Here is what we do! Detailed description of events
Events:
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The McLean Mix Presents:
a brand new live interactive music media concert for 2008 and beyond
During performance, a brief description by the composer preceeds each work.
1. The Playpen Etudes (duration 15') 2006-7 Barton McLean
Collapsed Rhythm
Leaky Melodies (with apologies to PDQ Bach)
Energized Harmonies
Barton McLean -- keyboards, synthesizers, controllers, computers
With the "Composers Playpen" he has created projected on the video screen, Bart transports the audience into a new world of creative exploration by performing and demonstrating several short "etudes," each featuring another aspect of the "Playpen." The rhythms do actually "collapse," the melodies do "leak," and the harmonies find themselves becoming metamorphosized as the "Playpen" works its magic. Thus, the audience immediately gains insight into the inner workings of this creative vehicle used throughout the concert. Listen and watch this lively demo as he employs techniques that take ordinary musical materials and convey them to unexplored regions.
For more information on the Composers Playpen, click here.
2. JULY DANCE (duration: 7') 2001-2 Priscilla McLean
Stereo Electroacoustic Music & Video
Commissioned by iEAR Studios of Rensslaer Polytechnic Institute
JULY DANCE is a brief frolic with summer, with all the Northeast in celebration, from jiving birch trees to children playing with balloons. The composer accompanies all with her ad hoc percussion "table" of skinned firewood logs and croquet posts strewn upon resonators and placed in a neighbor's 200-acre field, to dance with the blowing wind as she plays. Some of the other unusual visual effects were created thanks to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, and their artist-in-residence 2001-2 McLean Mix commission and use of the iEAR Electronic Arts Studio. Besides the logs, other sounds are a wooden recorder and ocarina, a microphone cord and balloons squealing, a metal pizza pan, flexatone, violin -- all performed by the composer, children laughing, and synthesizer.
3. Magic At Xanadu (MAX) (duration - 10') 2007 Barton McLean
Live performance with video
Barton McLean -- keyboards, synthesizers, controllers, computers, video
Priscilla McLean -- voice
Inspired by the poem "Kubla Kahn: Or a Vision in a Dream" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, this work taps, through evocative music and video, into the deepest recess of the mind whose visions evoke that special "paradise" of ecstatic wonder always beckoning but out of reach. The sensuous music has a somewhat oriental flavor (with the dulcimer sounds in the poem prominent), with the accompanying video evoking images in the poem of "deep romantic chasm," "the sacred river," "a stately pleasure dome," and many others. The "Composers Playpen" is again the vehicle for this live performed work.
INTERMISSION (duration, 10')
4. XAKAALAWE (FLOWING) (duration, 17') Priscilla McLean
Stereo Electroacoustic Music & Video
Commissioned through Artist in Residence Program, Rocky Mountain National Park
A very special artistic mix of video and composed music, XAKAALAWE (flowing) was filmed in Rocky Mountain National Park in September of 2002, during elk bugling season. The piece features a fascinating mix of waterfalls and streams, and elk, using new video techniques and the virtuosic mix of live performance with samples and processing, all in a very natural way.
Performers in the video: Rocky Mountain Elk (bugling)
Charlie Tokarz: flute, soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone, bass clarinet.
Priscilla McLean: voices, violin, synthesized percussion, synthesizers, all mixing and processing.
The words used in this piece invoke the ancient spirit of the Rocky Mountains, with the Crow and Arapaho tribal languages. These are as natural to the setting as the voices of the elk herd, and invokes a dream-like quality to the piece.
5. NATURAL ENERGY (duration, 15') work still in progress Barton & Priscilla McLean
Live performance with video
Barton McLean — keyboards, controllers, computer
Priscilla McLean — voice, processors, found instruments, violin, percussion
Fire, dance, wind — Natural energy flows through this collaboration in a joyful work performed live by The McLean Mix, using their many skills on instruments and extended vocal techniques, along with exciting video and music created from the Composers Playpen.
Testimonials from many sponsors of McLean Mix concerts.
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Designed to soothe budget constraints. Requiring minimal setup, tech and space, this can be slanted toward a particular focus of the host. Although not replacing the power of our full concert or our installations, "Music on the Edge" imparts virtuosity and wonder of a concert with the of taped performance excerpts, while maintaining a personal dialogue with the audience or class. Audio and video excerpts will be played and demonstrated, including a demonstration of "The Composers Playpen" showing McLean's MAX/MSP program on screen and how it is used to acheive such mind-altering concepts as "leaky melody," "collapsed rhythm," and "energized harmony." Informative and fun.
En route fee: $250 plus meals and lodging. Additional transportation fee is waived if it can be easily done within a tour path in the same city or county.
The McLean Mix Compact Discs & Cassettes Heading ~ The McLean Mix Performances Heading ~ How to contact The McLean Mix ~ Table of Contents
Our new nature concert, with works from our repertoire especially picked for their emphasis on the sights and sounds of nature, and for a general university/community audience. This program also retains our emphasis on virtuosic performance, new and unusual instruments, and evocative and powerful music. The sounds and sights are often drawn from our expeditions to natural environments around the world, and we talk about them during the concert, which lasts c. 1 hour. For performance fees, please go to Events and Fees List.
Wilderness (1989-90) Duration, 14:38 Priscilla McLean. Live voice with stereo tape.
Priscilla McLean, soprano
Barton McLean, flexatone
Stereo digital tape
"Wilderness" is a realization of Carl Sandberg's poem by the same name, and is a boisterous, often clamorous affirmation of the wilderness and all its creatures. As with Priscilla McLean's other recent works, this makes a definitive statement about her love for the wilderness (and, obviously, Carl Sandburg's). In addition to digital sound sources, the stereo tape contains a variety of actual animal sounds including wolf, honeybees (from Ms. McLean's backyard), panther, hyenas, chimpanzees, hawks, mistlethrush, and a bestial bass viol! Priscilla's performance is dramatic to say the least, as she actualy "becomes" the animals she is describing in the poem. This has been recorded on the "Gods, Demons and the Earth" CD.
The Wilds of Borneo Duration: 10 minutes. Lecture demo with video
Video with narration of a recent trip to live with headhunter (former) tribes in Malaysian Borneo. Shows travels up the rivers, recording nature sounds, visiting native longhouses, musical performances, hiking in jungle, etc. Audio demo which takes you from the original jungle recording to the finished composition.
Rainforest (1994) Duration: c. 9 - 15 minutes. B & P McLean, Live performance with optional audience members assisting
This is the concert version of our popular audience-interactive installation "Rainforest." Priscilla and Barton improvise live on singing, woodwinds, amplified bicycle wheel, all digitally processed to produce haunting sounds, echoed by actual samples of rainforest animals peppered throughout (performed by volunteers from the audience). A composite art video of our rainforest expeditions accompanies the performance. To get an idea of the sounds, listen to the McLeans' CD "Rainforest Images."
Take a look at some of the still images from the video. This may take awhile to load.
XAKAALAWE (FLOWING) Duration 17 minutes Priscilla McLean
Stereo Electroacoustic Music & Video
Commissioned through Artist in Residence Program, Rocky Mountain National Park
A very special artistic mix of video and composed music, XAKAALAWE (flowing) was filmed in Rocky Mountain National Park in September of 2002, during elk bugling season. The piece features a fascinating mix of waterfalls and streams, and elk, using new video techniques and the virtuosic mix of live performance with samples and processing, all in a very natural way.
Performers in the video: Rocky Mountain Elk (bugling)
Charlie Tokarz: flute, soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone, bass clarinet.
Priscilla McLean: voices, violin, synthesized percussion, synthesizers, all mixing and processing.
The words used in this piece invoke the ancient spirit of the Rocky Mountains, with the Crow and Arapaho tribal languages. These are as natural to the setting as the voices of the elk herd, and invokes a dream-like quality to the piece.
The McLean Mix Compact Discs & Cassettes Heading ~ The McLean Mix Performances Heading ~ How to contact The McLean Mix ~ Table of Contents
Audience-Interactive "Hands On" Playpens or Installations, click on: Rainforest ~ Jambori Rimba ~ Desert Spring
THE ULTIMATE SYMPHONIUS 2000: Grand Millennium Celebration
Full copies of all reviews, demo cassettes, video, brochures available upon request, as are information on funding sources. Address: #55 Coon Brook Road, Petersburg, NY, 12138, USA. Phone: (518) 658 3595
