Red Bird/Anticredos

Trevor Wishart - Red Bird/Anticredos

Red Bird (1977) was made using the sounds of birds, animals, words & mechanisms, orchestrated and transformed into one another, in the York University Electronic Music Studio between May 1973 and May 1977.

Red Bird is not only a piece of music, but also a journey into an alternative world. When we listen to a piece of pure sonic art such as Red Bird, we bypass the theatre of the concert hall, and are cast adrift in an entirely aural universe. The whole environment is defined by the dynamic process of sound events. Sounds may again take on some of the 'magical' power they must have had for pre-literate peoples - a significance and resonance muted by the dominance of written language in our culture. If we allow ourselves, we can enter that state of perception where the environment is vibrant with significant sounds and symbols and in which myths have their power.

Red Bird is both a piece of music and a mythic retelling of the world. The underlying structural idea, as far as it can be put into words, is the conflict between 'open' and 'closed' conceptions of reality. This conflict may be expressed in a number of different ways (political, philosophical, technological..). I don't wish to explain this further, as I prefer the music to speak for itself. I will only add that such interpretations of reality are complementary, rather than conflicting - all reflect a 'deep structure' represented by the myth. What is straightforward in one interpretation may be metaphorical in another. (Trevor Wishart)

Anticredos (1980) is performed by Singcircle: Gregory Rose - director; Nicole Tibbels - soprano; Penelope Walmsley-Clark - soprano; Alan Belk - tenor; Richard Wistreich - bass; Steven Jackson - bass; Paul Hillier - bass.

Recorded March/April 1982 in the Music Center, University of East Anglia, Norwich.

Written in 1980, the six amplified vocalists use a wide range of unusual vocal sounds, which I had researched over the previous four years. The results of these researches are brought together in the chapter 'The Human Repertoire' in my book On Sonic Art. The piece sonically takes apart the word 'Credos' and, through processes of sound transformation, develops towards a completely new and seamlessly evolving sound world, the dissolution of all fixed points of reference. Unlike Red Bird these transformations are achieved in live performance and without the use of any electronics. This is possible because the voice is the most flexible sound producer we know - capable of many more types of sound production and articulation than any other individual musical instrument. (Trevor Wishart)

Tracklisting:

1. Red Bird (part 1) {18:59}

2. Red Bird (part 2) {0:19}

3. Red Bird (part 3) {0:16}

4. Red Bird (part 4) {25:55}

5. Anticredos {17:35}

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