- Date: 1999
- Composer:
Steve Peters - Period: Contemporary (1950- )
Review
Composed during a period from April to November, 1999, this soundscape, of slightly over 58 minutes duration, which served as the music for Doranne Crable's dance entitled "Flight Path", was realized using environmental sounds, voice and acoustic instruments. The composer, who has created works of pure beauty (e.g. his "Emanations) utilizing electronics solely, chose this time not to use samplers, synthesizers or computers (of course, Many bird, insect and some mammal sounds seem to be "electronic"). Peters thus joins in spirit with composers such as David Dunn, Annea Lockwood, Hildegard Westerkamp, and others, who employ "natural" or environmental sounds (and their dynamic behaviors) not as effects or "atmosphere" but as the fundamental materials for their works.The primary sources for "in memory of the four winds" are the sounds of insects, wind, sandstone, ponderosa pine needles, Siberian elm branches, a stream, birds, along with violin, voice, suling gambuh (a large Balinese bamboo flute), and a parabolic transducer (a recording device that enables distinct sounds to be picked out of busier surroundings).
A dense but very quiet mixture of a cycling bird call, another bird on a different cycle, and a general wall of crickets arises. Soon a very insistent insect slightly lower in pitch than the rest comes to the foreground (there is a strict formula for the relationship of the pitch of cricket calls and the temperature, and the louder ones here seem to be experiencing a hotter climate). Suddenly the louder ones stop for a moment and then return with one call pitched very high and edgy until it too soon drops out.
Cycling non-insect like sounds emerge from one side then the other. They are modified (tape looped) violins bowed swiftly on one note each, an octave apart, as were the previous insects. Other pitches slowly join in, including a low pulse (pitch-shifted violin?). The entire module fades at approximately 15 minutes into the piece.
An extremely low rumbling pitch is left. Above it appear what seem to be modified gourd shakers with a ghostly wind whispering presence. A few minutes later, a mid-range sound like the vari-speeded rattle of many picked pine needles is added. A sustained bass flute sound joins this mixture, periodically swelling and decaying, like a passing train faraway.
The low flute continues and a human whispering is added. The horn changes timbres and has other pitches added, eventually suggesting a chorus of voices heard in the wind. At 30 minutes into the piece, a low pulsating pitch is added briefly. The "chorus" has by now become a dense cluster of tones that slide in pitch, re-appearing and finally disappearing.
A cyclic sound-mass appears on one side, a mass of what seems to be backwards human voices pitched high so that they appear to be insectile. The "chorus" in the wind has grown still denser and slowly slides in pitch. An extremely odd and fascinating juncture of sounds.
Pure flute tones rise gently above this mass. The dense sounds slowly fade at 40 minutes into the piece. Silence. Only the low lament of the bamboo flute is heard. After a five-minute solo a second flute is added. Then a third (all with slight overblowing effects and whispering into the instrument).
The additional flutes are replaced by two tracks of a gentle soprano voice. The sound of a stream gradually appears to accompany the flute performer blowing wind through the instrument. We then hear only the sound of the stream and a tiny bird. Everything fades.
~ All Music Guide
