About this work:
Since these works have never been recorded commercially as a whole set in one place, I do so here. These were inspired by my rural country setting where I lived, in Petersburgh, NY, renting an old (1790) farmhouse with 300 acres of land and forests, fields, a pond, etc. It was very picturesque, and we lived there for 12 years (1983-1995). Our main synthesizers at that time (before we purchased the Ensoniq ASR-10 and the Korg Wavestation) were two Prophet 2000 samplers, and two Yamaha TX 81z synthesizers. And so, with the Art Reverb and Roland 3000 analog delay (and SPX 1000 processor from Yamaha) and a 360 Systems MIDI controlled audio patch bay (and a couple of MIDI patch bays also) this is the equipment used. They were all done with a digital MIDI sequencer, first on the Mark of the Unicorn Performer, and then towards the end, I switched to the Opcode Vision. I had a Macintosh Plus computer at the time, and Opcode Studio Plus interface. 3. Valley of Lost Dreams. Evokes the image of the Moon Farm, which we could see from our front porch looking out across the valley to the west. It is all gone now, except for a couple of foundations. I thought of children playing, horses and carraiges (helped by the BBC sound tapes). The flute-like evocative repeated ideas were derived from a feedback technique where I would point the mic directly at the sounding speaker, and introduce filters, equalizers, and a compressor into the loop. As I sweep the filter, I would get incredible melodies. Childrens' voices also from the BBC tapes.
Stereo CD (with live performance with Sparkling Light Console of “Fireflies.” Premiered at DIA Foundation, NYC, 5/22/90. I. and IV. recorded by Centaur Records (CD) CRC 2047 (1990). III, IV and V recorded on Capstone CD (CPS 8622 CD (1995). “Valley of Lost Dreams” released on EM Records in Japan in 2006 as EM 1060CD. Perf. of complete or abbreviated cycle, Rutgers U., 3/14/90, Peabody Conservatory, 4/6/90. DIA Foundation, NYC, 3/22/90, Latrobe Univ., Melbourne, Aus., 8/90), Monash Univ., Melbourne (8/90), Canberra Ins. of the Arts, (9/90), Univ. of Queensland (9/90), Univ. of Auckland, NZ (9/90), Univ. of Hawaii (10/90), St. Lawrence Univ. (1/91), Univ. of COnn. at Storrs (1/91), Univ. of Akron (3/91), Mt. Union Col, OH (4/91), Williams Col, MA.,(4/91), Vassar Col (4/91), Univ. of Deleware, Newark (4/91), Hamilton Col, NY (4/91), Whiteface Mtn. Center (5/91), SEAMUS, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana (10/91), Univ. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa (3/92), NY Open Center (6/92), Seven Hills School, Cincinnati (2/93), Cal. State Univ., Chico (3/93), San Francisco Conservatory (3/93), KPFA Morning Prog., San Berkeley, CA., (3/93), Old First Concerts, San Francisco (3/93), Governers State Univ., IL, (3/93), Oberlin Conservatory (3/93), Chicago Musical College (3/93), Thunder Bay (MI) Arts Council (4/93), Fitchburg State College (10/93), Kirkland NY Art Center (4/94), W. Virginia Univ., Morgantown (2/24), Texas Tech at Lubbock (3/94), Univ. of Texas-San Antonio (3/94), Baylor Univ (3/94), W. Georgia College (3/94), William & May College (3/94), Yorktown, VA Arts Fdn, 3/94, Hamilton College, NY (4/94), Wabash College, IN (10/94), Georgia Southern Univ. (2/95), Univ. of Wisconson, Madison (3/95), Denison Univ., OH (3/95), Calvin College, Grand Rapids (3/95), Festival of New Music, Western Ill. U., Macomb (3/95), Little Dixie Concert Assn (4/95), Chase Co. Arts Cncl NE (4/95), Westmoreland Sanctuary NY (5/95), RPI, Troy, NY (10/95), Caroline Co. Arts Council (2/96), Univ. of Akron (3/14/96), Ball State Univ (3/18/96), Mt. Vernon Nazarene College (4/23/96), Living Arts of Tulsa (4/4/97), Chicago Musical College (4/15/98), Concordia University (3/20/99), Capital University Conservatory (4/13/99), Trinity Collge (3/6/2000),
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.