RETRACE OUR STEPS

(a secular oratorio in 4 acts)

is a vocal/instrumental spectacle based on texts by gertrude stein,
guy debord and jenny bitner. the work explores the relationships
between idealism, alienation, and consumerism.
TRACK LIST
1. Retrace Our Steps, Act I
2. Retrace Our Steps, Act II
3. Retrace Our Steps, Act III
4. Retrace Our Steps, Act IV

RECORDED, EDITED AND MIXED BY marlon luna and paul

bailey. mastered by johnathan marcus
(opharion recordings)
MUSICIANS:
nicole baker, mezzo-soprano soloist and speaking part; karen hogel,
soprano; nike st. clair, alto; sean mcdermott, tenor; and
paul cummings, bass
sam formicola and sam fischer violins; victor lawrence, cello;
sean ferguson, electric guitar; matt menaged, electric bass; kyoko
kamei and carl stronach vibraphone; eric hendrickson, keyboard;
scott mcintosh, bass clarinet
(commissioned by the cerritos center for the performing arts)

AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

WWW.PAULBAILEYENSEMBLE.ORG,
ITUNES, EMUSIC, RHAPSODY...January 2008
 ACT I
We cannot retrace our steps
Do i want what we have got

text.gertrude.stein
Going forward may be the same
as going backwards
we cannot retrace our steps
retrace our steps
All my long life
all my life
but... we do not retrace our steps
All my long life and her
all my life
but... we do not retrace our steps
all my long life and her
all my life
Here we are her, in marble and gold
Did I say gold
in marble and gold and where
 Where is where
In my long life of effort and strife
dear life, life is strife
In my long life it will not come and will not go
I tell you so, it will stay
In the pay but...
 ACT II
I am trying to devise the perfect pamphlet, a
pamphlet if given to enough people
could change the world
In societies where modern conditions of
productions prevail

text.guy.debord and jenny.bitner

 All life presents itself as an immense
accumulation of spectacles

I wonder if such a pamphlet is possible and

what it would say
Separted by his product, man produces all the
details of his world with ever increasing power
and thus vfinds himself ever more separated
from the world

I am intrigued by the belief that a pamphlet

could change a life. I remember those given to
me with the images of a man burning amid fiery
flames, and inside it said: “Change your life.
Do you know you will burn in hell if you don’t
change your ways?
 What hides under the spectacular
oppositions is a unity of misery

I wonder: if written in the correct order

could the correct words make a difference
in someone’s life?
 What hides under the spectacular oppositions
is a unity of misery

I wake up in the middle of the night in a

sweat. I am gripped by the knowledge that I
have nothing to say-That even if I could write
a pamphlet everyone in the world would see,
I would fail.
 ...The spectacle is nothing more than an image of
happy unification surrounded by desolaion and fear
at the tranquil center of misery

That I can’t say love each other. Or stop and look

at things. Or don’t concentrate wealth. Everything
I have to say has been said a million times better,
plus it’s a cliché. Plus...and here’s the kicker-it
doesn’t change anything. The inevitability of history
hits me like a mallet over the head. There is no
room for a Thomas Paine in the world today-even
though I want to be Thomas Paine, filled with
revolutionary zeal, making pamphlets on a
Xerox machine.
The remains of religion and of the family and the
moral repression they assure
merge whenever the enjoyment of this world is
affirmed-the world being nothing other
than pseudo-enjoyment.

I am not a genuine pamphleteer.

I have nothing to say. I have nothing to write...

If I had something to say, I would be the first to

say it, loudly, outrageously,
and articulately...
 Behind the masks of total choice, different forms of
the same alienation confront each otherall of them built
on real contradictions which are repressed

Still I start a regimen of giving pamphlets to strang-

ers. I have discarded the idea (did I ever have
it?) that I have to give my pamphlets to everyone.
Now I have a sincere and real belief that it is far
better to give the pamphlet to one person. That person,
when handed the custom-made pamphlet, will wonder,
“Was it written just for me? Was it written for anyone
and I just happened along?

What hides under the spectacular oppositions is a unity

of misery.
 ACT III

the spectacle is materially

the expression of the separation and
estrangement between man and man.

text.guy.debord
Man’s appropriation of his own nature
is at the same time
his grasp of the unfolding
of the universe
 When art, becomes independent
it depicts its world in dazzling colors
A moment of life has grown old
and it cannot be rejuvenated
with dazzling colors
It can only be evoked as a memory
The greatness of art begins to appear
at the dusk of life
ideas improve.
 The meaning of the words
participates in the improvement
plagiarism is necessary
progress implies it
 ACT IV
but do I want
what we have got

text.gertrude.stein
 has it not gone, what made it live
has it not gone because now it has had
in my long life, in my long life
life is strife
I was a martyr all my life
not to what i won
but what was done
In my long life
In my long life
 Do you know
because I tell you so,
or do you know, do you know
my long life, my long life.

fine