Wendy Reid - Bird Fragments Disc 3

Bird Fragments Disc 3 (TT 65:01) 1 (0:04)Tree Piece #21-‘bird music’ (1985) 18’47” for violin, percussion and tape Mary Oliver, violin; William Winant, percussion; Choochoo; Pacific parrotlet (recorded) 2 (19:08)Tree Piece #17-’nothing piece’ (1991) 8’18” with a text by Samuel Beckett, for two or more instruments Don Buchla, buchla thunder, voice; William Winant, percussion; Lulu, bird 3 (27:35)Twittering Machine (1975) 1’52” for 11 instruments: Deborah Kim, celeste;Cynthia Heiden, harp;Catherine Fiasca, soprano;Sonia Hintz, violin; Daniel Twin, cello;Jeani Muhonen, piccolo;John Rojas, oboe; Patricia Kindel, bassoon; James Christensen, horn;Scott Maxson, Brian Nathanson percussion; Rhonda Kess, conductor 4 (29:46)Gungles (1980) 8’11” for mixed ensemble William Winant, vibraphone; Sam Ashley, Wendy Reid, tuned glasses; Barbara Golden, recorder 5 (38:08)Tree Piece #34-‘frog ositnato’ (1985) 9'13” for oboe, percussion and tape William Banovetz, oboe; William Winant, percussion; Two frogs (recorded) 6 (47:32)Lulu Variations’ (2008) 18’20” for African Grey parrot, Pacific parrotlet, violin, buchla lightning and piccolo trumpet Lulu, Grey parrot; Shooshoo, Pacific parrotlet; Wendy Reid, violin, buchla lightning Tom Dambly, piccolo trumpet Notes 1 Tree Piece #21 places two musicians in dialogue with a 19-minute improvisation by a Pacific parrotlet. Performers play bird-like motives with expressive timing and increasing degrees of freedom: from fully notated material, to spatial notation, to improvisation in which microtonal motives reflect the fluid unpredictability of birdsong.The interaction extends beyond the two players to the parrotlet’s spontaneous musical life—an improviser by nature rather than design. Commissioned by and dedicated to violinist Mary Oliver, who gave the premiere with percussionist William Winant on 9/13/85, at the New Performance Gallery, San Francisco. 2 Inspired by the writings of Samuel Beckett, Tree Piece #17 unfolds as a wandering journey through shifting timbral and textural planes. Written in spatial notation, phrases expand according to the Fibonacci sequence, with performers choosing their own pacing while sharing a common beginning and end. The work concludes with an “abstract”, with assigned pitch and timbre to text fragments, spoken by a single performer: “…nothing…is…more real than…nothing.” Commissioned by Don Buchla, who premiered the work with Mark Goldstein on 1/6/92, at Merkin Recital Hall. It has since been performed by Buchla with various ensembles, including the Mills Contemporary Ensemble with the composer, and later with William Winant at the Oakland Museum. The recorded version presented here derives from the Buchla Memorial Concerts 5/23/2017), featuring Buchla, Winant, and Lulu the parrot. 3 Inspired by Paul Klee’s painting, Twittering Machine is scored for eleven instruments and evokes a wind-up music box inhabited by mechanical birds. Celeste and harp repeat a slightly off-kilter melody that periodically breaks down, while the other instruments “twitter,” seizing fragments of the tune. A final ratchet gesture can rewind the box, allowing the piece to continue indefinitely, mirroring Klee’s crank-driven contraption. Premiered by Ensemble Klee on 5/1076, at Hancock Auditorium, USC School of Performing Arts, Los Angeles. 4 Gungles was composed for a short film and portrays a yellow bird escaping her music-box cage for a day before returning. Pulsating beating effects between tuned glasses and vibraphone evoke wingbeats, while a distant music-box melody lingers in memory. The sound of bells from the bell tower keeps track of the passing of time. Recorded in 1980 at the Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College, with bells from the Mills campanile. 5 Tree Piece #34 places live performers within a soundscape of taped frog ostinati. The oboe acts as an “abstract frog,” engaging the recorded frogs, while percussion shifts from echoing the oboe to imitating it and eventually becoming an independent voice, another frog. Spatial notation allows flexible timing and interplay. The work’s structure is shaped by the Fibonacci sequence, reflected in expanding phrase lengths in all parts—creating evolving, interlocking units of seemingly endless frog-like communication.Written for and dedicated to William Banovetz and William Winant who premiered the work at New Langton Arts, San Francisco, 11/16/85, and again at SFMOMA on the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players series 5/6/91 6 Lulu Variations features two musicians performing spatially notated timbral motives alongside Lulu, an African Grey Parrot whose transcribed vocalizations shape the score. Live and electronic sounds merge, obscuring their sources. Independent lines—avian, human, electronic—converge through shared timbres, reflecting the Tree Pieces’ focus on natural interconnection. Premiered by Lulu, Wendy Reid, and Tom Dambly at Other Minds 19 Festival, SFJAZZ Center, 3/1/2014.