Marcus Aurelius: Meditations pg. 26, 2:
We ought to observe also that even the small characteristics of things produced according to nature have something in them pleasing and attractive.  For instance, when a loaf of bread is baked there are cracks in the surface, and these breaks, which are contrary to the purpose of the baker, are beautiful in their way, and stimulate the appetite.  Again, figs, when they are quite ripe gape open; and ripe olives when they are near to rotting are particularly good to look at.  And ears of corn bending down, and a lion's eyebrows, and the foam which flows from the mouth of a wild boar, and many other things -- though they are far from beautiful, if one examines them separately -- still, because they are characteristics of things formed by nature, help to adorn them, and please the eye. Thus if a man has a feeling for and deep insight into the things produced in the universe, there is hardly one of their characteristics that will not seem to him of a sort to give him pleasure...

Thrush Closer 2nrc Wrk2b

What a joy! The sound of montane spring / early summer…

IMAGE: Where I am composing right now. Out of midday sun & heat.

“Nijinsky” solo Hermit Thrush, is back! Just in time for RIOT AT THE RITE DAY V.29.2024

Avian soloist is the newly arrived from down south Hermit thrush (Caltharus guttatus). He will only sing in old-growth deeply shaded Doug-fir & Ponderosa pine forests.  Composed and recorded along the little montane conifer forest where I fetch water every day.

The Hermit Thrushes song is a paragon of what I call the SYMPLEXITY CYCLE, a complementarity of simple to complex and back. It begins with pure tone unison and ends with a baroque frequency modulated ascending spiral of miraculous complexity.

Another unique musical feature of the Hermit Thrushes music is a near perfect balance between sound & silence. This is mostly like a key reason why they insist on the massive trunks and trees of the now rare dry side mature, i.e.m 400+ year-old trees, Doug-Fire / Ponderosa Pine forest.

IMAGE: Sign just before the Columbia River, WASHINGTON

STROPHE / KATASTROPHE, part one, Fireweed Poems…

TWO PATHS—

One returns
the other does not
and I still don’t know
which one leads home

TEXT is from my THE LITTLE CLAVIER, free ebook (633 pages) at http://picture-poems.com/tlc/the-little-clavier.pdf

Avian soloists, recorded from April through July around 1400m in dry-side Northeast OREGON montane mixed conifer forest (Doug-fir, Grand fir, Larch, Ponderosa pine create the acoustics), are: Hermit Thrush, Mountain Bluebird, American Robin, and Swainson’s Thrush.

What I sense as the spiritual/philosophical poverty of present western musical culture—whether the toxic commercial sounds normalized by predatory capitalism and social media, or the faux-African minimalist music of the percussion ensemble in the concert hall, or the last vestiges of post World War II European mindless, vainglorious complicatedness of the runaway  intellectualism of Schönberg, Stockhausen or Ferneyhough—is caused, at least in part, by our near total fragmentation from Nature. Not just nature as wilderness, but also nature as sound.

This is a little prose-poem meditation, on a new way of hearing, sensing, and perhaps composing many-voiced or polyphonic music.  We are not going to discover it in New York City, or Berlin, I think, but rather as we leave the isolation of our studios and enter the marvelous unknown of the pathless land. 

IMAGE: KRAG PEAK RIDGE, with Whitebark pines, at 2600m, South Wallowas, Eagle Cap Wilderness, OREGON.

TWO PATHS, a little 17-step poem in a polyphonic avian sounscape…

Interested in microtonality, neo-serialism, collage or mashups.  The music here is a combination of my compositions, a little guitar, some microtonal keyboard practice, short cues -- usually pastiche, and mashups combining old records with my own pieces. This is an overview of almost everything except jazz tunes and early and student work.  The best stuff is to be found in the playlist called The Best Stuff.  There is also a microtonal list.

N.B.  I don't read comments or attempts to contact me, and so of course I don't respond.  This is to preserve my peace of mind.  It was hard enough to find friends in a music conservatory:  I'm not going to find them in the world at large, especially not in this late stage of my life.  It's too bad, but I'm sensitive, and the internet is insane.

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 X

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.

New tracks tagged #Hermit Thrush