Commissioned by New Music America '89, Miami.
Straight Ahead (1989) (11:00)
Originally created for the award winning experimental film Optic
Nerve by Barbara Hammer, a work about the filmmaker's grandmother.
Thorington's sound score takes its title from the question, "Straight
ahead, Grandma?" repeated by the filmmaker as she pushes her grandmother
around the hospital in a wheelchair. In the fragmented context of
the score, the phrase, repeated by the grandmother, "Yes, Barbara,
straight ahead," becomes a metaphor for endurance.
Fiddling Around (1987) (3:56)
A tiny monkey escapes his cage and is pursued by other monkeys and
his keepers. A true story out of Monkey Jungle, Miami, told with monkey
screeches and fiddle music.
Natural Classic(1987) (1:10)
Drop-in cock-a-doodle-doo. Music for cello and rooster.
Parrot Talk (1987) (5:00)
Controlled insanity in sound. A work about repetition and entropy.
Told with live recordings from Parrot Jungle, Miami, feedback, carnival
music, static and other anathema of the broadcast world. Winner of
First Prize in Macrophon '91, the First International Festival of
Radio Art, Woclaw, Poland.
The American Buffalo (1980) (2:00)
Why the American buffalo is not a true buffalo but a bison. And what
we may learn from this ancient creature.
The Dream Sequence, Parts 1 &2 (1979) (5:58)
One of the first compositions for radio to make use of electronic
processing, The Dream Sequence unfolds associationally, its
lyrical text reflecting humorously on the author's rural experience
and her concern for personal disappearance.