Bourland choral music: Three Clouds (1975)

Three Clouds for chorus (1975) mp3

1. Cirrus
2. The Great Red Spot
3. Celestial

Music: Roger Bourland
Unpublished
Christopher McGann, directs UW Madison Chamber Singers

MP3: Play audio file (Three_Clouds.mp3)

This piece should be put in my folder called “juvenilia.” I was an ardent anti-tonalist here, my heroes late Stravinsky sacred choral music, and Ligeti’s “Requiem.” Each movement explores a different kind of cloud phenomenon aurally. The first: cirrus clouds as whispers; second: the staggering beauty of the Great Red Spot against Jupiter and a feeling of hovering; and finally, a Swedenborgian (yes, I was reading him at that time) cloud of angels creating a choral texture not unlike Stravinsky’s eccentric 12-part interludes in “Requiem Canticles.”

I can’t guarantee all will like this piece, but for the record, here it is.