IMAGE: Music for Wilderness Lake. Performance documentation, The Contemporary Austin – Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria, Austin, Texas, 2014. Photograph by Brian Fitzsimmons.
The Contemporary Presents
Music for Wilderness Lake
June 27 and 28, 2014
Laguna Gloria
Twelve trombonists positioned around the lagoon play meditative music across the water to one another at dusk and dawn while the music is cued via flags from a canoe in the lagoon. Music for Wilderness Lake, a 1979 work of environmental music written by Canadian composer and sound theorist R. Murray Schafer, explores the variable natural soundscape present at these transformative times of day.
The trombonists will also perform a companion work, the selected chant of Hildegard von Bingen, a twelfth-century German mystic, Benedictine abbess, and polymath. Abstracting the ritual of Gregorian chant of the early church that was observed after sunset and before sunrise, the musicians will perform these works following Schafer’s Music for Wilderness Lake: Dawn and prior to the performance of Dusk.
Directed by Steve Parker.
View an event program with more information here.
Performances of Music for Wilderness Lake took place Friday, June 27 (Dusk), and Saturday, June 28 (Dawn), 2014, at Laguna Gloria.
Part of The Contemporary Austin’s Sound Series.
Gallery
The Contemporary Presents: Music for Wilderness Lake
On June 27 and 28, 2014, The Contemporary Austin presented performances of R. Murray Schafer's Music for Wilderness Lake at Laguna Gloria.
Arts in Context: Music for Wilderness Lake
KLRU's Arts in Context short goes behind the scenes of R. Murray Schafer's Music for Wilderness Lake, set against the stunning background and natural soundscape of The Contemporary Austin's Laguna Gloria at Dusk and Dawn. Air date: August 15, 2014.
Music for Wilderness Lake: Dusk
Recorded at Laguna Gloria, The Contemporary Austin, June 27, 2014.
Music for Wilderness Lake: Dawn
Recorded at Laguna Gloria, The Contemporary Austin, June 28, 2014.
Related Events
Music for Wilderness Lake: Dusk
In this work of environmental sound music, twelve trombonists positioned around the lagoon play meditative music across the water to one another at dusk and dawn while the music is cued via flags from a raft.
Music for Wilderness Lake: Dawn
In this work of environmental sound music, twelve trombonists positioned around the lagoon play meditative music across the water to one another at dusk and dawn while the music is cued via flags from a raft.