Besides associating the idea of the workers’ rise to a harmonic shift, as explored in 3.1.1.1 Autohoodening: The Rise of Captain Swing, I also used variations on the Amazon tune to deliver a similar idea. In this case, to stress the revolt of the workers against the algorithmically-controlled scanner, the Amazon tune is rewritten in a retrograde configuration[12].  The use of this technique is connected to the etymological origin of the word “revolt”, from Latin revolvere, which means to “roll back”[13]. The melody is, therefore, rolled back. This version of the tune is sung by the chorus of pickers and packers in the slow numbers (Figures 3 and 4). For the fast numbers, the ensemble and the singers perform a shortened version of the melody in which the inner repetition has been removed (Figures 5 and 6).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This idea is connected to the harmonic “rise”. Similarly to the use of the tonal centre of D, the retrograde Amazon tune is established on the workers’ side from the resurrection of Captain Swing. Also, it was equally hinted at for the first time in the defeat of Swing against Molly Bot, as seen in Figure 2 in 3.1.1.1 Autohoodening: The Rise of Captain Swing, as the first sign of rebellion against the machines in the piece (Example #3).

 

 

Fictional appropriation is also a variation that can convey metaphorical information. This means that, depending on who or what plays or sings a musical material associated with a determined idea, this may have a specific change in its meaning. In Autohoodening: The Rise of Captain Swing, this is reflected in the fact that the machines appropriate the hoodening song and sing it in their associated key of C major, showcasing their control over the workers[14]. We can see this in the “Corporate Duet” (page 3 in the Songbook), after the defeat of Swing in “Captain Swing vs Molly Bot” (page 9), and as part of the materials in “The Algorithm” (pages 11 and 12). From the pivotal point of the resurrection of Captain Swing (page 14), the hoodening song is reappropriated by the workers, never being sung again by the machines until they have been hacked and are part of the workers’ side (pages 25 and 26). First, the Line Manager, in her change of sides when she is fired (Figure 7), takes the song from the machines singing it in C major (pages 21-23), to, at the end, being sung by everybody in D major.









This is similar to how the pickers and packers appropriate and resignify the Amazon tune by playing it “rolled back” and in D major, as seen in Example #3, or to the redemption of the Line Manager, who sings a combined version of the reel tune with the Amazon tune in her fight against Alexis the Scanner (Figure 8).

Figure 5

Melodic association - Autohoodening: The Rise of Captan Swing

Figure 4

Figure 3

Figure 8

Figure 6

Figure 7

Example #3

Three examples of the use of the retrograde musical material in the scenes depicting the rebellion of the pickers and packers. Fragments from “Captain Swing rises” ([00:00:00] to [00:00:45]), “Line Manager’s Doubt Aria” ([00:00:45] to [00:01:30]), and “The Line Manager Fights Alexis” ([00:01:30] to [00:02:15]).

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