About this work:
This was in every way a breakthrough work for me, propelling me in one 11-minute swath of evocative sound out of the academic style I had been cultivating before. It was somewhat a reaction to the "ugly-serial" style of the 50's and 60's, and as such garnered considerable attention and performances. It is true that, up to that time I had heard nothing like it, and my only desire was to get as far from my older rather ponderous traditional style as possible. I was inspired by a somewhat universal but usually unrecognized sonic factor in our daily lives--that of a continuous pedal. This is the everyday "hum" which accompanies us everywhere, be it the low traffic noise of a city, the punctuated pedals of a factory, the rush of wind in a desert, or the busy pedal of insect, bird, wind and water sounds in a forest. Wherever we go there is a sonic continuity which we usually ignore. When I began to listen to it, I found much beauty, melody, gesture, structure, and fascination. This was the background upon which I built the work, punctuated by the penetrating piano gestures. The term "organic" best fits the style, which has stuck with me to this day. Originally written for Robert Hamilton, the revised version was performed extensively and dedicated to David Burge, who is the performer on this disc. He subsequently wrote about it at length in several issues of Contemporary Keyboard, and it was cited as one of the "best pieces of the 70's." John Rockwell of the New York Times in an Alice Tully Hall performance by Burge described it as "a most evocative, even pretty blend of ethereal and phantasmagorical tape sounds (all derived directly from a piano) and hammering, dense figures from the pianist". Internationally performed by such touring artists as Yvar Mikashoff and James Avery, it became a staple of the contemporary literature. David Burge is internationally known as a concert pianist, recording artist, teacher, lecturer, and a scholar, most notably as the Kilbourn Professor of Music at the Eastman School of Music. As such he has been among the foremost proponents of new piano music in the USA, having premiered many of the major works now entering the literature, such as those by George Crumb and William Albright. Tape part alone is posted as a separate MP3 file on AMC, preceeded by a 30 second tunng note (A-440). Score also posted.
Numerous performances, a few listed: By Yvar Mikhashoff: Royal Danish Conservatory, Copenhagen (9/78), Amer. Centre, Paris (4/79), Baird Hall, Buffalo (3/79), BRT Radio, Brussels (4/79), Warsaw Autumn Festival, Poland (9/79).
By David Burge: Alice Tully Hall, 1977. U.S. tour (c. 12 performances) 1978. Acrosanti Festival (1978). Robert Hamilton, Pianist: Amerika Haus, Munich, Germany (1978), Royal College of Music, London, 11/78, others. Recorded by Hamilton on Orion (Orion ORS 75192 LP) and Burge on CRI (CRI SD 407 LP). Recorded again by Burge on CD in 1997 on Capstone CPS-8637.
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 files 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.