Musicworks #50

Robert Minden ‘The Boy Who Wanted To Talk To Whales’
01 Overture (4:45)
02 The Canadian (4:30)
03 Whale Song (4:15)
04 Daniel Goode ‘Thrush Polyphony (excerpts)’ (13:20)
05 Michael Burtch ‘Harbour Sounds Ashore’ (3:00)
06 Trevor Wishart ‘The VOX Cycle (excerpts)’ (6:30)
07 Petr Kotik ‘Wilsie Bridge’ (18:47)
08 Ushio Torikai ‘There’ (4:30)

Total time
Cassette+magazine released by Musicworks, Canada, 1991

The Boy Who Wanted To Talk To Whales’ by Canadian composer, story-teller and photographer Robert Minden is a cycle for voices and small ensemble using unusual instruments including: vacuum cleaner hoses, musical saw, cardboard tube drums and waterphones, amongst others. The excerpts given here conveys some unforgettable, magical sounds that make one want to listen to the whole work. During the 1970s, NYC composer Daniel Goode (a member of Gamelan Son of a Lion) transcribed Hermit Thrush songs for piano, clarinet or piccolo. ‘Thrush Polyphony’, with Goode himself on clarinet, Philip Corner on piano and William Hellermann on guitar, is an exquisite rendition of the bird’s songs. It sounds lighter and less metaphysical than Messiaen’s own transcriptions, while retaining some aspects of the original field recordings (pause, echo, simultaneity). Michael Burtch‘s Waterfront sound sculpture in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, is build from 3 huge air vents from the ‘Chief Wawatam’, a coal-burning steel ship that traversed the Great Lakes. Below ground level is a sound chamber with hanging steel bars and tubes, whose soft chimings are amplified by the horns outside. The sound sculpture seems to be remarkably integrated with its environment, recalling the sounds of distant freighters machinery while not being intrusive. British electroacoustic composer Trevor Wishart (born 1946) is famous for his Red Bird masterpiece, where voices, bird cries and other found object recordings morph into one another in a sonic tapestry that is nothing short of disturbing. Human voice has always been a pivotal feature for Wishart, like in Songcycle, Voiceprints and VOX Cycle, of which excerpts are presented here, a complex knitting of sound poetry wordless uterrances and computer technique. Petr Kotik is a Czech composer born 1942 who emigrated to New York in 1969. His 1987 Wilsie Bridge is a piece for wind, percussion and synth, all contributing to a highly energetic pulsation constantly on the move, where polyphony is created by the overlapping of instrument parts. Ushio Torikai‘s There is a short piece for synth and piano in unusual tunings.

[Link removed 12/09. Complaint received]