by Priscilla and Barton McLean
From AWC NEWS, a publication of American Women Composers, Inc., Jan. 1982, pp. 8-13.
To draw analogies between art forms has its pitfalls, but it is
nevertheless the most meaningful way of communicating the essence of our
music. Over a period of several years, we as composers, performers, and
an electronic-acoustic music duo called the McLean Mix, have discovered
a deep affinity for surrealism and surrealistic painting, which is
evident in our musical works. That others have felt this to can be
illustrated by this comment from David Ernst: "...it is this blurring of
the distinction between the two that creates the illusion of one unified
concept."
What artist Salvatore Dali brought to surrealism was the subtle
combining of subconscious forces that are in seeming opposition. His use
of extraordinary combinations of disparate elements against or merged
with a natural landscape produces a disorientation, evoking an inner
tension, often with nightmarish overtones. Yet, the result is a new
orientation, a new "universe," where the elements relate to each other
in underlying ways: symbolically, structurally, sharing similarities in
shape or texture.
A pervading trait in our music that is analogous to surrealism is the
use of opposition and juxtaposition of sound events that seem unrelated,
but are placed strategically so that one evokes the feeling of the
other, often while retaining its own integrity. Opposite qualities of
sound are merged as well, as heard for example with the combination of
live instruments and synthesizers. the central idea in this method of
composition is the creation of an illusion of wholeness from disparate
elements through surrealistic means -- in particular, listen to the
sound texture of beneath the Horizon from Volvox for piano and tape by
Barton. In Beneath the Horizon the tuba solo and whale ensemble tape,
the two forces engage in a continuous fluctuation between merging
together on the one hand and stating their individual ideas on the other,
which results in a quiet tension. In Dimensions VIII the work begins as
a virtuosic "piano-tape concerto" and ends up in a dark forest (bird and
forest sounds), although the transition from one to the other is not all
apparent.
A unique characteristic about the music of the McLean Mix is a directed
and deeply felt technique of probing the listeners" subconscious through
the choice of emotionally loaded ideas (primal screams, placid
landscapes, various emotionally-charged gestures), combined with
attention to fine detail and large structure, as one could also say
about Dali's process.
To give an idea of how the McLean Mix concertizes, one program in the
spring of 1981 began with Barton's Mysteries from the Ancient Nahuatl,
with him performing prepared piano, recorders, and percussion, while
Priscilla narrated and sang poetry from the ancient Pre-Columbian
Nahuatl culture, along with performing on the recorder and percussion.
Second on the program was a three-movement "electro-symphonic landscape"
for tape called Invisible Chariots-- a quadraphonic work by Priscilla,
who then premiered four surrealistic tone poems from a set of nine such
works for piano, tape, and electron microscope slides (intriguingly
biological in origin) entitled The Inner Universe. Last on the program
was Barton's premiere of his Dimensions VIII from Volvox. This program
was given in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Hilversum, and the international
Zagreb Muzicki Biennale.
Although we were also educated as performers (as were most composers),
it was not until 1974 that we "fell into" a McLean Mix situation with an
invitation to give a concert. We soon discovered that we enjoyed
personally reaching out to people in a "live" vs. "canned" experience.
Soon the response to our duo was far beyond our expectations, and by
1979 we had toured the midwest, northeast, and southwest performing for
diverse audiences at the universities of Illinois, Kansas, Columbia, and
at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. A spring 1982 U.S. tour is
planned, with performances in Seattle, St. Louis, Amherst, Stonybrook,
New York City, Hartford, in addition to a fall 1982 tour of Europe
billed as "The Surrealistic Landscapes of the McLean Mix."
While touring, we made some interesting observations from our European
performances. One thing we noticed was the considerable financial
support that many countries in Europe give, especially in the area of
commissions, radio concerts and broadcasts, and international and
national festivals of new music, during which everyone receives payment.
Aside from native European composers, support is also given to American
composers who perform abroad. It is unfortunate that this same support
is not reciprocated by American organizations sponsoring Europeans,
which is one reason for America's insularity in cultural awareness. We
also found that just as European classical music has traditionally
dominated American concert halls, American pop music and film dominate
the European pop and cinema scene, almost to the exclusion of their own
versions of these media. Although the serious American music has had
much less impact, the music of John Cage, Morton Feldman, Earl Brown,
Elliot Carter, Steve Reich, and Phil Glass is popular. And Pauline
Oliveros was awarded the Bonn Beethoven Prize for outstanding
composition. The European contemporary music audience seems to have a
longer listening endurance; they will enthusiastically enjoy several
hours at a time and return the following day for more. They also enjoy a
much larger variety of musical theater than found here.
Although touring and composing take a great deal of time -- Barton is
also director of the University of Texas Electronic Music Center and
Priscilla is active in freelance composing, criticism and teaching -- we
continue to compose for other ensembles and situations. Barton, for
instance, has been creating a dramatic, theatrical work for large chorus
and chamber ensemble entitled Mysteries from the Ancient Nahuatl, of
which the excerpts are in the McLean Mix repertoire. Priscilla foresees
her Celebration to the Alaskan Wilderness Act: A Nature Oratorio to be a
long work for chorus, audience group participation, tape, sounds of the
wolf, eagle, and/or whale, and varied instruments. This is to be a
celebration to the foresight and courage of the U.S. leaders for passage
of this historic act, and for those who wish to raise their voices and
spirits in remembrance.
We are currently preparing new pieces for the fall of 1982 season, one
of which will be out first collaboration-improvisation. We are very much
looking forward to this first complete collaboration-- both in creation
and performance. And perhaps it may be said that the spectre of two
independent composers with similar tastes but individual approaches and
careers living together in harmony and without competition for 14 years
is in itself surrealistic!
by Barton and Priscilla McLean
From "Sounds Australian" Journal of Australian Music, Summer, 1990, pp. 32-33.
We started as a husband-wife duo of electroacoustic music back in 1974,
and for the past seven years have been surviving as independent
composer=performers in the United States, focusing mainly on
electroacoustic music and new instrument performance technologies.
Having installed the first working Synthi 100 system from Great Britain
(while teaching at Indiana University, 1972) and the first Fairlight
Computer Music Instrument from Australia (teaching at the University of
Texas, 1980), (both firsts in United States universities), we were
increasingly aware of the global reach of new technologies, so it was no
accident that Australia extended a strong pull for us as a sort of
parallel world of exciting new developments in electroacoustic music.
With a sense of adventure, we set off to build a tour along the East
Coast , with the help of Warren Burt, Jeff Pressing, and David Worrall,
and back in America, our neighbor Joel Chadabe who gave us contacts for
New Zealand. The places we performed (a more detailed itinerary is given
at the end) were in Melbourne: La Trobe University, working with Jeff
Pressing whom we referred to affectionately as "The Blur", as he was so
busy juggling his several jobs that one only saw him in a running state
(but nevertheless gave us fine support for our events), and Jim and
Cindy Sosnin who kindly put up with us for a week at their home, Monash
University, and ABC Radio with Paul Petran, whom we found to be
exacting, patient, and demanding of high quality. In Canberra, David
Worrall not only hosted us for a week along with working 12-hour days at
Canberra Institute of the Arts (we have noticed that Australian
composers in the university work incredibly long hours), but organized
one of the most musically interesting installations ("Rainforest") of
our tour.
In Queensland, we gave lecture-demo at the university, then stayed on
to partake of the incredible Australian birds and animals in the
different national parks (enough to justify coming without a tour!), and
then flew to Auckland for a series of concerts and installations, and
the University of Hawaii, the tour lasting two months, from August 18 to
October 16, 1990. It was a pleasure to meet Moya Henderson in Sydney,
who is also using bird sounds in her music and is on the same
"wavelength" as we are, and Betty Beth in Brisbane who was so helpful
for our stay there. Each composer has given us tapes of their music,
which will be fascinating listening (if we can waddle them all onto the
airplane!). It was intriguing to us that both LaTrobe and Canberra were
very adamant on our lecturing on American women's music, as this is not
a thing that American universities are interested in at all! In
Melbourne we got a chance to see a final rehearsal of the Creatures of
Impulse, a festival of improvisation organized by Warren Burt and Ernie
Altoff, in an incredibly cold performance space (all the houses in
Australia are incredibly cold!), and particularly enjoyed Warren and
Jane Refshauge's rolling-on the floor with and occasionally playing
their cumbersome accordions, and, later, Simone de Haan's improvisations
on trombone with another fellow on baritone horn. The other groups,
basically not involved with music, ranged from Monty Pythonesque
hilarious to serious, very creative to mundane. We thought it a bit
strange that this Australian festival should be run by two Americans,
but the global village concept is again reinforced!
It should be emphasized that we are by no means well-versed in
developments in Australian computer and electroacoustic music. While
touring Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane we have, however,
gathered tentative impressions, first of all, of a lively activity
similar in intensity and sophistication to that of the U.S. relative to
size. Second, an impression is forming that developments in new music
technology seem to be highly concentrated in the major universities,
perhaps because of the more prohibitive cost of equipment here in
Australia, whereas in the U.S. the significant areas of development have
shifted from the university to commercial software and hardware
companies. Third, that much, but by no means at all, of the university
activity in computer music seems to be more theoretical and specialized
than in the U.S., where it is more integrated into the new music and
performance community at large. Although it is true that the major U.S.
centers such as Stamford and M.I.T. are still similarly
theoretically-minded, it is also true that the most interesting
electroacoustic and computer music is not being done in these places but
rather at the larger majority of studios using "off the shelf"
hardware and software enabling their composers and performers to
concentrate more on the actual composition and performance aspects.
These range from programs at university music departments to community
public access studios to private home studios such as our own. The
significance of this is that electroacoustic-computer music has finally
trickled down from the high priests into the everyday music community,
due to the democracy of availability and cheapness of software and
hardware in the U.S.
And even more significant in the past fifteen years is the way it has
trickled up from the depths of the pop, rock, and commercial cultures.
It is no exaggeration to say that most teenagers now own some sort of
synthesizer(s) readily and cheaply available throughout the U.S. We see
this trend also in Australia to some extent, but perhaps no as prevalent
as in the U.S. The word "integration" sums up much of what is becoming
ubiquitous in both countries. Nowhere is this more evident than in the
composer-performer situation. Where seven years ago performing with
computer music meant placing a computer on stage and pushing a button,
nowadays computers, as a viable, performance instrument, bore audiences,
probably because they have become commonplace. Where composer-performers
in the early 80's mainly came from music/computer specialties, today the
ones who have viable independent careers come often from a performance
background and use computers or digital processors as a secondary
complement to the main performance activity. People such as Miles
Anderson, Joan LaBarbara, Laurie Anderson, Meridith Monk, John Zorn,
Elliot Sharp, and Phil Glass come to mind.
The McLean Mix represents a third approach. While our background is in
computer music, we utilize an array of approaches that minimizes the
technology and maximizes the performance aspect. We do so by using
multiple slide projections, inventing instruments such as our "Sparkling
Light Console" that produces rapidly-flashing patterns across a matrix
of hundreds of colored lights activated by a MIDI keyboard, or modified
acoustic instruments such as an "amplified bicycle wheel", amplified
autoharp, and a "clariflute" which has a clarinet mouthpiece attached to
a recorder. We route these through various digital processors and also
use IBM and Macintosh computers, but not in an obvious way.
Unfortunately we were not able to freight all of this equipment to
Australia due to the high plane fares. We were pleased, however, to
experience such a high degree of technical support for our concerns in
venues such as LaTrobe University, Canberra Institute for the Arts, and
the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in Melbourne, of a level superior to
most spaces in the United States.
One startling impression made upon us throughout our tour was the
constant presence of the native birds. To electroacoustic composers who
extensively use nature sounds in their music, the reader can appreciate
how very special and exciting these sounds are. Native Australian
composers, I am sure, are aware that they have an incalculable rich
storehouse of indigenous material to work with... almost a complete
catalogue of electroacoustic sounds and effects! Australia has the most
interesting birds in the world! We were excited to see that composers
such as Moya Henderson from Sydney are actively engaged in using these
sounds in their music.
One particular event, our "Rainforest" installation at the Canberra Institute of
the Arts, was particularly special for us and is relevant since it sheds
light on the character of Australians and how they react to creative
situations. "Rainforest" involves our setting up an installation with
which the audience actively interacts with by performing on instruments
(which are then digitally processed), or performing on keyboards which
are set to produce various sound complementary to or actual sounds of
the rainforest, along with an evocative tape consistently playing, all
actively supervised and run by the two of us. During the two days of its
running we were amazed by the creative energy and inhibition of the
participants, an energy far greater than we had experienced with
American participants! These people, who streamed into the room
constantly and often stayed for hours, were uninhibited, imaginative,
and fun to work with. It was a two-day high for us! One theory we have
is that, due to the constant presence of the native birds (which are
incredibly close to electroacoustic sounds) through one's life here in
Australia, one becomes infused with an intuitive and unrecognized sound
vocabulary that fits well with electroacoustic sounds. Many of the
participants had not studied music formally. People frequently came up
to us and told us how moved they were by the experience.
Notwithstanding the multitude of similarities between the two countries
vis-a-vis the independent composer, the Australian-American scene has
one major difference--namely the survival strategies needed to be
employed. Where in Australia commissions are an important part of the
possibility of income, in the U.S. they are not, due to a rather
moribund state of our federal arts agency (the National Endowment for
the Arts) and the rather ridiculous ratio of composers to the ensembles
and agencies that would do the commissioning. Australia, we think, is
more on the European model where support of the arts is a cultural and
institutional obligation (Australian composers may be snickering at
this, but believe us, folks, it is far worse in the U.S.). Australia is
also, as we found out with our Melbourne ABC recording session, blessed
with the ABC and its enlightened producers who will pay to record new
and experimental music. We have nothing like this in the U.S. and
virtually no ensemble, not even traditional orchestral or chamber
ensembles, will be paid for recording on our public radio unless it is
part of a special grant. Public television, like commissioning, in
the U.S. is supported at a far lower level than in Australia, How, then,
can independent composers survive in the U.S? If a U.S. composer is to
make a living without teaching and without going commercial (film,
television, commercials, school band and chorus, pop, etc.) he/she can
survive, not through commissions but by performing his/her own work. And
herein lies a strength of the U.S system--the sheer number of
universities and other spaces that may be potential venues. In addition,
a non-profit organization called "Meet the Composer," funded by a
combination of corporate, state, and federal monies, pays composers to
be present to perform their work and/or hear it performed. This
organization will also fund Australian composers who perform in the U.S.
provided they have a U.S. sponsor. Typical grants run from $300-$400 per
event U.S.$. Also, public schools, libraries, community centers, etc.
fund artists who come in and present their work for short-term
durations, all under the auspices of state arts councils. An enormous
arts bureaucracy has spouted to tend this activity and arts advocacy
groups are relatively strong. Through all this activity, it is not
surprising that a number of composers, especially composers/performers,
can make a living apart from university teaching. In our own situation,
McLean Mix performances account for c. 1/2 of our income, the rest
garnered mainly through royalties from our performance rights
organization BMI, and miscellaneous areas such as publishing, grants,
etc.
During our stay in Australia we have appreciated the many kindnesses
offered us by so many of our Australian colleagues. Due to our having
toured in the United States for a number of years, we are in a position
to advise potential Australian composer-performers about U.S. venues
should they wish to contact us. We would be happy to help with mailing
lists and other sorts of advice on particular situations if you would
write to Barton & Priscilla McLean, R.D. #2, Box 33, Petersburgh, N.Y.,
12138, U.S.A. Phone is (518) 658 3595.
McLean Mix: Tour Itinerary
August 23: LaTrobe University, lecture on women composers.
August 24: LaTrobe University, evening concert of electroacoustic works.
August 27: ABC Radio, Melboune. Live concert and interview broadcast
nationally on August 31. Monash University, Melboune.
Lecture/concert.
Sept. 4: Canberra Ins. of the Arts, lecture on women composers.
Sept. 5: Canberra Ins. of the Arts, seminar in composition
Sept. 6,7: C.I.A: Installation "Rainforest."
Sept. 11: University of Queensland, lecture/concert.
Sept. 21: (Afternoon) University of Auckland, lecture/concert.
Sept. 21: (Evening) University of Auckland, concert of electroacoustic
works.
Sept. 24-6: Artspace, Auckland: Installation "Rainforest."
Oct. 11: Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu: evening concert of electroacoustic
works.
Permission granted for normal classroom duplication and use.
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