NIGHT TRAIN TO ST. PETERSBURG
29 September 2006

Wake up bustin’ for a piss. Lower myself down from the top bunk in the cramped four-berth cabin. Make my way along the narrow corridor hoping to find the lavatory. Find it. It is vacant. The floor is wet, there is no seat to lift. I take aim. Relieve my bladder. This takes some time as it needed some relieving. Back down the corridor, into the cabin and haul myself up with some difficulty in the almost pitch dark. Arrange myself under the blanket on my narrow bunk. The other three in the cabin are all asleep, judging by the sounds coming from their bunks. I stare at the ceiling and let my mind wander.

The cabin is one of ten in this carriage. There are 17 carriages all being pulled in a northwest direction. I am on the Moscow to St Petersburg night train. Tomorrow night I will be on the night train back from St Petersburg to Moscow. Between these two journeys I have to do another of my Introduction To The17 as part of a festival of improvised music in an old St Petersburg theatre. I have been looking forward to this night train journey from Moscow to St Petersburg for weeks. It is one of the ultimate romantic things to do. And I don’t mean in a boy-girl way, I mean in the real way. I have no idea what the landscape is like that we are travelling through but I like to imagine it is the huge and dark Russian forest of myth, legend and nightmare. Most probably it is just an endless equivalent to Slough.

I had planned to download The Rite Of Spring on to my iPod to listen to on this journey. I know it is my G year but I had an excuse, The Rite Of Spring was the first classical music that I ever got totally into and seeing as Igor Stravinsky was Russian this would have been a great time to listen to it again. Maybe I would hear it in a completely different way. But anyway, I didn’t get it together and now I feel glad. It seems better to just lie here in this bunk and let my mind wander as a few feet below me thousands of pine log sleepers are crossed every minute and the rods of steel glint in the moonlight. My mind is now wandering on to the subject of the original 17 scores that still need to be reworked before the Huddersfield festival. There are two or three that I may have mentioned before which need to get completely dumped. The one that is in the forefront of my imagination is Score 16 (I think) the one about doing all the scores in a foreign land. What is taking shape in my head is that it should be replaced by a score that is basically what I am doing every time I do one of these introductions to The17.

The first few lines of this proposed score keep going round and round my head. There is nothing for it. I switch on my bunk light, pull the notebook from my bag, extract a pencil from a pocket and get writing. First I write this – from when I announce I am bustin’ for a piss to here and now. I’m going to write the rough of this score before I forget it. It goes like this:

SCORE
5. Perform

Perform SCORE 1. IMAGINE

Then find a suitable venue and announce a time, date and place for a performance by The17. Instigate the allocation and instigation of 17 tickets for this performance.
At time, date and place of performance, introduce yourself to the audience with the following words:
‘Good evening* my name is………….. and you are The17.’

Ask The17 to perform SCORE 1. IMAGINE.
Then read them SCORE 4. AGE.
Tell them they are going to perform an interpretation of AGE even though there is no building with five floors, and there are not five lots of The17 of the required ages, but only The17 that is there of whatever ages they are.

Record The17 performing the five notes – F sharp, G sharp, A sharp, C sharp and D sharp for five minutes each – one after the other.

Provide a pen and sheet of paper for the members of The17 to write down their names and email addresses.
Play back to them all five recordings simultaneously.
Tell them nothing has been added or taken away from the recordings of their voices.
Tell them that they are all now lifetime members of The17.
Thank them for taking the risk of performing and not running away.
Delete all recordings so that they can hear the recordings being deleted from your computer’s trash bin.
Applaud.
Answer questions if asked and if you feel in a position to answer.
Later: email admin@the17.org with list of 17 names.
If you need any technical advice regarding recording The17 contact info@the17.org

 *Good morning or good afternoon, when applicable.

Now that is done, pencil and notebook are put away and I settle back down to the gentle rocking and rumbling of the night train from Moscow to St Petersburg and my future slumbers.