Star Songs

Dale Millen | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 10, 2000)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: The Orchard
• ASIN: B00004R5WM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,272,005 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Real 21st century music, April 19, 2000

By 

Denele Campbell (Arkansas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Songs (Audio CD)

Star Songs was not a CD I expected to like. There's something about digitally-produced music that has always failed to capture me. For the most part, electronic sound has seemed remote emotionally, either because I had no lifelong experience of it that might have produced some visceral bond or because most electronic composition seems to lack musical depth.

The music that pours out of Star Songs breaks all my preconceptions of what electronic music can be. On first hearing it, I didn't know what to think. The music compelled me enough, however, to listen again. And then again. By the third or fourth run-through, I was hooked.

The first selection, "Star Chant," immediately sweeps the listener out of this world and far into a place among the distant galaxies. A constant twinkling of high pitched notes maintains the starry background for the melody, surprisingly interrupted by heavy bass in a resonant chord progression. With "Star Chant" setting the frame, the CD moves into the second song, "The Helix Nebula." The prominent feature of this piece is it poignant melody line, a question that moves ceasely across the blackness of space and time.

"Aldebaran Sunrise" takes the listener still farther into the realm of other worlds, where no doubt things move at a pace we can barely imagine. The dawn progresses slowly and we wonder at the color of the sky and the stirrings of creatures we do not know. We see the sun of Aldebaran make its appearance, framed for us in bold, ascending sound.

Despite the foreboding title and introduction, "Planet of the Dead" offers an unexpectedly lively central theme based on Dies Irae. Composer Millen brings in a percussive marching beat, perhaps the CD's most rhythmic selection. What does "dead" mean to the occupants of this planet? The question lingers in the closing phrase.

The "Festival at Astar" paints an panoramic view of odd beings who have gathered to celebrate, exchange goods, and renew acquaintances. Are humans among them? We cannot be sure. The place is painted in day-long hues of violet and pink, its plains flat and sandy. Gentle winds billow the tents of the merchants and the sky hosts three distant moons, pale silver in the midday.

Abrupt movement marks the beginning of the next track, appropriately titled "Journey Home." Millen's references to medieval chant and other early Western music is perhaps most apparent here, with the touch of hand drum enlivening transition sections of the piece. Once beyond the pull of gravity, however, the traveler soars through countless parsecs with easy tranquility.

For me, the most emotional piece is the last on this too-short CD, a compelling cut entitled "Star Hymn." Here we glimpse deeply into the human condition, the longing we all feel to know more about our reason and place in the universe. Even in this, however, the composer refuses to settle for easy answers. The music frames the discomfort of our questioning and brings us to the threshhold. After that, we must travel alone.

This 43 minutes of what is undoubtedly 21st century music was written and performed by Dale Millen, professor of music at the University of Arkansas. As noted in the brief CD insert, Millen has studied electronic music composition with Vladimir Ussachevsky at Columbia University. He was guest composer/researcher at Stanford University's CCRMA in 1994. His compositions "Piano Fantasy" and "Infinite Vista" were presented at the 1996 International Computer Music Conference in Hong Kong.

Millen has also written computer applications which use fractals and cellular automata to generate music and graphic images. Star Songs was realized used a Kurzweil K2000 and Digital Performer running on a Macintosh Computer together with the Mark of the Unicorn 2408 and midi timepiece AV units.