VOICES OF THE WILD
Priscilla McLean
About this work:
Originally written for solo performer with electoacoustic instruments and full orchestra, VOICES OF THE WILD, under an NEA Composer Grant (1986) was premiered by the Albany Symphony in 1988, Julius Hedgi, conducting, and Priscilla McLean as soloist.
Barton McLean was soloist and composer of the second movement, and has since withdrawn his music. The original version of VOICES OF THE WILD was changed, due to evolving electronics, to a short piece for orchestra and recorded voices on CD, eliminating the soloist, in 2012, and is solely the work of Priscilla McLean.
The recording heard here is from a dress rehearsal of the Chico Symphony, Chico, CA in 1990 with Priscilla McLean as soloist, and is not available commercially. The wild recorded sounds are, in order, spring peepers (tiny tree frogs), pond frogs, wolves, whales, and ending with peepers. When the two-movement version was performed, this first movement was called "Printemps-Rites", as the "true rites of spring".
Foremost is the blending of animal and orchestral sounds in a kind of soundmass at times, and soloistic at other times. The piece is in arch form, the climax being with a lone humpbacked whale (recorded by McLean in Hawaii) becoming a choir of whales with full orchestra reaching an apex of drama and gradually receding to a quiet end with orchestral solos and spring peepers, much as it began. Bonding with nature is a highlight of McLean's music.
Version: orchestra and recorded sounds
Year composed: 1987
Duration: 00:14:00
Ensemble type: Orchestra:Standard Orchestra
Instrumentation: 2 Flute, 2 Oboe, 2 Clarinet, 3 Bassoon, 4 Horn in F, 2 Trumpet, 2 Trombone, 1 Tuba, 1 Timpani, 3 Percussion (General), 1 Strings (General)
Instrumentation notes: Recorded sounds on CD, Orch: 2*2*23 4221 timp, perc(3) str