[ steve mokris ] around the world
the concept

I started with “Around the World on the Phonograph,” a wax cylinder recording made by Edison in 1888 — now public-domain and available courtesy archive.org.  I particularly liked some of the speech-rhythms, but overall the recording seemed excessively long and rather meandering, so I chopped the recording into short segments, then reassembled many of the segments and processed them.

the lyrics

I.. uh.. I like to call it “Munich.”

from Liverpool to London
London
from Liverpool to London
(ahem!)
to Calcutta
from London to Brighton

Pittsburgh
Harrisburg
Philadelphia
New York

Chicago to
Pittsburgh
to Hong Kong
Harrisburg
Philadelphia
Singapore
New York

Pittsburgh
London
Cheyanne to Omaha
Harrisburg
Philadelphia
New York

Chicago to
Pittsburgh
to Hong Kong
Harrisburg
Philadelphia
Singapore

And then most people would go to Montecarlo.
Montecarlo
But we'll not go to Montecarlo, we'll go to Munich!
Munich!

Go to Berlin!
St. Petersburg
Go to Berlin!
to Moscow
Go to Berlin!
St. Petersburg
and then to...  uh...  Bombay.

from Munich to Milan
Milan to... uh... Rome
We'll go to Alexandria
into the Bay of Bengal

from Munich to Milan
Milan to... uh... Rome
We'll go to Alexandria
into the Bay of Bengal

from Munich to Milan
Milan to... uh... Rome
Omaha to Chicago
into the Bay of Bengal

from Munich to Milan
Milan to... uh... Rome
We'll go to Alexandria
from Brighton to Calais
from Calais to Chemin du fer du nord
into Paris
Grand hotel

And from moscow to Berlin
From Berlin we'll go to Vienna
From Vienna to Budapest
Hong Kong to Tokyo

Tokyo to San Francisco
Tokyo to San Francisco
San Francisco to Ogden
San Francisco to Ogden
Ogden to Laramie
Ogden to Laramie
Laramie to Cheyenne
Laramie to Cheyenne

And then most people would go to Montecarlo.
But we'll not go to Montecarlo, we'll go to Munich!
I.. uh.. I like to call it “Munich.”

the download

steveMokris-aroundTheWorld-1.00.mp3 — 4,132 KiB — 2005 spring
spectrogram of composition

the tools
  • Bias Peak
  • Digital Performer 4