If Tigers Were Clouds
If Tigers Were Clouds
Saint Paul, MN
| If Tigers Were CloudsiTunes Artist's PageiTunes Album Page | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Song Title | Time | Price | |
| 1. | Xanadu | 06:44 | $0.99 |
| 2. | Five Will Get You Seven | 13:40 | |
| 3. | Sound Fishes | 08:34 | $0.99 |
| 4. | If Tigers Were Clouds … Then Reverberating, They Would Create All Songs | 15:27 | |
| 5. | Swim! | 04:43 | $0.99 |
| 6. | Hymn No. 1 (For Bertha) | 03:52 | $0.99 |
| 7. | Pieces for Orchestra | 02:57 | $0.99 |
| 8. | Dirge | 07:11 | $0.99 |
| 9. | Ironia | 10:51 | |
| 10. | Clarinet Suite No. 2 in B flat major | 09:21 | $0.99 |
Sounds from the heavenly orchestra? Revelations from the junk yard? Quarter-tone Chinoiserie? Yoko Ono with sticky tape? The American experimental tradition in music goes to the heart of the pioneer spirit. These rugged individualists, sonic prospectors, and intransigent iconoclasts -- composers who have forged their own paths, come what may -- often find the sort of lasting place in our collective imagination that eludes their less adventurous contemporaries. Billings, Ives, Cowell, Partch, Cage, and Nancarrow loom large among the usual suspects like adamantine faces on new-music's Mount Rushmore. But where are the women? Was it really only Ruth Crawford-Seeger who stepped out of the kitchen for a while?
“If Tigers were Clouds lifts the lid on that crock, unleashing a panoply of potent flavors, a swirl of alluring fragrances, and enough joyous noise to tip the scales mightily toward some semblance of gender parity. Here are women who have been there all along, “Mavericas” to some, insufficiently sung heroines to others, each doing her own thing(s)---sometimes right under men’s noses, too often under their thumbs, and nearly always overshadowed. It’s time to stir things up. Zeitgeist, one of the nation’s longest-running new-music ensembles, has CDs of music by Harold Budd, Terry Riley, Fred Rzewski, Eric Stokes. They rock. All premiere recordings Detailed booklet included Enhanced CD
SPLENDID
If Tigers Were Clouds opens with "Xanadu" (hold your laughter) by Mildred Couper (1887-1994...Innova wasn't kidding about that eight decades thing), a piano duet tuned a quarter-tone apart. Despite both pianos' constant pull to their appropriate tonal centers, the mix results in a surreal effect, texturally "Impressionistic" in a Debussy style, harmonically skewed like a Cage prepared piano work. Say what you will about her relationship to the implosion of the Beatles, but Yoko Ono's "Pieces For Orchestra" is an excellent example of the Fluxus movement in action (an example of a Fluxus score might read "write a poem, crumple it up and kick it around the room"). "Five Will Get You Seven" by Annie Gosfield (at 43, the youngest composer here) plods along as marimbas, cymbals, cowbells and snare drums weave together with isorhythmic independence, like a parade gone wrong. This continues until the five-minute mark, when a bass clarinet takes over, creating a subtle and intimate atmosphere through the use of silence, extended techniques, multiphonics and simple harmonic gestures.
Fortunately, the members of Zeitgeist aren't afraid to tackle any work, regardless of audience support (yes, I'm pointing at you, Kronos Quartet). Though your tastes might not be as experimental as those of your kooky, smelly John Zorn look-alike neighbor, you'll find that these works are well worth the patience it takes to get into them. And really, what great music isn't? - Dave Madden
