Song
Text, Audio
2026
Ask your friend to give you a sentence
David Michael DiGregorio (dogr)
Bulbul in the Flume
Amidst a variety show of artists, writers, improvisers, and musicians, composer David Michael DiGregorio contributes a newly-developed song in three parts, “Bulbul in the Flume.” The song is his response to a course reading by Joan Jonas—his close mentor, former professor, and collaborator over the years—and reflects his materially diverse interdisciplinary practice, often working in a spatial manner and drawing upon classical and improvised piano techniques, electro-acoustic synthesis, and musique concrète. In “Bulbul in the Flume,” lyrics intersperse intentional moments of silence and moments of melisma—a method of singing a single syllable, stretched across a sequence of notes. The resulting song offers his sonic meditation on the original text, inflected by personal highlights from Jonas’s list of materials and actions.
Joan Jonas has been at the vanguard of installation, video, and performance, and has worked across multiple mediums since the 1960s. Alongside her artistic practice, teaching remained a constant and essential part of her work over the years. “Ask your friend to give you a sentence” is a phrase from Jonas’s poem Broken Symmetry, which she converted into a performance exercise for students at MIT in 2010 with that line used as an instruction. This method for artistic exchange is also an apt description for her translation of an idea from one form into another. The title also lends itself as inspiration and namesake for a public program at Skowhegan NYC, inspired by her workshop methods.
***
Course reading text from Joan Jonas:
Capsules
Craters
Empty mossoles
Cacti
Bed
Webs
Pool
Voats
Cones
Funnels
Bones
Stills
Gins
Draws
Tubes
Theatres
Cars
Springs
Flumes
Trees
Others
Find a way to make them sound.
Blowing
Bowing
Rubbing
Scraping
Tapping
Moving
Fingering
Breaking
Burning
Melting
Chewing
Jiggling
Wearing
Swinging
Bumping
Dropping
Orbiting
Creaking
Caressing
Bouncing
Jerking
Flipping
Levitating
Hating
Skimming
Ignoring
Talking
Singing
Whistling
Walking
Snapping
Cracking
Snoring
Boring
Praying
Loving
Spraying
Bowling
Channeling
Freezing
Squeezing
Frying
Exploding
Poking
Screwing
Lowering
Shaking
Impeding
Dancing
Others
Abstract
“Bulbul in the Flume” is a song by composer David Michael DiGregorio in response to teaching notes by Joan Jonas, DiGregorio’s former professor and close mentor. The song was composed on the occasion of Ask your friend to give you a sentence: Joan Jonas and Friends, a public program at Skowhegan NYC on Wednesday, September 23rd in which artists, writers, improvisers, and musicians were invited to respond to one of Jonas’s course readings using her workshop method.
People
David Michael DiGregorio
Joan Jonas