Keith Notrab, percussion; Linda Greene, flute; E. Michael Richards, clarinet; Barton McLean, keyboards; Barbara Dechario, harp; Hilda Allen, narrator; Victoria Green, narrator; Charles Bently, narrator; Priscilla McLean, soprano, music box; Elisha Pantileo, voice; Daniel Pantileo, voice; Children of Petersburgh Cincinnatus recorded in play; Thomas Elkin, piano; "Big Mike" Eaton, fiddle; Richard Blair, music box; Earl Hewitt, musical saw; Marjorie Wilbur, Conductor

Each work on this disc relates to some aspect of celebration, ritual, or ceremony that brings people together. All my life I have been struck by how the qualities of the human spirit can manifest themselves in music, and have learned that rituals and ceremonies are the vehicles through which the human spirit (manifest through joy, humor, poignancy, reflection, triumph, sadness) is most closely bound to art.  — Barton McLean

Barton McLean pioneered the first large-scale commercially-available digital sequencer and sampler in the USA as director of the electronic/computer music studios at the University of Texas-Austin and Indiana University-South Bend. With his wife, the composer Priscilla McLean, he has produced 14 LP recordings and 6 Compact discs, some of which have become staples in electronic music courses. In 1983 he and Priscilla left academia to develop their electroacoustic duo, The McLean Mix. His major interests have been the integration of nature sounds into the web of traditional and non-traditional structures, the use of technology to articulate ideas based on environmental and cultural concerns, and the development of new instruments such as the recent sound/light project the “Sparkling Light Console.”

This title, originally issued on the CRI label, is now available as a burn-on-demand CD (CD-R) or download in MP3/320, FLAC or WAV formats. CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print booklet or jewel case included. Liner notes are accessible via the link above.