Symphony of Seasons, and: The McLean Mix Live!, and: Three Collaborations 2000–2008 (review)

I have known Barton and Priscilla McLean for years and it was a great pleasure to receive copies of their DVD offerings in the mail. As I have seen nearly all of the pieces collected here in live performance, I was especially interested in determining how well they translated to a DVD experience. The McLeans have been touring and making music as independent creative artists for multiple decades and call upstate New York home when they are not traveling the U.S. and the world. Their spirit and philosophy are well articulated and documented in publications such as Priscilla’s engaging and amazing book, Hanging Off the Edge, and articles featured in Perspectives of New Music and Journal SEAMUS (full bibliography at members.cisbec.net/mclmix/articlesreviews.html). This spirit and philosophy as well as their home location are an integral part of the pieces found on the DVDs and are most obviously evident in Priscilla McLean’s The Symphony of Seasons (2001–2003).

Priscilla began this first work in video after spending considerable time observing the video production process of the duo’s Rainforest Images (1993) collaborator, Hasnul Saidon. Priscilla is frank about the considerable time and expense that can go into video creation and Barton further shares that from the beginning, the Mix made the decision not to grab onto the latest trends and technologies for their own sake. Instead, he comments, “we feel that this is the quickest way to artistic obsolescence. In our camera work, as well as our post-production choices, we try instead to pose universal themes and tools that transcend the video fad of the moment,” and adds, “I think that general statement has been said repeatedly about our music as well” (personal communication). I must say that as a composer and video artist myself who is bound by both aesthetic and financial concerns, I heartily agree with the sentiments of the McLeans and feel that this perspective is born out by the high artistic integrity of the three DVDs in general and The Symphony of Seasons in particular.

Opening The Symphony is Jewels of January. Priscilla began gathering footage for this work around their farmhouse setting and fleshing out ideas for a complete four-movement piece in 1999 with completion in 2003. The videos were completed first and then, as the composer reports about the soundtracks, “the music just burst forth” (personal communication). The initial film material for Jewels of January was ice formations at a nearby stream, and I agree with Priscilla that the careful visual study of the ice in various stages of growth and decay is both contemplative and compelling. In fact, of the four movements, Jewels remainsmy favorite from its stark yet rich black, white, and gray imagery to its simple but stereophonically interesting soundtrack (this is a great video to view wearing headphones which is one of the ways I experienced all of the DVDs).

Movement two, The Eye of Spring, was the least successful movement for me, although I certainly...