A set of dialogue tapes on the relationship between Music & Nature, performance practice, and the liberation of musical thought...

THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE, a new way of looking at Music, Poetry & Dance, based on movement

IMAGE: Small whitewater snowmelt stream, close to where this talk was recorded. The South WALLOWAS, OREGON.

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 pieces I refer to are here:

(1)StarCYCLE DUO project: alpha PYXIS, for two pianos https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/sets/starcycle-duo-project-alpha

(2)StarCYCLE DUO project, ARA, for vibraphone & marimba https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/sets/starcycle-duo-project-ara-for

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.pdf

THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE no. 10 “Nature, Culture & Movement in Space”

Jaehyuck Choi (1994) - Signal (2022)
for soprano saxophone and trombone (2022)

Live at Concours Nicati 2023
26.08.2023

Duo Signal 
Alejandro Oliván - soprano saxophone
Adrián Albaladejo Díaz - trombone

https://www.duosignal.net/

Audio recording: Christophe Egea
Audio mix and mastering: Clément Marie

Salquin Konzertsaal, Hochschule Luzern-Musik

Jaehyuck Choi - Signal (2022) - live, Luzern - 26.08.2023

Special thanks to my good friend, Simone de HAAN, Australian new music trombonist extraordinaire…I couldn’t have done this project without his help.

“What Israel is doing today cannot be condoned, and to invoke the horrors of the past to justify those of the present is gross hypocrisy.”

TEXT of Bertrand Russell’s Last letter used here is at http://www.picture-poems.com/pdfs/russells-last-letter.pdf

Feel free to make your own, I am sure, much better performance of the text. The track for the orchestral background (minus voice) is here:  http://picture-poems.com/mp3/russell_no-voice.wav

IMAGE: Bertrand RUSSELL, 1957

RUSSELL’S 1970 LAST LETTER, a call for peace in the Middle East

PHOTO: YUM CHENMO--"Great Wisdom Mother" at EWAM, Garden of 1000 Buddhas, Jocko Valley, Arlee, Montana

SEE TEXT at: http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/1000-buddhas_9-29-10_8bw.html

RETWEET #buddhism A QUESTION OF #NONVIOLENCE, OR NON-EXISTENCE—a meditation pdf [140k] http://bit.ly/1nkSlvg mp3 [3.7Mb] http://bit.ly/1nkSjDB

A QUESTION OF NON-VIOLENCE, OR NON-EXISTENCE,  a meditation . . .

PHOTO: Arinica (Arnica montana) & Butterfly, the Alps

POSTER is at: http://www.cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_sonnet-XIV-2.html

POSTER pdf is at: http://www.cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_sonnet-XIV-2.pdf

DOWNLOAD: #FreeFriday RILKE IN THE WALLOWAS 80 new tr. & 120 photos, by CLIFF CREGO pdf 212 p/ 208 Mb http://bit.ly/mA3Ly7

RILKE: Sonnets to Orpheus, XIV [second part], German/English, tr. Cliff Crego

A 17 seventeen-step poem is a kind of generalized HAIKU. How it is notated in the score isn’t relevant. Only the 17 steps as we hear/sense/feel them as a dance, a pattern of movement, is important.

A SEQUENCE strings 17 of these seventeen-step poems together, like strings of lights on a Christmas tree. Each string has a different color or theme or center.

There are 17 SEQUENCES. Here, we hear the first nine.

Each numbered pattern we hear is a single image or experience from a bike packing pilgrimage made through the mountains of IDAHO and OREGON. 120 days / 80 camps. Many more, new special places and new friends.

TEXT of SEQUENCES I through XI… (rough draft…) is at http://www.picture-poems.com/pdfs/lost-in-idaho.pdf

IMAGE: My bike packing rig, MISSOULA. I cache the bike, and periodically change over to boots and backpack for wilderness photography work, and then hike back out to my bike.

LOST IN IDAHO, A pilgrim’s notebook….Sequences I through IX

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG3XXq8_01w

The immediate inspiration for my 'Fragment 16 (Xenogothic Triple Canon)' was a piece by the composer Matt Barber (https://soundcloud.com/brbrofsvl ) titled 'Prelude and Canon for Wind Quintet' ( which you can listen to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhKDdcFm8l0 ). The title belies his piece's compositional virtuosity: the canon is in five different superimposed speeds, and uses late romantic tonal language. It caused quite a stir at Eastman when it was first played there, despite its short length. Matt's musicianship has been inspirational to me since I was 18 years old, and in some ways I feel like I am always several steps behind him. So I also wanted to write a polytempic canon in a historical contrapuntal style, and Avignon around 1370 was my target.

I failed, quickly: my piece is not strictly in three different consistent speeds (much too difficult), but the melodies in each voice, otherwise all direct copies of one another, do get pervasively pushed and pulled like taffy into and out of shifting speeds. I partly attribute my failure to my beloved teacher, Jean-François Charles, who suggested “Why not write a canon at the [melodic distance of a] 7th? ”, suggesting that canons at the 5th and octave were rather passé. I took him up on this, but it made life harder. For example, for technical reasons, descending scales were now basically off limits, and descending sixths become sort-of necessary as an escape hatch, both features which were uncommon in the melodic style of the medieval period. Nevertheless, it was great fun getting the piece to sound as 'medieval' as possible given these constraints. I can't take credit for the coinage 'Xenogothic'; that honor belongs to microtonal theorist and composer Margo Schulter (https://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/QuickTour.html). Please look up her and Matt's music if you get the chance.

Thanks to the JACK Quartet  for this wonderful performance.

Fragment 16 (Xenogothic Triple Canon)

In the silence of the night, the bubo bubo releases its voice into the valley with all its majesty; its depth rivals that of the night itself.

recorded at midnight in Niğde Aladağlar, April 30, 2025

Bubo Bubo (Eagle Owl) Aladaglar, Emli Vadisi

Pied Butcherbird song at dawn, accompanied by White-winged Fairywren, Trillers, Miners, Emu booms,  Magpies et al, in the NSW outback near Lightning Ridge

Pied Butcherbird Sunrise Recital

Water loss on land adds to rising seas: global drying with gravity satellite expert Jay Famiglietti.  Is this planet actually a living cooperative? Explore with science journalist Ferris Jabr. Expect abrupt shifts in big systems, from ocean currents to ice - new science led by Sjoerd Terpstra.  Three interviews.

Global drying, Gaia & Abrupt Change

This is a little improvised dialogue circle tape on improvisation. What makes this recording a bit different is that it’s intended mostly for those who tune in regularly to my New Music, Poetry & Dance performance project, THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE. It includes quite a bit a natural sound which, up here on wilderness’ edge where I’m doing photography climate crisis fieldwork at the moment, the calls of Mother Earth are pretty much always a part of our recordings. A few Flickers are featured. No, these are not any of my Dutch friends singing along in Amsterdam’s Gay Pride parade, but, Norther Flickers (Colaptes auratus), a wonderful resident species of woodpecker here at HEARTBREAK MEADOW basecamp. 

And my good friend, Simone de HAAN, puts in a brief 3-fold appearance as well, with that wonderfully resonant sound of his, recorded at St. Paul’s Church in Freo, Australia, some 15,000km away from where I now sit. Distance. A sign of these uncertain times, yes, yet vibrant with such spectacular new opportunity. Distance...yes, I can’t thinking of my little basecamp village in the Alps, and the wonderful sounds of Alpine Horns, Not the Hollywood secondhand cliché, but the real thing, the true instrument, made of real Sprucewood, filling up an entire valley with its sound.

As I mention in the introduction to the dialogue, the theme of improvisation is approached negatively, that is, entirely by addressing what improvisation IS NOT, in my view. So we’re looking at improvisation from the widest possible circles possible, those of philosophy & consciousness.

IMAGE: April Glacier Lilies (Erythronium grandiforum), right now. These are some of the most beautiful and wildly abundant of what are called “spring ephemerals.” They appear directly after snowmelt. They are perennial. They are highly edible. Not a survival food, but think more of a fine salad at a five star French restaurant in Paris. One of Mother Earth’s most delicate improvisations...

THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE no. 1, “On Improvisation,”  w/ Simone de HAAN on “Alpine horn”

THE POSTER I refer to in the dialogue tape is here http://cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_12-concepts.html Or download as pdf here http://cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_12-concepts.pdf

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.pdf

THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE no. 2, “On Difference, “ w/ Simone de HAAN, trombone

THE POSTER I refer to in the dialogue tape is here cs-music.com/features/cards/pos…r_12-concepts.html Or download as pdf here cs-music.com/features/cards/poster_12-concepts.pdf

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.pdf

THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE no. 3, “On Difference, part II,” w/ Simone de HAAN, trombone

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

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.pdf

THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE no. 4, “On Difference, part III” w/ Simone de HAAN, trombone

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.pdf

THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE no. 5, “On Movement, part I”

σαν της αυγής ονείρατα και σκιάχτρα σαν της νύχτας (like dreams of the dawn and scarecrows of the night) • for soprano, accordion & marimba • a sound illustration on poetry by Kostis Palamas • composed by Christos Farmakis in 2020

0:00 Σιωπή | Silence
2:25 Μάγισσες αρμέγουν το φεγγάρι | Witches milking the moon
5:24 Βροχή από αίμα | Rain of blood

performed by KIMI ensemble • https://www.kimi-ensemble.com/
Þórgunnur Anna Örnólfsdóttir • soprano
Katerina Anagnostidou • marimba
Jónas Ásgeirsson • accordion

http://christosfarmakis.com/

like dreams of the dawn and scarecrows of the night

Composer. Writer. Photographer. Former conductor & founder of the ASKO ensemble.

On a bike/ski/hike trek of the Pacific Northwest studying native plants & climate breakdown 🌲 from sagebrush sea to whitebark pine. Composing off-grid the whole way.

#Sun2Sound 🌕 on Bluesky

THINKING LIKE A STONEPINE, a soundpoem manifesto https://vimeo.com/844665859

“LOVE & WATER, three thought poems w/ coda, PHAROS for small orchestra, “Nightwind”” https://vimeo.com/847079690 

CURRENTLY on mt bike/ski/climbing trek through Pacific Northwest, working on a photobook about WHITEBARK PINE COLLAPSE and CLIMATE CRISIS. BASES in the WALLOWAS | AMSTERDAM | ALPS. 

WEEKLY photo/poetry updates at www.picture-poems.com & THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE new music, poetry & dance performance project at www.cs-music.com

ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT for progressive, tech-savy, instrumental virtuosi interested in dialogue & collaborative undertakings.

CONTACT cliff@picture-opoems.com
Or on SKYPE or FACETIME @cliffcrego

MUSIC? The one thing humans do,
that makes the rest of nature jealous.

THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE no. 10 “Nature, Culture & Movement in Space”

Cliff Crego

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