This is the 1st movement of a larger piece for my electronic, hand-played, e-percussion orchestra. The text of the poem is below, in English, together with the German original.

RILKE & MUSIC? I should say here, that I very much dislike hearing the amazingly sonorous, resonant verse of Rilke set to music. [I get requests all the time for my English translations, and I always, in a hopefully gentle way, try to discourage people.] This is because the music is already very powerfully THERE, in the music of the poem itself. So the original natural music of the poem is what is lost once the music is added. With this soundpoem cycle, however, I'm trying something else. I do the poems as I hear them as a poem, not as song, and then, I've composed a space--a kind of landscape, really--around them. This seems to complement the movement of meaning of the poems that leaves the spirit of the urtext intact.

Title Page 

It's easy for the rich and fortunate to be silent, 
nobody wants to know who they are. 
That is why the destitute must show themselves, 
must say: I am blind, 
or: that is what I'm about to become, 
or: it's not going very well with me here on Earth, 
or: I have a sick child, 
or: this is where I'm kind of all stuck together . . . 

And perhaps even that is not enough. 

Despite everything, as if they were things, 
people walk right by, and so they must sing. 

And one hears good music there. 

Truly, people are strange; They'd 
rather hear castrati in boys' choirs. 

But God himself comes and remains a long time 
when these disfigured ones begin to disturb him.

Rainer Maria Rilke (tr. CLIFF CREGO)

Titelblatt

Die Reichen und Glücklichen haben gut schweigen,
niemand will wissen, was sie sind.
Aber die Dürftigen müßen sich zeigen,
müßen sagen: ich bin blind,
oder: ich bin im Begriff es zu werden
oder: es geht mir nicht gut auf Erden,
oder: ich habe ein krankes Kind,
oder: da bin ich zusammengefügt . . .

Und vielleicht, daß das gar nicht genügt.

Und weil alle sonst, wie an Dingen,
an ihen vorbeigehen, müßen sie singen.

Und da hört man noch guten Gesang.

Freilich die Menchen sind seltsam; sie hören
lieber Kastraten in Knabenchören.

Aber Gott selber kommt und bleibt lang,
wenn ihn diese Beschnittenen stören.

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


from THE VOICES: "Title Page" (after RILKE)

The ‘frostbYte cycle’, a collection of ongoing pieces central to which are location based field recordings I made whilst on expedition throughout the Arctic region of Svalbard (Spitsbergen). Positioned at 79° north, 10° East (situated above Norway) the archipelago of
Spitsbergen is a truly remarkable part of the world that continues to inspire awe and fascination, and is often at the heart of our collective consciousness for its ecological and climatic sensitivity. 

It’s renowned for its visual and cinematic beauty, yet it’s also no surprise to find that sound plays an integral role in the uniqueness of its appeal. There’s a great deal of sonic activity within the archipelago, both animal and aqueous and the frostbYte cycle of works seeks to portray some of these sonorities in a highly abstracted, yet clearly discernible way.

Anthozoa Stereo Stereo 16 Bit 44.1KHz  Daniel Blinkhorn -

MOONLIGHT - (TOVAH EDIT)

First I would like to thank Daniel Blinkhorn (Please have a look at https://soundcloud.com/danielblinkhorn for more wonderful field recordings) for this collaboration.

You hear a fusion of arctic field recording, piano and some electronic sounds. 

I had the topics of overproduction/-consumption, climate change and melting ice as well as emotional numbing and defreecing in my mind when I composed the track. 

I hope you will feel it!

Clara

Inside.WOMEN.Four (collabo with Daniel Blinkhorn)

@Piecey is a young artist from Sydney with a penchant for organic textures and field recordings. This lust for realness translates into emotive, pulsating, captivating and hypnotic sounds.

Woman are beautiful takes you through a fantastic soundscape of recorded noises combined with an insatiably forward thinking percussion driven melody.

Free Download

Piecey - Women Are Beautiful (Radio Edit)

Elements and minerals lay buried in the landscape tracing diagrams of human activity. Specks of alluvial Gold washed down to the flood plain from worked-out mountain mine shafts; the mineral auras that reveal the long-vanished outlines of farm-buildings and the tell-tale chemical fallout from workplaces.

Boyd painted this (mineralised) landscape with colours which were themselves formulated from earthy compounds and exotic metals, milled to a fine paste in linseed oil and turpentine.

"Heavy Metal" invites us to interact with one of Arthur Boyd’s painting in his old studio at the Bundanon Homestead to discover a hidden world of elements and minerals in an experience that is simultaneously chemical, visual and musical.

Heavy Metal 01

Hydrophone recording on iceberg_Position 81° north, 10° East_Spitsbergen/ Svalbard_Arctic Circle__(Monophonic Recording)

Hydrophone recording on iceberg_(Monophonic Recording)

Field recordings made in Tulum at Ontopo 2017.

Ontopo 2017 Sounds

C. 1950 acetate recording of Dylan Thomas reading at Harvard during his visit to America. There is a portion on Side 2 where Mr. Thomas tells the producers to strike the recording. Then it begins again on the Side 3. Mixed down with Anne Delaney playing mbira while looking out a second story window.

Anthozoa Stereo Stereo 16 Bit 44.1KHz Daniel Blinkhorn -

danielblinkhorn

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