About this work:
“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure dome decree; Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.” So begins the famous poem “Kubla Khan: Or A Vision in a Dream” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This poem talks about a “damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw”, and states, “Could I revive with me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight ‘twould win me, That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice!” Inspired by this poem, Barton McLean has created “MAGIC AT XANADU (MAX)”. The sensuous pulsative music has a somewhat Oriental flavor, evoking a dreamlike vision that reaches toward that special paradise of ecstatic wonder always beckoning but out of reach. This trancelike quality is enhanced by surreal video alterations mixed with the live performance, especially created for this DVD. The “Composers Playpen” is the music vehicle for “MAGIC AT XANADU (MAX)”. This is a computer music program written in MAX/MSP software by Barton McLean. Central to the concept is the idea of initiating and changing melodic/harmonic/rhythmic loops in real time. In”M.A.X.”, most of these loops are prerecorded, while a few are recorded and modified as the work is playing. In addition, a third stream of music is produced live on the keyboards. Although not always evident, the live performance is very virtuosic, as McLean must modify up to fourteen separate musical ideas all playing at once!
There is YouTube video of me performing this work live at:
http://youtu.be/OISo1wVgdjs
My website (where you can find my email as well)
http://www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/McLean_MAXMSP/Main_page.html
Phone: 518 658 3595
YouTube playlist (with 32 videos and counting)
https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3ACAB7BAD86CE7B4
Also check out my entry in Wikipedia
Although I, Barton McLean, hold the copyright, I nontheless hereby gladly authorize anyone to make copies and perform the work for noncommercial and/or educational purposes providing that my name is reasonably displayed as the composer. I do not under any circumstances authorize selecting portions of the work to appear intact in another person's composition, or to appear under any other composer's name, without my written signed authorization.
Regarding the audio file accompanying this work: I, Barton McLean own the copyright to the composition itself. Being aware that this work has been released on a commercial CD, and that the CD company might possess the copyright to that particular sound recording of the composition, I nonetheless claim copyright to this specific sound recording posted here, because it is not the exact recording released on CD. Rather, it is another mix down and revision of that work which may approximate the commercial CD in most respects but nevertheless is a distinct sound recording of which I claim the copyright.