If I was stuck Paul would send me another batch and in it somewhere would be the solution. I just thought they were strange and wonderful. ![]() The possible meaning of the words didn’t matter to me. Sometimes I would have to skip around or omit things as the musical viewpoint developed, but more often whole blocks of words would end up exactly in their original order with music to them. Then it would just be a matter of working at it, with the form and rhythm of the words leading the way. Sooner or later certain lines would seem to have a melody to them. Paul would send a batch of lyrics from India and I would put them on the piano and stare at them for hours. Over the next three years we worked on it. We ended up calling it a chronotransduction, which was a word coined by Sherry Speeth, a scientist friend of Paul’s, although we still call it opera for short. ![]() The term “opera” was used loosely from the start, an overstatement by two people who didn’t have to watch their words. When I told him how amazing this was, we decided to write an opera together, or rather, apart, as he was then living in New Mexico and about to move to India. It fit mysteriously with a piece of music I was working on, DETECTIVE WRITER DAUGHTER. In the beginning, around January 1967, Paul Haines, a friend who had written pieces for the back covers of many albums I had been involved in, sent me a poem. It was originally sent to me by Rick McLaughlin.) (Very special thanks to Carla Bley for allowing the reprint of this invaluable document composed shortly after the album was finished.
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