Rip Hayman
These are the tales that wagged the man.
Little did he know what happened until after the event.
The struggle and stumble of the curious is never completed.
Read on for more mysteries yet to be found….
Timeline:
1950: conceived by Barbara Ann Adams & Capt. George Robert Hayman, Jr, US Army
1951: born July 29, 1951, Sandis New Mexico
1952-1964 moved every year to Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Massachusetts, Colorado, Germany, Maryland, Washington DC, and back again
1965-9: high school at Gilman School, Baltimore MD
1969-73: Columbia College, New York
1970: work at Sterling Sound mastering studios, NYC, drafted, flee military induction to South America
1971: return from Brazil to NYC, return to college
1974: in residence at Ear Inn, performances with Aerodance, study with Philip Corner , Greta Sultan, Gordon Mumma, John Cage
1975: journey to India with Sari Dienes, founded NY edition of Ear Magazine
1976: first Dreamsound performance, UC Berkley, Eark kayak around Manhattan, Maine, Bahamas
1977: Ear Inn opens
1978: work at Ear, events etc
1979: work at Ear, more events more etc
1980: work with John Lennon, flee NYC under death threat
With John Lennon at Sari Dienes studio lawn party after performing a rain dance to stop a downpour!
Photo: Paco Underhill
1981: live and work in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, work with Lindblad Travel around Asia
1982: work as crew from Hong Kong on sail boats, voyage to Phillipines
1983: return to NYC, work with Lindblad Explorer to Antarctica
1984: work with Charlie Morrow on Solstice broadcast
1985: work in China and Asia, writing for Ear Mag, music productions
1986: work in China and Asia, writing for Ear Mag, music productions
1987: work in China and Asia, writing for Ear Mag, music productions
1988: work in China and Asia, writing for Ear Mag, music productions, move to Quaker Farm, Pomona, NY, lecturer at National Conservatory, Beijing
1989: work in China and Asia, writing for Ear Mag, music productions, first medical episodes of ventricular fibrillation, hospitalized for 5 months, defibrillator implant, married Barbara Pollitt
Son Robin born
1990: recuperation, work with Sari Dienes
1991: work with Sari Dienes
1992: work with Sari Dienes, produced On the Way… film
Son Adrian born
1993: Ear Magazine ends publication
1994: begin work with Victoria Cruises, China
1995:
1996:
1997: begin work on Hudson Valley Line
1998:
1999:
2000: end work with Victoria in China
2001: Klang, historic ship restoration begins, 9/11 ends Hudson project
2002: US Coast Guard captain’s license issued, work sail ships in NY Harbor
2003: publish Yangzi books and map
2004: featured speaker at Asian Studies Conference, Hawaii
2005: featured speaker at Pacific Asia Conference, United Nations, NYC
2006: begin sea voyages as maritime lecturer on cruise ships
2007: sail with Amistad schooner, Clipper City
2008: featured speaker at Explorer’s Club
2009: defibrillator infection forced explant under critical conditions
2010: sailings around the world
2011:
2012: sail with RV Heraclitus research ship
2013:
2014:
2015: featured speaker at Royal Geographical Society
2016: Solstice broadcast production, with Smithsonian
2017: taking it easy, maybe
2018: retired at last!
2019: rehired at last!
A diversity of work extends definitions with a banquet of chamber music, performance, intermedia, theater, film and dance scores, electronics, and conceptual ephemera…Browsing this catalog invites disbelief that all these things really happened. Yet here is the evidence of a life in social interaction with musical ideas as a medium.
Distinct qualities give this work profile: simplicity, humor, transparency of conception, the intrigue of unusual social situations. At times Hayman’s events seem preposterous, yet participation reveals a beguiling and pleasing alteration of listening consciousness.
performance at el Internacional Club 1985, with Charlie Morrow
Participation of the audience is essential, joining the performance experience across the fence of passive judgement. Examples are: Heartwhistle, a sounding of audience heart and breath; Bellroll, a public passing street rolling action; I say I see… chant; Blindsound event for blind audience; and his extended all night Dreamsound event for sleeping audience. On the Way… recreates a near death experience in an ambient light and sound environment.
Hayman calls these intermedia works “live acoustic social phenomena” or “lasp”. The events must be performed live; recordings are merely documentary. “Acoustic” indicates their basis in sound and listening. “Social” is the quality of human interaction as an active as an active element. “Phenomena” is the varied vocabulary of sound and social situation which create unique experiences.
Other works in this catalog are more conventional in the sense that they, as Hayman would say “linear music transmission.” A listener or performer can read a score, hear a recording, see a video in the privacy of their own receiver mind without lasp. It is a tradition in new music that much work is verbally described, difficult to notate, scored in broad parameters, improvised or left as an unrealized or unrealizable conception. Herein one will find all these things. But there are also precisely notated scores for more standard performance and interpretation.
The symphonic and ensemble works are readily performed with unusual effect. Dali for orchestra is a comedy scored onto a toothpick. Waves is a direct transposition into music of ocean wave patterns, a kind of musical surf. Equestriana is music for symphonic band with choreography for equestrian drill team, part of the Horse Opera event designed with Charlie Morrow.
Other music reflects Hayman’s work in Asia. Study of Chinese instruments has produced a series of solo and ensemble works for their unique timbres. These include scores for award winning films, dance companies, and the Chinese American country western opera Fireworks. Tiananmen Echo for the Chinese lute and bamboo flute is dedicated to the martyrs of the democracy movement.
Hayman’s oeuvre is bold and gentle, provocative and pleasing, imaginative and down to earth. As he says, “the work is tangible spirit based on the awareness of sound, mingling meditation, mystery, humor, and human response. I seek the unheard… for people, who are the source of my life. It is done with love, caring, continuance, and ecstasy. I do this because it is the most real and imagined, detached and involved, earthy and ethereal way I can live and never know what will be next.”
