong> First Improvisation by Barry Guy<\/a><\/strong>, introduced by John Whiting
\n7<\/a><\/strong> Second improvisation by Barry Guy
\n8<\/a><\/strong> Reading by Thomas A. Clark
\n<\/a><\/strong>9<\/a><\/strong> Sound poetry performance by Bob Cobbing<\/a><\/strong>, with treatment by John Whiting
\n10<\/a><\/strong> Tony Joyce reading a tribute by John Page
\n11<\/a><\/strong> Improvisation, trombone and electronics, by John Kenny<\/a><\/strong> and John Whiting, who introduces it
\n12<\/a><\/strong> Recorded interview with Eric Mottram, who opens with a description of his one-sided conversation with a bear
\n13<\/a><\/strong> A memorable poem, composed for the occasion, by Jeff Nuttal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Three years later, there was an official opening of the Eric Mottram Archive<\/strong>, with a lecture by the distinguished Harvard aesthetician, Professor Stanley Cavell<\/strong><\/a>. His talk, Identifying Praise: in moments of Henry James & Fred Astaire<\/em> (click HERE<\/strong><\/a> to listen), included extensive excerpts from old films. There was an ominous prognosis for the archive\u2019s future in the fact that his VHS tape containing the selections was in the American NTSC format, which resulted in a highly distorted image when played on the Pal VHS projector.<\/p>\n

John Kenny and I took part in the evening\u2019s programme, which began with a recorded presentation of John\u2019s setting of poems from Eric\u2019s A Book of Herne (click HERE<\/strong><\/a> to listen). There are extensive notes and a complete text in the printed programme (click on the blue cover, above right). The evening ended with one of the longest improvisations that John and I had ever performed (click HERE<\/strong><\/a> to listen). It was one of our best; sadly, it was to be our last. We never did another duo recital.<\/p>\n

The Eric Mottram Archive Catalog as assembled by Bill Griffiths is ON LINE<\/a><\/strong> (together with a detailed academic biography in one long unreadable paragraph of fine print). Its contents are still available for examination, but it will get precious little use by Kings\u2019 own students. The Department of American Studies which Eric worked so hard to establish was wiped out at a stroke by the College as part of Britain\u2019s great austerity drive. There\u2019s a furious letter from its Professor Emeritus Clive Bush on the No Cuts at Kings<\/strong><\/a> website.<\/p>\n

Who understands distinction? Who really cares for art?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tu Fu! Tu Fu!<\/p>\n

Finally, I want to thank Will Rowe, Michael Rhebiniak and Dale Carter, fellow associates and students of Eric and long time friends, for their encouragement and for their reassurance that the time and effort required to raise these ghosts and send them soaring through the ether will not have been wasted.<\/p>\n

* Listening\u00a0again to these seminars from over forty years ago, I\u2019ve come across a brief analysis of Luciano Berio\u2019s Sinfonia<\/em> for eight singers and symphony orchestra. If I had known at the time that throughout the 90s I would mix over thirty performances of this work with orchestras all over Europe and America . . .<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0John Whiting can be reached HERE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

TOP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Old Eric Mottram friend\u00a0John Whiting has done us all a great favor by making available some of his tapes of Mottram\u2019s most amazing graduate seminar from the early seventies, \u201cAmerican Imagination of Synthesis,\u201d which...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,90,91,1],"tags":[308,1586],"class_list":["post-12442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-studies","category-poetics","category-poetry","category-uncategorized","tag-eric-mottram","tag-john-whiting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12442"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12455,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12442\/revisions\/12455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}