My Jubilee Ist Unverhemmet (1977)

Ti­tle of the album: My Jubilee ist unverhemmet
Ti­tle: - (Seite 01)
Publisher: Editions Lebeer Hossman, Hamburg/Brussels
Da­te: 1977
Me­di­um: re­cord 30 cm, one side picture-disc
Edition: 100 n. & s.
Cover: N. J. Paik

Only this one track, My Jubilee Ist Unverhemmet, can be heard on the LP of the same name. Furthermore, the LP is only playable on one side.

According to the information on the record sleeve, the piece refers to the time when Nam June Paik was still living in Korea with his parents, and he found a record by Arnold Schönberg. This is what Paik writes: „Therefore it was great luck that I heard the name of Arnold Schoenberg in 1947 or so. He immediately interested me, because he was written as a devil or the most extreme avant-garde. However there were no record or scores of Schoenberg available in Korea in 1947, except for a pirate edition of his op 33 a piano piece. It took 2 or 3 years of desperate struggle to find only available record, which was released in the pre-war Japan, Verklarte Nacht. I will not forget forever the excitement of holding this fragile 78 RPM record in my hand like a jewel from Egyptian tomb. And I cannot forget the disappointment of this record, which was purely a Wagnerian Quatsch.“

25 years later, he found another copy of this record at a New York flea market. With the help of augmentation, he turned Arnold Schönberg's work Verklärte Nacht Opus 4 into an independent piece of music for the Dance Compagnie Merce Cunnigham and had it pressed on vinyl. To do this, he played Schönberg's record four times slower at 16 RPM. Paik's record My Jubilee Ist Unverhemmet thus features a recording of Arnold Schönberg's Verklärte Nacht op.4 in the string orchestra version slowed down four times.

Dieter Roth, who was enthusiastic about this 'Wagnerian nonsense', published a record called Thy Quatsch Est Min Castello in 1979 as a re-action to Paik's creation. In order to supposedly 'rehabilitate' Arnold Schönberg, this recording now features the fourfold acceleration of Schönberg's work Verklärte Nacht op.4.

_ATJ