About this work:
DESERT VOICES is a song of many tongues, and the listener will hear the song as one would see the western American desert: the vast flat windy dry plain spreading to the horizon, with sharp jagged events -- bluffs, violin entrances, cactus spikes, giant rocks bursting upon one's vision as in a dream... The calling voices of canyon wrens, black cardinals, ravens, a much-alarmed gopher snake, crickets and other wildlife mingle with the pulsating australian didgeridu, and soft ghostly chants of the resident Navajos (Evalina Yazzie and Malcolm Benally) speaking in their own tongue their thoughts about the desert, with the wind ever encircling all and breathing of the intense beauty and eternity that is the desert.
Jonathan Aceto adds the thriving human spirit through his five-stringed midi viiolin, commenting upon these voices and creating its own, from the wild bestial squeals to the poignant evolving melody that weaves throughout the piece. the midi violin uses the Yamaha SPX-1000 digital processor with its delays, pitch shifts, and reverberation to create a choir of string sounds, and the piece becomes a concerto at times, while at other times the midi violin fades into the background recorded music. The stereo sounds have been created from "Desert Spring", an interactive audience multimedia installation composed by Priscilla McLean for the McLean Mix touring schedule.
The Yamaha SPX-90 digital processor may be substitutede for the SPX-1000, but the third delay is not there, and some adjustments must be made.
This recording is available on a DVD titled "Cries and Echoes", with fading and dissolving desert slides by Priscilla McLean of Utah and Arizona. The CD and/or DVD is available through MLC Publications, 55 Coon Brook Rd., Petersburgh, NY 12138.