Shows
Cliff CregoTHE ART OF LISTENING no. 2: music, nature, philosophy & new awarenessIMAGE: Nine-leaf BISCUITROOT (Lomatium triternatum), floral umbel close-up, a member of the CARROT family. Made where I am doing fieldwork right now at 1300 meters @ CAMAS OVERLOOK, SOUTH WALLOWAS, OREGON.
The three piece I play and refer to are:
(1) FLOWERS, a soundpoem https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/to-know-the-plants-mp3
(2) LIMIT 576 https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/limit_control-mp3
(3) THE PHILOSOPHER’S LYRE, a set of 11 pieces...https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/the-philosopers-lyre-set2021-04-291h 03
Cliff CregoStarCYCLE DUO project: alpha PYXIS, for two pianos III“The MONK movement”This second movement of Alpha PYXIS pays tribute to one of the most mysterious 24-bar patterns of recent jazz or new music history. Thelonious MONK first recorded EVIDENCE as a header in the WIZARD OF THE V8BES lp with Milt JACKSON. It continued to evolve and crystalize into the classic version we now know over the next decade. It is at once CONSTANT & IRREGULAR, highly ORDERED & wonderfully CHAOTIC, all at one, and one at a time. Timeless..2021-04-0704 min
Cliff Crego“SHARP CURVES. FALLING ROCKS. SEVERE SLIDES.” a music of protest...This little soundpoem music of protest features a version of my PERCUSSION STUDY no. 5 (1.33333 (the ratio of 4 in the time of 3 that generates much of the piece...)). The theme is CLIMATE JUSTICE. The wider circle which is is implied is, it seems to me, as obvious as it is simple:
Climate Crisis will never be addressed properly in a serious way without at the same time addressing the violence of runaway militarism—needed for a secure, constant supply of hydrocarbons—and its evil twin, empire. That’s my view.
IMAGE: A found poem. Text of an actual street sign, on a grav...2021-03-2606 min
Cliff CregoHOW TO TELL IF A DEMOCRACY IS DEAD OR ALIVE, 3 vital signs—a dialogue tapeHOW TO TELL IF A DEMOCRACY IS ALIVE OR DEAD:—three vital signs
Following the doctor’s common analogues of heart beat, breath, and oxygen levels, I suggest: truth in function, the eagle of freedom, and the circle of dialogue.
To set the tone spiritually, I begin with a simple question: What is the geometry of democracy? Is it two guns pointed at each other? Or is it a circle?
At present, the overwhelmingly active formative metaphor is clearly TWO GUNS. Within the conceptual space, we are now habituated to the idea that DEMOCRACY IS A GAME, or worse, DEMOCRACY IS W...2020-11-051h 08
Cliff CregoPERCUSSION STUDY no. 5 (1.333...) “What do we want? CLIMATE JUSTICE! When do we want it? NOW!”PERCUSSION STUDY no. 5 (1.333...) “What do we want? CLIMATE JUSTICE!When do we want it? NOW!”
IMAGE: After Summer Storm, at the climate change photo basecamp where PERCUSSION STUDY no. 5 in five voices was composed. Eagle Cap Wilderness. OREGON.
More percussion music at www.cs-music.com/drums
Or on soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/sets/percussion-cs-music-com-drums2020-08-1804 min
Cliff CregoTHE SPIRIT OF SCIENCE in the Age of Denial, a dialogue circle tape...IMAGE: American DIPPER, listening...
The 100 MINIATURES poster I refer to is at http://picturepoems.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-10/p359061329-5.jpg
The composition I refer to is TRINITY, a soundpoem: The Devil asked, "Do you want total war?" And their God answered, "Yes." https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/trintity-a-soundpoem2020-07-191h 09
Cliff CregoTHE EAGLE OF FREEDOM, no. 2 “Land. Money. Carbon.”THE EAGLE OF FREEDOM, no. 2 “Land. Money. Carbon.”
NOTE: The Keeling Curve, 417.85 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in air 23-May-2020
The original EAGLE OF FREEDOM miniature https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/the-eagle-of-freedom-a-dialogue-tape
IMAGE: The meadow/ forest ecotone, where recording was made, OREGON.2020-05-251h 06
Cliff CregoTALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET, no. 11 ‘The concrete / abstraction cycle’TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET, no. 11 ‘The concrete / abstraction cycle’
The 100 MINIATURE poster ‘Let me remind myself here’ that I keep refering to is here: http://picturepoems.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-10/p593682183-5.jpg
The other POSTER I refer to in the dialogue tape is Understanding the Shape of Change: 12 Primary Concepts bit.ly/1Lo5vQE pdf bit.ly/1ESMhhx Music, Poetry & Dance as movement...
SEE ALSO an INTRO to the shape of change... Cliff-crego – Intro-understanding-the-shape-of-change-12-primary-concepts
The TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET playlist, all very different, some long & hard, some short & easy, all happily recorded outofdoors, #Sun2Sound, is at https://so...2020-05-101h 25
Cliff CregoTHE ME/WE INDEX, the INDIVIDUAL & the COLLECTIVE in an age of pandemics & runaway climate crisisTHE ME/WE INDEX, or the dynamic balance between INDIVIDUAL & the COLLECTIVE in an age of pandemics & runaway climate crisis
This dialogue tape discusses a key feature of right relationship in any group of people, of any size, of any nationality: The dynamic relationship between the part in the whole, the individual and the collective; it is a basic complementarity, and therefore essential in describing any living, intelligent form of movement. The balance between ‘the me’ and ‘the collective’ is what we might call a perennial problem. It is there whether we give it attention or not, and has a certain...2020-03-281h 11
Cliff CregoTHE SCOURGE OF DISINFORMATION, a soundpoem, for my friends David JENSEN & Cathy PattersonIMAGE: The spiraling wood of a Whitebark pine snag, Eagle Cap Wilderness, OREGON. This tree was very likely already dead before Lewis & Clark passed by in 1805/06 not far north of here. Whitebarks, which can reach a thousand or more years of age, live in a much slower timespace, much like the musical movement of the piece featured here, THE SCOURGE OF DISINFORMATION.
The avian soloist which begins the piece is the Lark Sparrow(Chondestes grammacus). I call them the “One Man Band” of the sagebrush steppe because of the marvelously rich complexity of their music. Lark Sparrows are the less visi...2020-02-2005 min
Cliff Crego“LOCK ‘EM UP!” A music of PROTEST in “4 against 5” for 18 percussionists....Should be played without conductor, without music. The tempo tree for the whole is based on the ratio of 5 to 4, which in musical SPACE is the equivalent of a major 3rd.
More percussion music at www.cs-music.com/drums
The webscore of the simplified study version LOCK 'EM UP is at: http://www.cs-music.com/drums/study_1_1.html
AND the pdf is at: http://www.cs-music.com/drums/study_1.pdf
PARTS of simplified version (without instruments) are at: http://www.cs-music.com/drums/study_1.pdf2020-02-1805 min
Cliff CregoTALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET, no. 7, on a quartet of sayings by F.M. AlexanderRECORDED above 6 Mile Meadow, West Forth of the WALLOWA RIVER, Eagle Cap Wilderness, OREGON VIII.25.2019. I ran out of Sun2Sound, so this is just the first part, with the first two of the quartet of aphorisms.2019-08-261h 14
Cliff CregoFIELDNOTES: I report on Climate Breakdown, from the perspective of GLACIER & FOREST TimeRECORDED at a place I call Muir Lake, the South WALLOWAS, Eagle Cap Wilderness VIII.21.20192019-08-212h 05
Cliff CregoFIELDNOTES: I report on the WHITEBARK PINE & CLIMATE BEAKDOWN situation from Cornucopia PeakRecorded on CORNUCOPIA PEAK at +-2650m in the South WALLOWAS, VIII.12.20192019-08-1323 min
Cliff CregoFIELDNOTES: I report on Aspen Decline, Car Culture & a hotter, drier Climate VIII.7.2019Breaking camp in an ASPEN GROVE at 1800 meters, I report on few observations regarding Sudden Aspen Decline (SAD). From the point of view of a hotter, drier climate. And from of view of a wider natural circle than the dominant metaphysics of Car Culture.2019-08-0744 min
Cliff CregoTHOUGHT, CONSCIOUSNESS & ECOANXIETY, a dialogue tape [part I]IMAGE: The”DRY GULTCH FIRE,” Eagle Valley, and the town of RICHLAND, OREGON, IX.13.2015. The (Muted) POWDER RIVER & Reservoir in foreground.
This is the first part of a longer dialogue tape. There are many species of anxiety, which we can think of, for the sake of the dialogue, as a troubled mind caused by some external threat. So with Ecoanxiety, the external threat is big, very big—ecos or household—as big as the Earth itself.
The fear of climate collapse. The fear of mass extinction. The fear of nuclear winter.
The key point will be taken up in Part II: Inst...2019-07-2358 min
Cliff CregoINTRO to ANAPHORA, a streamside nature walk through the text of the pieceRECORDED at HEARTBREAK MEADOW, VII.21.2019, OREGON. IMAGE: Dipper Falls, Eagle Cap Wilderness, flowing into Cliff River, flowingbinto the IMNAHA, flowing into the SNAKE, flowing into the COLUMBIA.
Anaphora, the piece, is on Soundcloud, at: https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/and-into-ploughshares-beat-their-swords-o-lord-our-rulera-music-of-protest2019-07-2246 min
Cliff CregoHERMIT THRUSH DUO, with WESTERN GRAY SQUIRREL VII.10,2019 Wallowas, OREGONIMAGE: The happy yellow school bus of WALLOWA LLAMAS, transporting animals &wilderness hikers into the highcountry. At 1200 meters. They still have another 750 meters to climb. NOTE how dry it is here at a place called CAMAS OVERLOOK. Vernal snowmelt, Arrowleaf & Hooker’s Balsamroot, Dersert Lomatiums, White Mulesears, & Camas Lilies have now all contructed back to their roots, without a trace.
You would not find HERMIT THRUSHES here. Our DUO was recorded 200 meters, or what I call 2 degrees of climate, higher up, in closed canopy oldgrowth Ponderosa Pine & Doug-fir forest.2019-07-1108 min
Cliff CregoFIELDNOTES:—I report on the HERMIT THRUSH decline at HEARTBREAK MEADOW...I report on the sudden steep decline locally of the HERMIT THRUSH The Walt Whitman poem I do is at.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45480/when-lilacs-last-in-the-dooryard-bloomd2019-07-0815 min
Cliff CregoPASSWORD, a thought poem...IMAGE: a page from Hildegard von BINGEN, Liber divinorum operum. LIVE, from HEARTBREAK MEADOW basecamp, VII.5.2019. While cooking morning QUINOA (highly recommended) on a BIOLITE mini woodsrove (also highly recommended), while on a COFFEE fasr (not recommended) NOTE, the BIOLITE fire fan goes out, right on cue. Ah, how wilderness is just full of marvelous accidents...2019-07-0603 min
Cliff CregoTPL (The Philosopher’s Lyre), a streamside introduction...This is a general dialogue-tape-style introduction to a new concert-filling set of 11 pieces. Recorded in the OREGON mountains, on a beautiful JULY morning. A lot of ground is covered. A kind of slow, pleasant, holiday walk into the wilderness, the largely still uncharted world of music as movement, as resonance, as mathematics, as love-energy, as poetry-philosophy performance.
TPL, or THE PHILOSOPHER’S LYRE, set of 11 pieces, can be listen to on Souncloud at: https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/the-philosopers-lyre-set
The mp3 to take backpacking with you is at: DOWNLOAD the much smaller but high quality mp3 [76Mb] for free at: picture-poems.co...2019-07-041h 16
Cliff CregoRIGHT ACTION IN THE FACE OF RUNAWAY MASS EXTINCTION, at Heartbreak Meadow VII.2.2019THE ROOT CAUSE OF EXTINCTION, mourning the loss of the HERMIT THRUSH in the dawn chorus
IMAGE: The Cannabis Highway, a 60 k gravel track, right behind my Office in Eagle Valley, running along the OREGON side of the (Muted) Snake River to the town of HUNTINGTON.2019-07-0202 min
Cliff CregoTHE PHILOSOPHER'S LYRE, a set of 11 pieces, in two parts...PART I "Music? The one thing humans do that makes the rest of Nature jealous..."
(1) THE PHILOSOPHER'S LYRE
(2) THE GOOD & THE BAD, a set of six miniatures
(3) DIFFERENCE
(4) THE VIOLIN & THE NORWEGIAN SPRUCE, a love song, for Carl SAGAN
(5) BORDER WALL, with Simone de HAAN, trombone
(6) POD, finding resonance with the songs of whales, with Simone de HAAN, trombone
PART II "Even I turn, with my religion without a name..."
(7) DARKNESS, on a poem by Lord BYRON
(8) AN EXTINCTION OF A DIFFERENT KIND
(9) SUNSIGHT, for R. Buckminster FULLER
(10) WEEDS, part I
(11) FLOWERS, parts I, II & III
DOWNLOAD the much smaller...2019-06-201h 22
Cliff CregoFLOWERS, a soundpoem in three parts...IMAGE: WAYSIDE CHICHORY (Chichorium intybus) An old-world friend, now thoroughly naturalised, from coast to coast, in North America. I walk this world, this wayside, everywhere I go, each and every day. So I live in the world of this Chichory. Not in this world of HYDROCARBON MAN speeding by in his shiny car in the photograph. So I suffer the same insults of noise, or pollution as my plant and animal friends, and, of course, the near impossibility of these two spatially side-by-side conflicting worlds ever communicating. Even if there not a Climate / Extinction Crisis accelerating right before our eyes...2019-06-1507 min
Cliff CregoWEEDS, for 2 pianos & 10 winds...IMAGE: Jessica sticktight (Heckelia micrantha) on VELCRO, the latter being an early brilliant example of biomimicry, or bio-inspiried design, based on another North American weed, BURDOCK.2019-06-1003 min
Cliff CregoSUNSIGHT, a soundpoem, for Buckminster FULLERFeaturing the Avian solist, the Western MEADOWLARK (Sturnella neglecta). Actually recorded were the piece was composed, BUCKWHEAT OVERLOOK, the South WALLOWAS, OREGON, VI.6.2019
IMAGE: Sunsight at a place I call BUCKY POINT, HIDDEN LAKE, Eagle Cap Wilderness, OREGON2019-06-0706 min
Cliff CregoTHE VIOLIN & THE NORWEGIAN SPRUCE, a love song, for Carl SAGANMUSIC? The one thing humans do
that makes the rest of NATURE jealous...
HEADER & CODA with a winter cohort of coyotes, recorded in the middle of a moonlit night in February on more than a meter of snow. They actually sing directionally into a forested montane bowl and listen to the wood of trees echo their sound.
IMAGE: Composite of a violin's sonogram and rime-covered November Norwegian Spruce, the ALPS2019-05-2804 min
Cliff CregoPATIENCE IS...a soundpoem......at the foot of this, as yet, unclimbed, mountain...
IMAGE: December, (Muted) Snake River Country, OREGON/IDAHO2019-05-1502 min
Cliff CregoON THE POWER OF BOYCOTT, OF SAYING ‘NO’--a dialogue circle tape...RECORDED IV.18.2019 at HEARTBREAK MEADOW basecamp.2019-04-181h 04
Cliff CregoTHE SHAPE OF CHANGE: Intro to the 2nd season of theoretical talks...”On Maps & Movement”THE POSTER I refer to in the dialogue tape is Understanding the Shape of Change: 12 Primary Concepts bit.ly/1Lo5vQE pdf bit.ly/1ESMhhx Music, Poetry & Dance as movement...
IMAGE: The COMPLEMENTARITY POSTER top right is here cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_difference.html Or download pdf here cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_difference.pdf2019-04-161h 06
Cliff CregoANAPHORA: or the TYRANT as a recurrent rouge species of human being...INTRO is at https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/intro_anaphora-m4a
THIS IS THE fifth of a growing set of short occasional pieces. I like to think of these as part musical diary, and part musical bearing witness. The pieces are rather like MIRRORS MADE OF SOUND -- some would say shards of glass & barbed-wire -- mirrors that reflect in an open, honest, naked way the violent insanity of the present cultural, political moment.
The basic theme is simple:
Humanity seems caught in a contradiction between the Demonic and the Divine, caught between, on the one hand, the self-destructive violence of...2019-03-2906 min
Cliff CregoTHE VINE & THE FIG TREE, a peace & climate protest song circleFew things embody the elevated spirit of nonviolent protest more than that of song.. The universality of song transcends for a moment all the arbitrary borders of the world. It heals the wounded heart that would otherwise have us hate.
The harmony of the piece is generated not from what we normally think of his chord changes but rather from what. i call the qualitative ground. Much like pushing down the sustaining pedal of a piano, individual voices simply hold onto individual notes of the melody and sustain them in a kind of floating harmonic cloud. It makes it very...2019-03-2406 min
Cliff CregoBUNKERS ON THE BEACH, for Stéphane HESSEL, in memory of Anne FRANKIMAGE: A V-2, designed by Wernher von BRAUN, test launch, Peenemünde, GERMANY III.2.1942 "V-2 rocket launching sites were set up by the Germans around The Hague in the Netherlands on the 6th of September 1944. The first was launched from here against London on 8 September 1944, and took an estimated 5 minutes to fly the 300 km from the Hague...[...] Arthur Rudolph, chief engineer of the V-2 rocket factory at Peenemünde, endorsed this idea [of slave labor] in April 1943 when a labor shortage developed. More people died building the V-2 rockets than were killed by it as a weapon." [SOURCE: Wikipedia]
FROM TH...2019-03-2303 min
Cliff CregoDIFFERENCE, on 2 Miniatures & 2 Recaman sequences, for 2 pianos, 8 brass & 2 piccolosDIFFERENCE is the third in a new set of pieces, which includes NOTHING & AN EXTINCTION OF A DIFFERENT KIND. INTRO is here https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/intro_difference-m4a
They all take the sound, rhythm and meaning of the miniatures as their point of departure.
The ensemble is distributed 180 degrees in space, here with two maxed-out grand pianos, left / right, two piccolos, two trumpets, two horns, two trombones, and two tubas; it makes a hypercrystaline, high energy, sound.
The sound seems to fit the mathematics. Raw Recaman sequences are feed into Strangeloops spiraling through tempo octaves via a constant factor...2019-03-1904 min
Cliff CregoFIELDNOTES: I report on a pack of SNOWMACHINES invading HEARTBREAK MEADOW...FIELDNOTES: I report on a pack of SNOWMACHINES invading HEARTBREAK MEADOW... by Cliff Crego2019-03-1013 min
Cliff CregoTHE PRICE OF FREEDOM, a music of protest...HERE'S THE 31-step miniature used in the piece:
"The price of freedom is no longer war;
it's the revolution of thought & consciousness
that ends conflict---before---it happens."
It asks a very simple question: Is this true?
I would say that it is. The music unfolds the energy, the sound, the pulse, the rhythm of the question, projecting it into space and time. The mist remarkable thing, I think, is that the music actually DOES or DOES NOT demonstrate or resonate w/ the truth of what is being said, what is being sounded or performed. It always up to the listener to...2019-02-2511 min
Cliff CregoINTRO: 100 b & w MINIATURES Calendar I, "We shape the Music, and then, the Music shapes us"THIS IS A brief 30 minute introduction to my 100 MINIATURES project. There are three black & white 24-month calendars--all recently updated--you can either purchase hardcopy, or download for free, at: http://picture-poems.com/calendars
In this intro, I only talk about the idea of MINIATURE, using but the first text--which is, of course, about Music. You can download the eBOOK version of the set of images & texts presented as a 'calendar' at: pdf [23Mb] http://picture-poems.com/calendars/calendar-miniatures_1_2019.pdf
IMAGE: 100 MINIATURES I, 2019/20202019-02-2035 min
Cliff CregoWOODEN FLUTES, a streamside meditation on the VARIED THRUSH's song...An adagio meditation, on the spirit of a WOOD FLUTE'S sound . . . Recorded in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, w/ a stream-side Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius)--I call them Spirit Thrushes, because I almost never see them, but go running after their sound as soon as they return to the high country in May. Spirit Thrush. Yes. They really are for messengers from a more subtle realm.
Their song is a kind of ethereal frequency modulation of two 'mistuned' unison tones, occurring in cyclical, regular way, but w/ a signature SOUND to SILENCE ratio of about 1 to 8. The qualitative temporal / spatial ground...2019-02-1703 min
Cliff CregoAN EXTINCTION OF A DIFFERENT KIND, longer version, w/ Clark's Nutcrackers counter-singingTHIS IS A longer version of this miniature. Grounded in wilderness. The family cohort of Clark's Nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana)was recorded aty 2500 meters, in JULY in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, OREGON.
The Nutcrackers are a key avian species at altitude. The have for millennia been intimately related to the great WHITEBARK PINES. The relationship is an asymmetrical symbiosis, that is, the pines, because their cones do not open, is completely dependent on the birds to harvest, cache, and thereby distribute their seeds. So the Nutcrackers have an extremely high-quality freely-available food source above 2200 metes, so they stay high all year...2019-02-1501 min
Cliff CregoAN EXTINCTION OF A DIFFERENT KIND, four miniatures on four fractals, for 2 pianos & 8 brassAN EXTINCTION OF A DIFFERENT KIND is in the same stream or species of pieces as "NOTHING, four miniatures on four DRAGON CURVE fractals, for 2 pianos & 8 brass https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/nothing-m4a " It uses the beautiful FEIGENBAUM CONSTANT 4.669 with its period doublings spinning quickly off into marvelous whitewater generative chaos for its raw basic sound relationships.
TO HEAR A different version of the header text, AN EXTINCTION OF A DIFFERENT KIND, in a more natural wilderness context, with two keystone species under threat of extinction because of human activity singing in the background, go to: https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego...2019-02-1307 min
Cliff CregoFIELDNOTES: I report from the Eagle Cap Wilderness on our WHITEBARKS OF THE WALLOWAS CalendarThe WHITEBARKS OF THE WALLOWAS free pdf eBOOK is at http://picture-poems.com/calendars/calendar_wallowa-whitebarks_2019.pdf
The LUNAR-SOLAR Calendar I refer to—celebrating Lunar New Year & the Year of the Pig!— is at http://cs-music.com/features/calendars/lunar-solar_calendar_2019.pdf
PART TWO of this talk is at https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/zoom0058_xy-m4a
FOR MORE BACKGROUND on the WHITEBARKS OF THE WALLOWAS project, I host a regularly updated dialogue resource page at: www.picture-poems.com/whitebarks
TO HEAR or STUDY some of the first pieces for THE SOUND OF EXTINCTION project, go to on Soundcloud (1) STONEPINE SONATA, for...2019-02-061h 04
Cliff CregoBORDER WALL (A mighty fortress is our...), bearing musical witness, w/ Simone de HAAN. tromboneTHIS IS THE fourth of a growing set of short occasional pieces. I like to think of these as part musical diary, and part musical bearing witness. The pieces are rather like MIRRORS MADE OF SOUND -- some would say shards of glass & barbed-wire -- mirrors that reflect in an open, honest, naked way the violent insanity of the present cultural, political moment.
The basic theme is simple:
Humanity seems caught in a contradiction between the Demonic and the Divine, caught between, on the one hand, the self-destructive violence of war and conflict, and, on the other hand, the great...2019-01-1008 min
Cliff CregoTHINK OF A RIVER, a set of 11 pieces...THINK OF A RIVER is a through-composed set of 11 pieces, all but one of which is from 2018. There are, I think, about seven or eight different species of Poetry & Music here, which naturally makes the contrast between them important. All of the pieces emerge out of my concern for the confluence of movement, energy, and meaning in living sound, as well as the music's felt resonance with what I see as the "repertoire of metaphysical urgencies" of the present moment.
Special thanks to my good friend, AUSSIE trombone virtuoso extraordinaire, Simone de HAAN, for working with me and performing all...2019-01-011h 03
Cliff CregoTHINK OF A RIVER, a flowform meditation...IMAGE: Rolling Thunder Falls, Eagle Cap Wilderness, Northeast #OREGON
I'VE BEEN MEDITATING a lot recently on Thoreau's little 7-beat aphorism, "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." We are, after all, marking the 50th anniversary of APOLLO 8 & the great EARTH RISE photograph. Yes, "When we went to Moon, but discovered the Earth." And yet, reactionary forces everywhere continue their mindless attack on our planet home.
"THINK OF A RIVER (as something powerful)" was first composed in preparation of a 56-day double circumambulation of the WALLOWAS I do every year...2018-12-2709 min
Cliff CregoRELEVANCE & THE RESONANCE OF BELLS, a metaphysical miniature...Much of Philosophy & Mathematics, it seems to me, can be explored in Music. But only if we take movement--not simply sound--as primary. There is, of course, nothing new in this idea. It is just that the fragmentation so characteristic of Western Culture shut the door long ago on this possibility. Thankfully, the 3-fold Energy, Digital & Consciousness Revolutions have cracked the door open again. The secrets to be revealed may be far greater than we can at present imagine.
RELEVANCE & THE RESONANCE OF BELLS…
Relevance is a form of resonance. Our seeing draws out differences from the background complexity of "what is...2018-12-2504 min
Cliff CregoTRANCE (All religions are true / All religions are false), w/ Simone de HAAN, solo tromboneTRANCE, from the Latin transire "cross over, go over, pass over, hasten over, pass away," from trans "across, beyond" (see trans-) + ire "to go" (from Proto Indian European root *ei- "to go"). So this suggests a transition from the present dominant, outmoded, and largely false religious traditions which are everywhere causing so much suffering and violence in the world--one need only think of the three monotheistic beliefs that all arose in the desert around the Middle East, a kind of strident wolftone in the consciousness of the world--to something more true.
But it is also TRANCE in the musical YOGA...2018-12-2207 min
Cliff CregoTALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET, no. 6 "When anything is pointed out..."IMAGE: The BUDDHA BARN, at EWAM, "Garden of 1000 BUDDHAS," Arlee, MONTANA USA. The visual composition of identical little Buddhas shading off into darkness reminds me of how the words of the piece "When anything is pointed out…" echo and fade off into the background.
This is the sixth in a series of talks and short demonstrations around a new technique central to my Music, Poetry & Dance performance project, THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE. It’s called, TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET.
"When anything is pointed out..." is a little demonstration of how the technique of TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET makes it poss...2018-12-2006 min
Cliff CregoONCE CONFUSION IS PANDEMIC, a grief circle...What's important in Music, for me, is what I sense as a mysterious confluence of MOVEMENT, MEANING & ENERGY.
This movement has to varying degrees a certain resonance with truth, a resonance that is beyond the things that normally concern us as poets and musicians, like sound, or notation, or measure of any kind.
So, in a way, with music like ONE CONFUSION IS PANDEMIC, we are trying to re-resonate with the ground of truth--which is essentially unknowable--all the while ironically lamenting the loss of truth.
This movement of meaning and energy frequently already exists, silently enfolded, in the texts themselves...2018-12-1407 min
Cliff CregoNOTHING, four miniatures on four DRAGON CURVE fractals, for 2 pianos & 8 brassThe four metaphysical miniatures featured here are: (1) NOTHING; (2) VIVA LA WEB; (3) WEALTH; (4) RELIGION. The basic raw sound is generated with four different iterations of the DRAGON FRACTAL, and then shaped to fit and resonate with the texts, and the two grandpianos and eight brass players.
Using the descriptive language of my new music, poetry & dance performance project, THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE, the primary complementarities features are: (1) DENSITY, high to low & back; (2)SIMPLE / COMPLEX; (3)SMOOTH / ROUGH; (4) SYNCH / ASYNCH.
SEE a collection of sound essays on UNDERSTANDING THE SHAPE OF CHANGE at: https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/sets/the-circle-in-the-square-a-new2018-12-0103 min
Cliff CregoTALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET, no. 5, “If people...”IMAGE: Izzie HUND, playing in spring OREGON mud, a talented student of TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET.
This is the fifth in a series of talks and demonstrations around a new technique central to my Music, Poetry & Dance performance project, THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE. It’s called, TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET.
"If people..." is a little demo of how the technique of TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET makes it possible to take a 37-step (syllable) aphorism, or sutra, of F.M. Alexander -- founder of the #ALEXANDERTechnique -- and actually "step it into sound and music." And, of course, to do th...2018-11-2906 min
Cliff CregoENEMY OF THE STATE (O Lamb of the Lord), Simone de HAAN solo tromboneTHIS IS THE third of a growing set of short occasional pieces. I like to think of these as part musical diary, and part musical activism. The pieces are rather like MIRRORS MADE OF SOUND -- some would say shards of glass & barbed-wire -- mirrors that reflect in an open, honest, naked way the violent insanity of the present cultural, political moment.
The basic theme is simple:
Humanity seems caught in a contradiction between the Demonic and the Divine, caught between, on the one hand, the self-destructive violence of war and conflict, and, on the other hand, the great promise...2018-11-2206 min
Cliff CregoDISKADIA (I.II.III...) for two tubas, electric & bass guitars, 11 percussionists, & mixed ensembleIMAGE: STEENS MOUNTAINS, East Front, the great Alvord Playa, Southeast OREGON
TEXT for this project is at LOSS OF TRUTH? a meditation... "How much longer can NEMESIS hold her breath" pdf bit.ly/2oeytPI AND listen to the text on Soundcloud at: bit.ly/2oerBla2018-11-0705 min
Cliff CregoDEVIL’S TRIANGLE, a music of protest, for triple string, percussion & vocal OCTETSIMAGE: Rock Formation, Owyhee RIVER, OREGON. For triple string, percussion & vocal OCTETS, [here] a synthetic
all-female street-poetry CHORUS.
The title of the piece, “DEVIL’S TRIANGLE,” refers not only to the convergence of dangerous currents and winds at sea, and to arcane sexual geometries, but also much more to the ongoing insidious breakdown of the essential three-part balance of powers of the legislative, executive, & judicial branches of United States government. This reference is made explicit towards the end, when the lead member of the choir — here synthetic, but it could also be performed live with eight singers — quotes FEDERALIST no. 51, composed b...2018-10-1203 min
Cliff CregoTALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET, no. 4, “On relational resonance, part I”THIS IS THE fourth recording in a set of dialogue tapes, recorded while out doing wilderness Climate Crisis photography fieldwork. THE THEME HERE is what I call "relational resonance." I start with the widest circle: "Life is movement. Life is a movement of relationship." And then take the listener on a journey--slowly, on foot--into ever smaller, nested circle of relationship. Until we hit Sound. Poetry. Music. And dance.
Then we observe that relationship can be both QUALITATIVE. And QUANTITATIVE. We ask the question of "Which is more general?"
We also note that mathematics can be thought of as, "The relationship...2018-09-051h 06
Cliff CregoTHOUGHT & FIVE SPECIES OF CONCLUSIONARY RHETORIC, a dialogue tapeA streamside dialogue circle on 5 species of what I call conclusionary rhetoric 1) StrongTALK 2) SweetTALK 3) SmartTALK 4) HateTALK 5) BackTALK
PHOTO: Near where this talk wad recorded in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, OREGON. Slick Rock, HURRICANE VALLEY2018-09-0559 min
Cliff CregoSINE SOLE SILEO / WITHOUT SUN I AM SILENT, a manifesto, for Patrick & Mindy HUNDOn “SINE SOLE SILEO”
IMAGE: A “BLOOD SUN SUNRISE,” seen through Whitebark Pine & morning wildfire smoke, at 2300 m., very close to where this “WITHOUT SUN I AM SILENT” was composed, and this first rough recording produced. Eagle Cap Wilderness, end of August, OREGON.2018-09-0409 min
Cliff CregoICE MOUNTAIN, for strings & 4 ensembles, for David LANDRUM, in friendshipON “ICE MOUNTAIN”
Some people make a smart,
others make us stupid;
Some people make us happy,
others make us sad;
Some people bring us together,
others divide us.
MUSIC, is the difference.
PHOTO: Ice Mountain (aka as ‘The Matterhorn’), looking through Whitebark pines, very close to where this piece was composed and the recording produced, the Eagle Cap Wilderness, OREGON2018-08-2910 min
Cliff CregoTHE WAY OF NONVIOLENCE, a roadside hymnIMAGE: MUIR LAKE (aka "Crater Lake") Eagle Cap Wilderness VII.22.2018
On “THE WAY OF NONVIOLENCE...”
While out on my annual circumambulation of the great MANDALA WHEEL of the WALLOWAS & Eagle Cap Wilderness, I like to pause in the afternoon for a bit of journal writing in the shade. Yes. Real paper. Real handwriting. Really private. Think of that!
Doing THE WHEEL, as I call the trek, takes me six to eight weeks, and most of that time I’m offgrid, blissfully without cell or internet service. Balm for the soul, I might say. It is also,in the spirit of pilgri...2018-07-3004 min
Cliff CregoPOEMS TO LIVE BY... [no. 5] “Death is a dialogue...” Emily DICKINSONIMAGE: Whitebark Pines, with the northface of Eagle Cap in the background, OREGON. Very close to where this POETRY TO LIVE BY episode no. 5 was recorded, VII.10.20182018-07-1446 min
Cliff CregoLET’S GO CAMPING! a musical prosepoem, w/ Simone de HAAN, solo tromboneIMAGE: pickup trailer, waiting, ready to go...Hwy. 2 Northern MONTANA...
This is a little happy prose poem from the first part of my THE LITTLE CLAVIER.
This is thoroughly improvised summer music. I myself am on the road at present, doing wilderness photography work, studying climate crisis at altitude, and frequently camping in different locations each night. So I enjoy composing music that for me seems to freely resonate with this spirit of the open road.
My theme is, of course, living. Or the different strategies of living one sees and experiences in the slow steady movement of a mountain...2018-07-1408 min
Cliff CregoFIELDNOTES: I report on “Siccative Coldfront Firewinds SCF’s”, Wildfire & Climate CrisisFIELDNOTES: I report on “Siccative Coldfront Firewinds SCF’s”, Wildfire & Climate Crisis by Cliff Crego2018-06-2842 min
Cliff CregoTALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET, no. 3, “Step Time, part III”IMAGE: Detail of the geometric rhythms of a CORN LILY, the Veratrum viridis I keep coming back to in the talk. Second most poisonous plant in the Pacific Northwest, it is a native invasive.
This is the third in a series of talks about a new technique central to my New Music, Poetry & Dance performance project, the Circle in the Square. It’s called, TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET.
It is a daily practice, in some ways similar to meditation and yoga, in other ways similar to Alexander technique, and yet other ways similar to a more progressive form of solfeggio.
Th...2018-06-2657 min
Cliff CregoTALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET no. 2, “Step Time, part II”IMAGE: Where this TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET was made...
HERE is the piece I refer to, EPIGRAM, part 3, the MONEY movement https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/epigram-money-3-wav
This is the second in a series of talks about a new technique central to my New Music, Poetry & Dance performance project, the Circle in the Square. It’s called, TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET.
It is a daily practice, in some ways similar to meditation and yoga, in other ways similar to Alexander technique, and yet other ways similar to a more progressive form of solfeggio.
The basic idea is that best and mo...2018-06-241h 09
Cliff CregoTALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET no. 1, “Step Time”IMAGE: Doing TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET atop Krag Peak, the South WALLOWAS, OREGON
This is the first in a series of talks about a new technique central to my New Music, Poetry & Dance performance project, the Circle in the Square. It’s called, TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET.
It is a daily practice, in some ways similar to meditation and yoga, in other ways similar to Alexander technique, and yet other ways similar to a more progressive form of solfeggio.
The basic idea is that best and most natural way to learn complex patterns of movement and meaning—whether they be a si...2018-06-2359 min
Cliff CregoA NOTE TO MYSELF...on the nature of photographyIMAGE: 4th of July, Cornucopia Peak, northside, Eagle Cap Wilderness, OREGON2018-06-2101 min
Cliff CregoTHE SOUND OF DISAPPEARING GLACIERS, a soundpoem, w/ Simone de HAAN, solo tromboneIMAGE: The former BENSON GLACIER, Eagle Cap Wilderness, OREGON2018-06-1809 min
Cliff CregoTRINITY, a soundpoem: The Devil asked, "Do you want total war?" And their God answered, "Yes."IMAGE: Berlyn Brixner / Los Alamos National Laboratory... TRINITY SITE EXPLOSION, 0.016 second after detonation, VII.16.1945. The hemisphere's highest point is about 200 meters above ground zero.
The AVIAN soloists featured in "TRINITY, a soundpoem," are the Tree Swallow, the Spirit or Varied Thrush, & the Hermit Thrush. Recorded at HEARTBREAK MEADOW, OREGON. The former two species no longer return to the meadow in spring, evidently because of the Sudden Aspen Decline (SAD), and other disruptive effects of a hotter, drier climate.2018-05-1309 min
Cliff CregoTHE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE no. 8, “On Complementarity”THE POSTER I refer to in the dialogue tape is Understanding the Shape of Change: 12 Primary Concepts bit.ly/1Lo5vQE pdf bit.ly/1ESMhhx Music, Poetry & Dance as movement...
SEE ALSO an INTRO to the shape of change... Cliff-crego – Intro-understanding-the-shape-of-change-12-primary-concepts
THE RECORDING OF Edgard Varèse quoted in the dialogue tape is on Soundcloud Cliff-crego – Ionization-crego-conducts-var
THE RECORDING of the SWALLOW CLAVIER, w/ links to music Cliff-crego – Ridge-crossing-x-on-the-edge
IMAGE: The COMPLEMENTARITY POSTER top right is here cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_difference.html Or download pdf here cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_difference.pdf2018-05-071h 01
Cliff CregoCLIMATE CRISIS, TRUTH-IN-FUNCTION, & RIGHT ACTION, a dialogue tape...A streamside dialogue tape on why ethical right action is always difficult, frequently taking the form of negation, of simply NOT DOING things we are tacitly strongly attached to. The 100 MINIATURES slideshow I refer to is at http://picture-poems.com/100
IMAGE: Self-portrait on top of Red Mountain, the WALLOWAS, OREGON.2018-04-2737 min
Cliff CregoTHE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE no. 6, “On Movement, part II”THE POSTER I refer to in the dialogue tape is Understanding the Shape of Change: 12 Primary Concepts bit.ly/1Lo5vQE pdf bit.ly/1ESMhhx Music, Poetry & Dance as movement...
SEE ALSO an INTRO to the shape of change... https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/intro-understanding-the-shape-of-change-12-primary-concepts
THE RECORDING OF Edgard Varèse quoted in the dialogue tape is on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/ionization-crego-conducts-var
THE RECORDING of the SWALLOW CLAVIER, w/ links to music https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/ridge-crossing-x-on-the-edge
IMAGE: The COMPLEMENTARITY POSTER top right is here http://cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_difference.html Or download pdf here http://c...2018-04-251h 06
Cliff CregoTHE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE no. 5, “On Movement, part I”THE POSTER I refer to in the dialogue tape is Understanding the Shape of Change: 12 Primary Concepts bit.ly/1Lo5vQE pdf bit.ly/1ESMhhx Music, Poetry & Dance as movement...
SEE ALSO an INTRO to the shape of change... https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/intro-understanding-the-shape-of-change-12-primary-concepts
THE RECORDING OF Edgard Varèse quoted in the dialogue tape is on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/ionization-crego-conducts-var
IMAGE: The COMPLEMENTARITY POSTER top right is here http://cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_difference.html Or download pdf here http://cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_difference.pdf2018-04-2537 min
Cliff CregoTHE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE no. 4, “On Difference, part III” w/ Simone de HAAN, tromboneTHE POSTER I refer to in the dialogue tape is Understanding the Shape of Change: 12 Primary Concepts bit.ly/1Lo5vQE pdf bit.ly/1ESMhhx Music, Poetry & Dance as movement...
SEE ALSO an INTRO to the shape of change... Cliff-crego – Intro-understanding-the-shape-of-change-12-primary-concepts
THE RECORDING OF Edgard Varèse quoted in the dialogue tape is on Soundcloud Cliff-crego – Ionization-crego-conducts-var
IMAGE: The COMPLEMENTARITY POSTER top right is here cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_difference.html Or download pdf here cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_difference.pdf2018-04-2352 min
Cliff CregoFIELDNOTES: I report on Spring Snowmelt, Climate Crisis & the Diurnal FREEZE-THAW cycleFIELDNOTES: I report on Spring Snowmelt, Climate Crisis & the Diurnal FREEZE-THAW cycle by Cliff Crego2018-04-2023 min
Cliff CregoPOEMS TO LIVE BY no. 4, Entrance, a poem by Rainer Maria RILKEThis is no. 4 of a new series of recordings I’m doing called, “POEMS TO LIVE BY.” It is raw, unedited, and made up at a basecamp while doing photography fieldwork. I’m sitting inside my tent, about five in the morning natural time, with a Northwest Coldfront wind ripping the northside of our planet’s new jetstream. It’s -3°C, with a very bad energy or Chi in the air. Think of that! Perfect conditions for pulling a poem out of our medicine bag to warm the heart!
I talk about a Flicker, drumming on a tree nearby. A native inva...2018-04-1736 min
Cliff CregoEND OF MATERIALISM / END OF RELATIVISM, a dialogue tapePHOTO: SAWTOOTH PEAK, The North Wallowas, OREGON
text: END OF MATERIALISM / END OF RELATIVISM
bit.ly/uMhXHE2018-04-131h 06
Cliff CregoBEGGING BOWL, a soundpoemThis is a little sound poem meditation on wholeness & corruption. Wholeness & corruption in especially Art and Science. In a way, this might be reflected or expressed purely orchestrally, perhaps, entirely without words. But I’ll leave that for now to the listener’s imagination.
For now, just let me say that our use of the orchestra reflects the impoverished nature of our current dominant map of the reality of living sound. There are, in my view, countless tacit “false and confused concepts.”
The first of these which I might mention is that we are deeply habituated to thinking in terms of the P...2018-04-1203 min
Cliff CregoCONIFER WEATHER, a love poem...Recorded in the June Eagle Cap Wilderness, OREGON.
CONIFER WEATHER, a love poem...
Green The universe is green
Gentle rain. Water drops are everywhere.
Living inside a cloud.
Water drops are everywhere.
How many shades of green are there?
From blue moving to yellow,
and everything in between.
How many shapes of leaves are there?
From the perfect spear of the water drop,
to the sharp needles of the spruce and back.
Green. The universe is green.
Everything is embraced by the gray,
motionless mist.The distance sound
of rushing water.
No place to go. This slow, growing sound,
of...2018-04-0802 min
Cliff CregoEPIGRAM, a soundpoem, second (Confusion Is Pandemic) movementThis is the second movement of my EPIGRAM wind-percussion orchestra soundpoem project. It is based on one of my MINIATURES, “Confusion is pandemic.“ Here, we pick up the thread of meaning where the first, Hannah ARENDT movement [ https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/confusion-is-pandemc-i-wav ] left off: as she puts it, with a culture that has lost all sense of the reality of experience, and has long ago – – at least in the now-dominant Privatization and Commercialization-of-everything Political environment – – lost all sense of, and respect for, the intellectual standards of thought in thinking.
Like all my writing, “Confusion is pandemic” asks a simple question: Is this true? I...2018-03-0404 min
Cliff CregoTRUTH-IN-FUNCTION, CYCLES OF SELF-CORRECTION, & RETHINKING DEMOCRACY, a dialogue tapeI’m experimenting live-time here with something I call in the dialogue tape itself, “dialogue light.”
By this I mean, being a little bit more spartan in my prose, and keeping the discussion down to 15 minutes or less.
This is, after all, only fitting. I’m up here at HEARTBREAK MEADOW Basecamp. It is February. New snow. And it is cold. So, as I always say: winter, snow, and cold keep a guy honest. It’s a kind of purification, really.
And well, that is our theme: The ever-turning natural cycle of intelligence which is truth-in-function, which is self-correction, which is true de...2018-02-1515 min
Cliff CregoINTRO: “Of Clouds & Clocks” for DRUMKIT duo, a StarCycle ProjectThis is an introduction to the first movement of a new StarCYCLE Project I’m excited about, for two drumkits. There are a few things that are unusual about it that I might mention here: first, I originally did the recording as a coda to a fieldnote report on water, snowpack, & climate crisis. [ALSO on Soundcloud, so you can listen to the whole report, if you’d like, at your convenience, at https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/fieldnotes-water-wav
So, I am recording out of doors in the dead of winter, and a half meter of snow. The second thing I might ment...2018-02-1207 min
Cliff CregoTHINKING LIKE A STONEPINE, a manifesto...This is a little high-country soundpoem; It is also a manifesto, of a kind. About Poetry. About Music. About Nature. And especially, a new, more harmonious and creative relationship between all three:---Poetry. Music. And Nature.
IMAGE: Whitebark Pines on solid granite. Center of the Eagle Cap Wilderness, Oregon. (Lost) Glacier Peak, in the background. I'm presently on a trek through the Northwest -- on mt bike, ski, snowshoe & foot -- working on a photobook of Climate Crisis & the radical decline of the Whitebark Pines, a keystone species. For an intro on Soundcloud, go to https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/zoom0056...2018-01-2103 min
Cliff CregoLiving Water & Consciousness: a dialogue tapeTHE GALLERY OF TEXTS & ± 700 Images I refer to in the dialogue tape is at: http://picture-poems.com/water I use this as one of the slidetalks that I do w/ small groups of people when I'm on the road. It's a lot of fun. Also for me. The images play at RANDOM, so I never really now what I'm going to be talking about. Every time, I discover new things I hadn't seen before, new resonance between colors & forms, new relationships. PLAY THROUGH IT, and let me know what you think!
IMAGE: Dipper Falls, Cliff River, Eagle Cap Wilderness, the W...2018-01-2017 min
Cliff CregoPOEMS TO LIVE BY [no. 1] Rainer Maria RLKE, [I believe...]Out doing May high-country photography fieldwork, still early in the morning, a pause a while, and start a new series of recordings, POEMS TO LIVE BY. [Please excuse two little windy waves in the recording...] The piece I do towards the end, is from Rainer Maria RILKE, "I believe in everything not yet said...." On Soundcloud at: Rainer Maria RILKE, "I believe in everything not yet said," read & tr. by Cliff CREGO http://bit.ly/2hS899j
IMAGE: Whitebark Pine Country, May aspect, SOUTH #WALLOWAS, #OREGON I just wanted to share with many poet/musician friends the joy to awakening...2017-11-2417 min
Cliff CregoRainer Maria RILKE, "I believe in everything not yet said," read & tr. by Cliff CREGO#POEMS TO LIVE BY? Honest. Naked. Healing. Energy of Insight. Rooted in Earth. Crystallized meaning, movement, living sound. Learned by heart2017-04-1001 min
Cliff CregoREAL PHILOSOPHY? Walking the ecotone between Nature & CulturePhilosophy as the great circle of #dialogue that surrounds #ART #SCIENCE & #RELIGION
MUSIC intro & outro is on soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/jim-jam-for-sabar-or-djembe
JIM-JAM, for #sabar (or #djembe) orchestra w/ 3 voices, one MASTER #DRUMMER, and two choirs, left & right
DOWNLOAD master drummer part pdf (color dynamics) at: bit.ly/1cHZ1sI
GO TO #iPad webscore CS | JIM-JAM (page 1 of 17) bit.ly/U4MdFT2017-04-1002 min
Cliff CregoRILKE: Sonnets To Orpheus [2nd Part] I: read & tr. by CLIFF CREGO#soundpoem #RILKE Sonnets To Orpheus [2nd Part]I "Breath, you invisible poem!" #mp3 [5M] http://bit.ly/2oTkOO8 pdf http://bit.ly/2phTPIE
MUSIC heard is from TIMELINE, on soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/timeline-a-vibraphone-marimba-duo-for-donald-erb-1928-20082017-04-0903 min
Cliff Crego3 MINIATURES: Poetry of Images - Epithets of a Species - On the WaysideMUSIC interpolations are from the StarCYCLE Project "cih--for flute solo. On Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/from-my-starcycle-project-cih
POSTER: THE POETRY OF IMAGES pdf http://bit.ly/2nsvYX4
INTRO: Cih--for solo flute bit.ly/gloobx2017-03-2806 min
Cliff CregoSONNETS TO ORPHEUS III [FIRST PART] read & tr. by CLIFF CREGO#RILKE SONNETS TO ORPHEUS III [1st part]
"True singing is a different kind of breath"
mp3 http://bit.ly/2ndAsSM
pdf http://bit.ly/2mQAjS42017-03-2203 min
Cliff CregoRemco CAMPERT, Resistance doesn't begin with big words, tr. & read by CLIFF CREGO"Resistance" is a word that's much in the air these days. Here's a little masterpiece on that theme by #RemcoCAMPERT, by far the finest living Dutch poet. This is just a rough recording, but listen to the wonderful sequence of images -- what #RobertBLY has called LEAPING POETRY -- resonating "sotto voce" one after the other from large, to small, and back again.
TEXT in Dutch & English is at r2c, my website for Dutch poetry in new translations...June: The Poetry of Place http://bit.ly/2gZOelR
IMAGE: The maestro, with his obligatory cigarette...2016-12-2102 min
Cliff CregoRILKE: Death Experience / Todeserfahrung, read & tr. by CLIFF CREGOfrom intro IMAGES FROM THE PERIPHERY OF TIME
Texts http://bit.ly/2gX53Si
... How different is the language of Death Experience. In this little-known masterpiece, we find Rilke using with complete confidence an imagery and tone which is very close to Shakespeare and yet very unlike the other poems of the collection. In an era in which we are all at least outwardly conditioned by a mechanistic science to time as measured by the clock and matter devoid of all spirit, Rilke's moving closing lines:
"...but your far away,
removed out of our performance existence,
sometimes overcomes us, as...2016-12-0505 min
Cliff CregoConcertMIX PODCAST picture-poems.com for IX.21.2016A continuous stream of twelve tracks, this time w/o INTRO...
(1) DEDICATION, for Rolf & Christian
(2) EVENING / ABEND, by Rainer Maria RILKE, tr. by Cliff Crego
(3) CHILL MOUNTAINS OF THE HEART [music: "invention in 2 voices']
(4) STONEPINE Sonata, for violin & piano [part of my Whitebark Pine PROJECT]
(5) ON THE NECESSITY OF POETRY
(6) SIX MINIATURES [music: StarCYCLE project, "cih, for flute]
(7) URANIUM 238, a thought poem [music: StarCYCLE project, "mintaka, for 7 drums"
(8) AMSTERDAM BY NIGHT
(9) DIABOLUS IN CANNABIS [music: PHAROS, for 14 players]
(10) SONGS OF A WAYFARER
(11) STONESONG, on 3 poems by Gerrit ACHTERBERG, tr. by Cliff Crego
(12) WALKING THE WORLD: Backpack Pilgrim
PHOTO: Autumn Path...2016-09-1757 min
Cliff CregoRILKE: "Exposed on the mountains of the heart," read & tr. by CLIFF CREGO#RILKE #de #en Exposed on the mountains of the heart TEXT http://bit.ly/1WGTIkt #mp3 [7Mb] http://bit.ly/1MliXbI
♫ from WINTER SONGS, "Exposed on the mountains of the heart," #violin & #mezzosoprano SCORE http://bit.ly/1Umj7Sz http://bit.ly/1Umj7SD
PHOTO: Urnerland, the ALPS, fall aspect2016-03-2305 min
Cliff CregoRainer Maria RILKE, "Prayer" read & tr. by CLIFF CREGOI'm working on this poem for a piece for mezzo-soprano. So I'm learning it -- again -- by heart. [That's why I don't want to hear it in German. I just want the sound in English in my ears right now.]
So very beautiful . . .
TEXT in GERMAN & ENGLISH is at http://picture-poems.com/rilke/features/leaf.html
IMAGE: Last light, POP CREEK PASS (2500 m.), August, Eagle Cap Wilderness, OREGON2016-03-1401 min
Cliff CregoCYCLE / CIRKELLOOP, a poem by Albert Verwey, read & tr. by CLIFF CREGOPORTRAIT of the young Albert VERWEY, by Jan VETH. TEXTS and more at "r2c---Straight ROADS. Slow RIVERS. Deep CLAY," my website for Dutch poetry in English translation, http://www.cs-music.com/r2c.html
CIRCLE / CIRKELLOOP (1908) text in Dutch & English is at: http://bit.ly/1TndyTH2016-02-0403 min
Cliff CregoCROW & COYOTE discuss the Pope's pilgrimage to WashingtonTHIS IS A LITTLE improvised political satire piece I recorded back at Camp LOST & FOUND in August. The setting, of course, is the great Oregon wilderness. I had just been out on a two-month circumambulation of the WALLOWAS, on foot & mountain bike, documenting the effects of a hotter, drier climate on the great Whitebark pines at the top of the range, during what will most certainly come to be known as another "summer from hell." I was sitting looking at the imposing limestone cliff in the photograph while recording. I had been thinking, "If we need the corrupt, false authority...2015-09-1809 min
Cliff CregoIT'S POSSIBLE, a poem by Rainer Maria RILKE, read & tr. by CLIFF CREGOTEXTS ARE at: http://bit.ly/1PpJWi0
DOWNLOAD: #FreeFriday RILKE IN THE WALLOWAS 80 new tr. & 120 photos, by CLIFF CREGO pdf 212 p/ 208 Mb bit.ly/mA3Ly7
PHOTO: lostine RIVER, summer, Eagle Cap Wilderness, OREGON2015-05-0703 min
Cliff CregoSONNETS TO ORPHEUS XXI (FIRST PART), a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, read & tr. by CLIFF CREGOThe famous Sonnet -- a children's poem almost - Rilke pasted into the 1st edition after a friend said the collection seemed, "too severe..."
TEXT IN English & German is at: http://bit.ly/1EN193a
DOWNLOAD: #FreeFriday RILKE IN THE WALLOWAS 80 new tr. & 120 photos, by CLIFF CREGO pdf 212 p/ 208 Mb bit.ly/mA3Ly7
PHOTO: Spring Beauty DUO (Claytonia lanceolata), skyview. Also known as Indian potato, for their small but highly edible corms...2015-05-0303 min
Cliff CregoFor a tree in the Vondel Park, a poem by M. Vasalis, read & tr. by CLIFF CREGOTEXT IN DUTCH & English is at: http://bit.ly/1OKjiFp
M. Vasalis (1909-1998). Dutch psychiatrist and poet. M. Vasalis was her pseudonym, a Latinized version of her maiden name.
Aan een boom in het Vondelpark is from "Vergezichten en gezichten" / "Views and Faces" a collection that appeared in 1954
PHOTO: M. Vasalis c. 1964, photographer unknown . . .2015-05-0102 min
Cliff Cregofrom WINTER SONGS, "Exposed on the mountains of the heart," mezzo-soprano & violinTHIS IS THE poem & performance model of the 1st "Rilke movement" of my WINTER SONGS, for mezzo-soprano & violin. "Exposed on the mountains of the heart." It starts with a short intro, followed by the Rilke piece, first in German, and then in English translation. Lastly, we hear the music.
DOWNLOAD pdf of performance score here: http://bit.ly/1zW7sfh
All of the movements can be done as independent projects. It might be nice, like here, to perform the poem as a duo, trading or counter-sing lines, as it were, between singer and instrumentalist. As always, the poem should be...2015-01-0408 min
Cliff CregoPercussion STUDY No. 4: in 5 voices "3:2 shift"THE FIVE VOICES of STUDY No. 4 [score pdf http://bit.ly/IPNf6w] should be distributed in space in three groups, w/ conducting master drummer in the center. The outer two groups of two voices can be played by any number of performers..
The greater the contrast between the "HIGH CULTURE" of breath-taking rhythmic virtuosity and preciseness of ensemble (playing without music), and, at the opposite dynamic extreme, the "LOW CULTURE" of pickup rubbish junkyard instrumentation of the five independent voices, the better. Be creative!
And change parts and instrumentation frequently, as well as occasionally just sing and clap the...2013-12-0605 min