Sextet-The Tiger's Mind
by Cornelius Cardew
Daypiece
The tiger fights the mind that loves the circle that traps the tiger.
The circle is perfect and outside time. The wind blows dust in tiger's eye. Amy reflects, relaxes with her mind, which puts out buds (emulates the tree). Amy jumps through the circle and comforts the tiger. The tiger sleeps in the tree. High wind. Amy climbs the tree, which groans in the wind and succumbs. The tiger burns.
Nightpiece
The tiger burns and sniffs the wind for news. He storms at the circle; if inside to get out, if outside to get in. Amy sleeps while the tiger hunts. She dreams of the wind, which then comes and wakes her. The tree trips Amy in the dark and in her fall she recognizes her mind. The mind, rocked by the wind tittering in the leaves of the tree, and strangled by the circle, goes on the nod. The circle is trying to teach its secret to the tree. The tree laughs at the mind and at the tiger fighting it.
