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A tone-poem for radio that draws on a number of never-used sounds from the composer's archives, as well as newly recorded materials such as the magical singing tones of high-tension wires in the wind, and the elusive musical hums of the Bay of La Speza (Italy). These sounds are as much about acoustic spaces as they are about geographical ones, and while all vastly different, are powerful sources of natural melody, rhythm, and harmony. Above all they are sounds that suggest the presence of "voices", human, ghostly or otherwise. The definitive character of A Beginner's Guide to Attracting Birds is given by the gradual and continuous digital transformation of these sounds into those of human voices. The work culminates in the slow emergence of John Cage's voice, based on fragmented samples of his Charles Eliot Norton Lectures (1988/89). Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
More Alvin CurranBiographyALVIN CURRAN (New York City/Oakland/Rome) makes music with all means, anywhere, and for all occasions. From rarefied string quartets to blaring ship-horn concerts to underground sound-installations; from computerized ram's horns to MIDI grand pianos to international simulcasts -- these are his natural laboratories. He began composing at Brown University under Ron Nelson and completed his studies at Yale with Elliot Carter. Following a year with Carter in Berlin, he moved to Rome -- his adopted home -- and began his career in the American experimental music tradition. There he cofounded the legendary group Musica Elettronica Viva (with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum). In the early seventies, he struck out on the path of solo performance producing a series of pieces for taped natural sounds, synthesizer, flugelhorn, voice, piano, and found objects that built his reputation as a new music composer in Europe and the United States. In 1992 he was nominated the Milhaud Professor of Composition at Mills College in Oakland, California, where he is today. His recent recordings are available on New Albion, Catalyst (BMG), CRI, Tzadik, Centaur and Mode labels. |