MILLing in the ENNIUM
Priscilla McLean
About this work:
Created from an hour-long multimedia installation for the Millenium (McLeans: “The Ultimate Symphonius 2000”), MILLing in the ENNIUM is a collaboration, with Priscilla McLean as video artist and Barton McLean as composer. A celebration of the past 2000 years of the classical arts, both music and video work together to reveal the astounding beauty and variety, as well as serendipitous simularities of widely different cultures and centuries of human endeavor. The music is a harmonious collage of twenty-seven different pieces of music, using works by Hildegard von Bingen, Meredith Monk, Anonymous Medieval Viol Music, Kevin Volans, Ramnad Krishnan, J.S. Bach, Gregorian Chant, Islamic Call to Prayer, Tibetan Monks, Ceremonial Music from Chile, Pauline Oliveros, Priscilla McLean, Ingram Marshall, Georges Bizet, Gustav Mahler, Ludwig von Beethoven, West African music, North Ghana Drumming, Ivory Coast Drumming, W.A. Mozart, Joan LaBarbara, Charles Ives, New Guinea Drumming and Singing, Igor Stravinsky, and Barton McLean. McLean’s music also includes added pedals and musical interludes to unify the work.
The video is a collage involving several branches of the arts as seen through the centuries, the video also being a work of electronic art on its own. Sources of the images, altered by being mixed together and changed through different playback speeds, include PBS footage of “India, Land of Tiger”, Mr. Chihuly, Glass-blowing Artist”, “300th Anniversary of Westminster Cathedral”, “I, Claudius”, and others, along with the Alvin Ailey Dance Ensemble from 1970s, “Amadeus”, London Royal Ballet: Stravinsky’s “Firebird” (1959), Japanese koto player at the Tunugan (Asian) Festival from 1997, and the McLeans’ antique clock, 16th C. Spanish partbook, and 18th C. home fireplace.
Version: Music Video
Year composed: 2001
Duration: 00:21:00
Ensemble type: Electronic Instruments and Sound Sources:Prerecorded Sound
Instrumentation: