Song Path in the Minnesota State Parks

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2012-01-05T11:39:00.000-08:00

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New Songpath Scores

2011-12-23T11:34:00.000-08:00

Do Songpath on your own!

After finishing each hike along the trails two summers ago, the most common comment I got was that we the hikers were excited about the ability to do such hikes by themselves now. I got to thinking that it would be a good idea to create some kind of score or list of instructions to go along with the hikes.

These three scores for Banning, Whitewater, and Gooseberry Falls guide you down the songpath with specific instructions. Feel free to follow the instructions precisely or add your own variations and you listen along the path. It will make any hike in these three parks a more enjoyable and memorable experience.

Whitewater Songpath

Banning Songpath

Gooseberry Falls Songpath

Songpath Remixed

2010-11-11T17:36:00.000-08:00

Songpath is not done!

Join me, fellow songpath veteran Chris Chelgren, and my old friends Kent Henriksen and John Schjolberg for Songpath Remixed. An evening of improvisations, manipulations, video scores, and sounds taken from the Songpath. A little feeling of summer and sun in the dead chill of the Minnesota winter.

Thursday January 27th
Bryant-Lake Bowl
810 W Lake St. Minneapolis
Doors 9:30 PM, show at 10 PM
$10 at door $8 in advance

For advanced tickets go to the BLB website

Hope to see you there!

Song Path The Poem

2010-09-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

On the 18th of July, I organized a kind of preview hike for the song path which was joined by MPR's Marc Sanchez as well as other friends of mine, my wife, and Poet James Armstrong from Winona MN. James is a fellow member of the international society of acoustic ecology and he contributed a poem in response to the hike which I thought was quite nice.

SONG PATH
--For Ryan Ingebritsen

So that was the summer
I stood on the park’s idea
of a minimalist bridge--
seven slabs in the river--
and listened to wet syllables
in an aria of falling and going around--
lyrics of riffle, inflected with watercress
punctuated by striders.

The song was repetitive, mostly about longing
for dissolution. There was a distant lover
in some estuary; she smelled of mud and salt.
To get to her, the singer ran headlong
into the earth--scouring and scouring
fat volumes of limestone
until at last he looked up
at the brows of cliffs--
he had dug an amphitheater
on every curve, his bright voice
rang to a shadow audience.
Under green drops, he deployed
an orchestra of birds.

That was the summer I climbed 500 steps
to the top of the bluff,
past cedar and sumac,
leaned over the fragrant balcony

and added my voice to the evening—
my echo returned, sounding like someone
lost and concerned, far off, perhaps a bit panicked--
the tone the voice finds in distance.

-- James Armstrong

Thanks James!

Whitewter, Sunday September 12th. 1:00The last hike

2010-09-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

Thought there were a few people signed up for this hike, after waiting about 15 minutes for stragglers we left with only one couple from Wisconsin though they were originally from Germany and immigrated to the US in 1967 via Canada. They had lived in Wisconsin for about 20 years and had more recently moved to Minnesota and were camping. They were a bit older, (72 and 74) so I suggested a hike where we just stayed in the valley. They wouldn't hear of it! So up we went.

First off, this hike was another one where the wind was kind of still and the birds were also a bit more quiet at first. So we focused quite a bit on the water. These immediately got everything I was pointing out in the meditation and were totally in the moment pretty much the whole time as far as I could tell. We took many long stops, probably as much because I was starting to already fell nostalgic about the place as the fact that they seemed to really hear every detail, even in the quieter moments. The second foot bridge was especially impressive this day because the water level had risen enough to make the rumblings of the rapids loud enough to resonate off the cliff walls in this small space. A really nice and new feature that I didn't so much notice the day before because it seemed there was always a lot of human activity here.

As we approached the second larger bridge, the wind began to kick up a bit and though it was very subtle, the lack of other sounds at that moment made the rustling through the trees and subsequent falling of leaves quite dramatic. We pressed on to the mysterious valley after standing on and crossing the bridge briefly and followed a couple of younger girls who made lots of noise so we could hear how their sound changed up ahead in the valley. They quickly got out of ear shot and we then stood in the valley where I was waiting for the wind to kick up again but instead was surprised by the sudden burst of bird sounds that emerged as we stood and waited. I think we sat here for about 7 minutes just listening to the textures change. Finally, a woodpecker started to peck quite quickly, not like the pecking we had heard before where they were getting in at the bugs, but a high pitched and rapid pecking that woodpeckers apparently use to warn each other of coming threats. After each iteration of this pecking, the rest of the birds really perked up and started their chatter with more intensity. Finally, the woodpecker stopped and we started a higher tempo trip back. I stopped earlier than usual to hear the sound of the drum resonating around the valley and were rewarded by an especially quiet moment where it could be heard almost from the mysterious meadow (usually it becomes audible after the first large bridge).

Then the stairs. As we rounded each corner, we had to take a short break which allowed us to really hear the way the drum sounded. As we got to the top, there where quite a few people up on inspiration point so in a way, this hike was more like 10 people for the finale. My drum, as I had mentioned, was going south, but I thought I could get one last show out of it. Though the head was nearly completely caved in, I continued to hit it thinking that it would still make a good sound but after the hike, Martin (the husband) noted that my "friends drum sounded so big and huge as did your voice and his but the drum you played sounded like.......a tin can!!"

I guess I should have taken him out of commission after the previous hike but I think the drum enjoyed being used one last time before going into the museum. Anyway, he looks much cooler now!

Second Night Hike

2010-09-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

The second night, we set out again in the evening, this time on purpose and with flashlights. The results were similar though. A very long and eventful hike with lots of getting lost.

These night hikes really reminded me of our days as roommates at St. Olaf College where we would just kind of strike out into the woods at night on brightly moonlit evenings when our homework assignments seemed to overwhelm us. This was a near nightly occurrence of course and I would say that it made me realize that I had been working on song path much longer than I had thought. It probably goes all then way back to these night hikses or even before. In any case, I am glad Chris was here for the ending weekend as it gave me one more chance to reflect and explore where all these ideas came from. I also would have never tried these night hikes myself.

We started by setting out down the meadow trail with the goal of eventually crossing the whitewater on the stone slab bridge and heading up to the valley trail and do the valley loop. The meadow itself was rich with wildlife, both plant and animal, and very noisy. Basically a wall of sound in places with the constant din of the river to our right which was extremely directional as in this trail there is a sheer cliff next to the river and an open meadow on the other side. A great sonic combination.

As we rounded a corner on the trail headed away from the river a bit, we heard noises in the meadow which definitely freaked us out for a moment but then we realized that a herd of dear were passing by and were startled by our presence with bright flashlights. We shined these lights in the direction of the noise and could see at least 8, maybe 10 pairs of eyes staring at us like............deer in the headlights?? We clapped and made some noise and then turned and leaped away as we watched a flurry of white tails passing in and out of the torchlight.

Then our troubles began, a bridge with many trail heads on either side of us thoroughly confused us so we just took the one that seemed to make the most sense. This led to the group camp which was occupied by a large group of high school kids and the trail led straight through their camp where they were having a big bonfire gathering so we decided not to mess with it and turned and took the other loop around the group camp. This trail also went through the campsite but behind the cabins so we hiked quietly by as if we were two fugitives running from the US marshals (bad joke I guess) and then headed up and across the stone bridge to the valley loop. Again, there was some question as to where we should go but as this intersected the dakota trail that I had hiked a few days before I was able to discern at least the way NOT to go and we arrived at the loop. Unfortunately, the trail became very narrow here and plant growth basically covered the entire trail so it was difficult to make out if we were going the right way. We turned back but again spent a good deal of time crossing the stone stepping bridge and listening to the sounds around us.

Finally we arrived back at the meadow trail deciding it best to take the same trail back so as to not end up getting lost again. We were rewarded by a bench overlooking the river where we sat a minute and listened to the sounds of crickets, frogs, and other wildlife droning behind us and two separate water features to the left and right of us resonating against the cliff walls by the river. It was a really nice ending to the hike. We made it back to the campsite and had a well deserved glass of wine and cigar each and then fell into our tents exhausted after about 3 hours of hiking on top of 3 day hikes!!! I am getting skinny.

Whitewater, September 11th 4:00 PM

2010-09-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

Though I had one hiker signed up after a large cancellation, a couple emerged and a stray camper from redwing who was just hanging out in the south picnic area decided to join us as well for a nice evening hike. I was made aware on the way in that one of the hikers was extremely fond of the wind, especially in the fall trees. That made me realize that I had some discerning hikers along with me so I hoped the wind kicked up a bit as it was pretty still in the beginning.

During the meditation there were quite a few groups of hikers that passed us and the hike was a bit more active with the noise of other hikers and their dogs than usual but it didn't seem to detract much from the experience. Though the wind was a bit more still, it allowed us for a time to focus more on the water features and really hit areas where you could hear multiple rapids very clearly as they interacted with one another and the birds helped to give regular punctuations framing the micro-rhythms of the creek. Then as we reached the mysterious valley, we were given a full performance by a sole bird in the distance, crickets, and a suddenly very active but slow rolling wind. It was especially nice to hear the wind roll through the bluffs above and move all around us before sweeping into the valley itself.

As we returned, we began to hear the sweeping of the drum around the valley much earlier than usual, probably due to the stillness of the valley at the time and of course, we heard the birds starting to wake in response.

My drum up top is now beginning to go south as a bit too much rain got in on friday evening and soaked the lining that holds the head on. The "School Drum" as I call it, is a great old metal frame drum which is incredibly light and has served me well but I think it is destined to become a display drum only. Sad but it had a good life.

Whitewater September 11th 1:00 PM

2010-09-13T09:29:00.001-07:00

Another quiet afternoon hike, this time with a family of three including young Heidi who was very curious about water and very interested in frogs.

During the mediation, I pointed out a banging noise in the distance which sounded faintly like my drums. I though that maybe Chris was getting ready and doing some practicing. As we hiked along, we ran into a family that was taking pictures near a bridge who asked, "are those your drums back there??"""

Yes

"I was playing them a little bit!......."

Anyways, we spent lots of time with the initial water features and Heidi found some rocks near the banks of the stream and started to throw them in. This is precisely one of the activities that led me to this point with the song path. I often just hung out near streams throwing rocks in and listening to how they sounded differently. Like I said, everyone hears something different. She heard the possibility of rocks going into the water and made it happen.

She also played a reed for a while which I really liked as you could hear the valley resonate when she would hit a high note. As we ascended to inspiration point, I could hear that there was a big group of high school kids gathered. Heidi and her dad went up and her mother listened further down the stairs. I stayed on the cliff face and played the drum for the whole group of them. I didn't hear birds reacting this time from where I was, but the father assured me that they did. I think that is the feature of this hike I like most and the one I don't really ever get to hear!

Saturday, September 11th 2010, 10:00 am

2010-09-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

A single couple accompanied me on this one.

A great day for a hike with light winds and lots of bird activity. Even from the day before, I could hear a difference in the leaves. I forgot my walkie talkie this time so ran back during the meditation to grab it and was amazed to return to find the two hikers still standing with eyes closed listening. They were both very intense listeners and this time, my friend Chris who is our drummer for the weekend, was already waiting by his drum as we hiked out which I think even distracted them a bit. Each corner we rounded seemed to have its own bird dominating the landscape this hike. Crows at first, in pairs, then other birds I can't identify but it seemed there were always pairs in different locations calling to one another. This made the character of each valley quite apparent as the distances allowed for echoes to resonate throughout. Once we reached the turn around point, it seemed that one of each of these birds had followed us and was presenting kind of a mixture of all the regular calls we had heard creating a long and slow poly-rhythm that I think the whole group noticed. A prop plane then flew by in the distance (this had also flown straight overhead earlier as we were stopped listening to bird and water sounds) as wind picked up and left a trail of falling leaves behind it.

A family of four hiking near us often became audible in the distance and a little girls voice really filled out certain parts of the valley nicely. Then the drum, in the usual place, became very audible around the valley.

We took our time climbing the stairs, but once we arrived there was a nice resonance carried by the wind. After the drums stopped, I was told by the couple that a hawk flew by, cawed a few times, and then dove straight into the valley. I was afraid it had gotten Chris. Quite a prize for a hawk.

Night Hike 1

2010-09-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

Upon the arrival of my friend and colleague Chris Chelgren, we decided to quickly setup camp and then head out on an evening hike to hear some of the night sounds. As we thought we had plenty of time before dark (he arrived at 6) we decided to take the chimney rock loop up to inspiration point and then back down the stairs to Trout Run Creek so I could show him what he needed to do with the drums and such. It began to rain a little, but we just got into some rain gear and decided to trek on. Oh, and no flashlights. Very bright.

First we hit Chimney rock and explored the small rocky caves inside of it which looked out through small openings over the valley itself. Then we trudged down Chimney Rock Trail which was much longer than I remembered it and the rain had made certain parts of it quite treacherous, especially since we were without proper light and many parts of the valley had become quite dark.

The crickets that inhabited the corn field overlooking the bluff still seemed to be quiet despite it being night time but after we rounded a corner about two thirds of the way through we were blasted with cricket noise from the left side of the trail even above the sound of wind and rain that was accumulating in the valley.

Finally, just before the whole park went completely black, we hit inspiration point and after carefully scaling the rocks out to the cliff edge I showed Chris the sound of the valley and taught him the calls he would need to do from below to activate its sound. It was really an amazing moment as we could not even clearly make out the exact shape of the valley from the point but could hear all the echoes and reverberations, even above the rain which had died down a bit by this point.

We then scaled carefully down the stairs to Trout Run Creek Trail and then headed up the drive to the nature center by star light. We had to use the light from a cell phone to make it back to our campsite where we feasted on sausages and chips and organic salsa. Roughing it!

Friday September 10th 1:00 PM

2010-09-13T09:03:00.001-07:00

This hike was for a group of American Composers Forum Staffers who had taken some time out of their day of deadlines and heavy work to join me on the path. Among them was Craig Carnahan who is in direct charge of administering the McKnight foundation grant. It was great to finally get to share the work with them directly.

The hike started very quietly. As we hiked out, the sound of the lower water level, still trees, and sleeping birds made each sound more important. We focused mostly on water features, but I was able to listen very carefully for sounds off in the distance. This made each stop a bit more intimate and totally changed the character and pace of the hike. It was probably the quietest hike I can remember but the stillness near us stripped away layers and made the hike more about the various dronings of wind, bugs, and water that changed slowly over time.

As we returned from the turn around point at the mysterious valley, we listened closely for the drum which were in this case being manned by a couple of park staffers, Brent, the park manager, and Sarah. In one quick lesson they seemed to pick up what they needed to do immediately and even hit the drum like pro's.

As we neared the stairs to inspiration point, each drum hit seemed to wake up more and more birds which created a nice crescendo of echoing bird noises after each event. By the time we approached inspiration point itself, the valley was teeming with crows, eagles, and other small birds calling out in direct response to each hit. When the drums all finally stopped, we were left with a valley full of noise which I will not soon forget considering their silence as we walked out.

Despite us listening a bit longer to the sounds we heard, the group got out in time to return to work in St. Paul and finish out their day. A dedicated group!

Friday September 10th 10:00 AM

2010-09-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

A noisy hike!

This hike was a musicianless one as my volunteer for the weekend Chris works during the day. Luckily, the first hike was a duo that did not relish going up the stairs so we stuck to the trout run creek trail as well heading all the way to the loop at the end.

Right off the bat I noticed how in just 3 short days the leaves had turned enough to change the overall character of the wind from a light thrush to a very high pitched hiss with an after effect of leaves falling from the trees and hitting the ground. The whole week long fall season has started here in Minnesota and the wind was very active so this element became a constant din in our ears and really filled out many of the large valleys nicely. You can also hear the more distant leaves on the bluffs much more clearly.

After several very nice moments where birds and water seemed to chatter in rhythm, we reached the loop at the end. A comment that Dave Palmquist had made in an earlier hike came to mind as the colors of the stream seemed more vibrant than before and we could see clear to the bottom as a school of trout hovered near the bottom of a calm pool.

On the way back we heard a solitary woodpecker and several passing prop airplanes passing overhead helped to fill the valley. We ended by listening to a cacophony of birds near the steps to inspiration point. When they stopped, so did we.

One of the two hikers was a park staffer who pointed out all the places where the flood of 2007 had changed to course of the creek and the river as well as left rock bed exposed in places it had not been before. I have that to thank for some of the really interesting sonic features in the park. I guess some good comes out of every disaster.

Whitewater, LABOR DAY, Moday September 6th 10:00 AM

2010-09-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

We only offered one hike this day and I was glad for the insistence of the park staff on this issue. I was wanting to offer 3, but by the morning of this one hike, my legs a and my brain were ready for a break. It was slightly better weather as the previous day had been nice and warm and despite the threat of rain, the 10:00 went off without a hitch.

A family of 5 came out for this one with two older girls and a 10 month old boy named Shawn. The father was a writer for the local paper in St. Charles MN who had actually come at the behest (or command, I can't quite tell) of a local Coffee Shop owner/ Music Therapist/ Gift Shop Owner/ Music impresario in town Laura. She was the one who had earlier marched me down to the head offices for the news paper two doors away and introduced me to everyone in town in about 30 minutes. I had a few hikers who had come at her recommendation and more that knew about it but were a bit put off by the 500 steps up to inspiration point. From what I had heard everyone knew about it, but now the press was here to make it official. In any case, it was a really pleasant hike and I had the pleasure of watching two young girls go from being charmingly indignant about having to hike quietly for an hour to being gleefully enthusiastic when they realized there were drums scattered throughout the valley.

This hike was really dominated by a murder of crows that seemed to be following us around. Perhaps they sensed how tired my legs were. In any case, they provided a constant iteration of stereophonic rhythmic sound which rang out overhead and really made special emphasis of my point about how the valleys changed as we walked. In fact, the whole valley was really active probably due to a warm night and then a slightly wet morning. The birds liked the warm night, and the bugs were enjoying the mist of a cooler morning which kind of felt like sundown at times. I also think the approaching rain storm might have had something to do with their extremely thick presence. I got the two little girls to engage in a little game at each of the bridges in which we leaned back and forth on the bridge to listen to the sound of each side and then had them tell me what they heard on each side. I could see them struggling for words to describe the sounds which eventually just came out as "that side is louder and that side is like a little water over there" but it was amazing to watch the expressions on their faces which told a richer story about what they were hearing without perhaps having the words to describe it. I also lack the words but my over education sometimes makes me believe I can explain it IN words. I think the expressions on the faces were much more accurate.

Despite my original notion that I would turn back at the second large bridge, I decided that since the girls had managed to remain silent for such a long time, I would push a bit further and hit a bit of the mysterious valley which was a great moment as there were so many different insects droning from so many places that I was able to point out and get the two of them to hear how the entire valley sounded from the bugs mixed with the activity of the many birds that were letting out short and sparse regular chirps from all over the valley. A really beautiful moment that we stood silently and enjoyed for an indeterminate amount of time and the parents seemed to get a bit of a rest.

As we turned back and started to hear the drums, the kids started to get excited and a bit scared as at first they could not distinguish the sound from thunder or distant gun shots. One of them thought it was a bear! The younger one heard it first and then slowly, as they realized it was a drum and then started to hear more sounds coming from other parts of the park, I saw a big smile emerge on one of their faces. Then as we climbed the stairs, my sister Jennifer let out a big BOOM on the drum at just the right moment which allowed them to clearly hear how the valley changed as we rounded the corner to inspiration point.

They eventually made it all the way up though we stopped quite a bit to listen and rest. The park was relatively empty so the drum performance really rang out by itself but we were accompanied by the sound of birds getting more and more excited.

This hike has really made me more aware of just how easily animals and birds are disturbed by the presence of humans. Not just by the sound of large drums which they seem to respond to, but also to just our presence walking through a space. I think my hiker from the day before was really right about them trying to identify us and realizing that we are not a part of the woods. They stop when we stop or sometimes only call out when we stop. A hunter knows how quiet you have to be to not let animals know you are there and how the slightest disturbance can scare them off or give a warning to other animals over long distances. I think that this activity, along with the activities of naturalists who track animals to study or help them, might be the only experience other than hunting that raises this awareness. Ryan Ingebritsen, composer of "The Trash Hunter", finally has something in common with hunters. We all have something to learn from one another. Perhaps we should just start listening.

Whitewater Sunday September 5th, 4:00

2010-09-06T06:38:00.001-07:00

My first 4:00 hike at whitewater. I have been looking forward to a 4:00 group as the sounds later in the day are much different than in the morning and afternoon. I learned a lot this hike as I had a single couple from Michigan, the husband was a hunter who was really good at identifying bird and animal sounds. Since it was just the three of us I opened it up to talking but they for the most part remained silent. We talked a bit though about various native hunting techniques which he had explored and I told him about my grandfather who was part native american and he revealed he was from the same part of Missouri where I was born in the bootheel and it kind of just went from there. The wife was really obsessed with water sounds so we did some deep and close listening to each of the water features along the path and I didn't have to do much convincing to have her hear it as music. The husband kept talking about how animals make noise to get you to move when you walk by so they can identify you. They realize very quickly that humans are not a part of the forest usually and get a bit upset when they walk by. We heard a sound I had been hearing all weekend but couldn't identify and he pointed out that it was a wild turkey and also pointed out that turkeys can in fact fly.

Very informative.

We stopped just before the second bridge and two hawks started calling to one another from various parts of the valley and flew around very rapidly creating a beautiful duet which filled the three dimensional sonic landscape with sounds and echoes at a very rapid pace while creating a sort of rhythm of its own.

We could also hear a rifle being fired in the distance at rapid intervals. The immediately identified what it was, and it made me think about weather hunting season was here now or if this was perhaps a rifle range. It was really fast. We hiked back and I quite gleefully pushed the go button for the drums in the midst of some rifle fire. It blended quite nicely but really took the two off guard. I kept the source a secret as long as I could until finally we rounded a corner and the husband said "is that your friends?". Busted.

We kept hiking and decided that we would only go half way up the stairs as their knees were a bit worse for the wear. I found a great spot where all three drums still seemed distant and left them there to finish the hike. The quiet of the valley allowed us to really hear how the birds reacted to our drumming. Every time I made a caw or hit the drum, a couple of hawks responded with multiple caws and after we were done we could hear a very busy bird cacophony throughout the valley. The 5 or 10 minutes of "silence" at the end were especially poignant..

Whitewater, Sunday September 2010, 1:00 PM

2010-09-06T06:19:00.000-07:00

This hike was a bit more chaotic than the usual. Lots of folks on the trails and a few mishaps. But also, some pretty intense moments. the meditation included another on cue airplane which I SWEAR I did not know was coming. I guess there just is a rhythm to the planes and I am getting in touch with it?????

Most notably for me was a moment near the first stepping bridge where I noticed the water near us and water down the path mixing in a very interesting poly rhythm as well as the water features near the second small bridge where the water level has reached a place in which a very high pitched sound has begun to emerge. At this time, my cell phone went off despite me telling everyone to turn their cell phones off and the fact that you can get no cell phone in the entire park. Guess you can get reception after all. Good to know. It was also at this time I noticed that I had forgotten my walkie talkie!

If I hadn't mentioned this before, I use these cheap two way radios I bought at radio shack to cue the first drummer. I actually had to rig it with a headphones type plug with nothing attached to make it so my unit wouldn't make noise as I send a chirp to the first drummer. That way they know when we are headed back and can start playing without having to guess and run the chance of playing too late or for too long.

In any case, the hike continued and I must admit to having been a bit distracted by the lack of my walkie talkie and started to think of ways I could signal them or just make sure they were playing by the time we rounded the valley. I decided I would attempt to text them since I had found cell reception but figured that they most likely didn't have cell phones on. Then I thought that if I just made the hike a little longer, they would realize before long that something was wrong and start playing.

This paid off, not in drums, but in the fact that we hiked a bit farther than we usually do and stopped for longer times in a few places. The mysterious valley was bustling with bird and animal noises which is extremely beautiful as it is a very quiet valley and the reverberations from one end to the other are spectacular and various. Especially as you go up the wooded hill behind you. We then hiked almost all the way to the loop at the end of the trail and stopped just shy of a beautiful sounding water feature which resonated in the valley as several birds continued their song but closer up this time. We stood there for a long time until finally a gentle wind slowly filled in the whole space with sound.

As we hike back more slowly, we encountered a pair of woodpeckers sending signals across the valley over the last wooden bridge. The first was really near us and pecked in a sort of strange rhythm while the other was far off and barely audible and almost sounded like an echo but the timings were so varied that we knew it was another woodpecker.

As we hiked back further, I got to the place where we usually start to hear the first drum but realized that it wasn't there yet. "Too bad" I thought. "Now we won't really hear how this part of the valley resonates". Just then, a group of motorcycles started revving their engines in the distance and pealing out on the highway. This sound carried all throughout the valley and filled it with all sorts of high and low sounds which traveled and echoed at different speeds. Who needs drums!

Finally, after passing the musicians who were a bit caught off guard, we ascended the stairs to a sudden flurry of drums and voices, making up for lost time. The first drum hit in the main valley really woke the group up and as we rounded the corner and started to hear more reverberation we started to take some long breaks. A good idea really because I often forget that I am in pretty good shape and that these stairs leading up the hillside are pretty strenuous to climb up. I remember years ago when I was in not such good shape how bitterly I would complain about such things. Plus, stopping gives you a chance to really listen to the valley below as the drum becomes more distant. A really nice experience.

It was a busy day at Whitewater and Inspiration Point was quite full so I left the group to take a turn when they got a chance.

This was the first time I got any negative reaction to the drums as a family that was on the cliff edge already started to yell down in imitation of the voices. At first I was pleased as I thought the kids were really getting into what they were hearing and wanted to join in. Who knows, maybe they were. This was soon silenced by the voice of an adult yelling "stop that! You don't have to do what that idiot is doing. We're not going to play his game!". Then, "hey, there he is, he's just down by the stairs! Hey, LITTLE DRUMMER BOY!!!".

It was kind of funny really but the family then descended the stairs. I told them that they had to yell louder if they wanted to hear the echoes and they kind of embarrassedly sulked down the hill. Later I heard that they also harassed my musicians in the park as they walked by and later, we found discarded candy wrappers under the tarps. Guess they showed us.

Music in the park is not for everyone, but I would say one bad reaction out of about 400 people in the park is not too bad. I usually do much worse!

The drummers thought that this one was especially intense so I guess the drama at the beginning helped.

Whitewater, Sunday September 5th 2010 10:00 AM

2010-09-06T06:16:00.000-07:00

12 hikers. A record. Amongst the hikers were Amy Barret who is my main contact at the DNR headquarters and her husband John and family of 4 children. There was also a family of 5 with a 6 month old dog named pogo and a single woman who was a writer and a photographer among other things from what I could gather. The planes again played an important role but we were also graced with several very incessant conversations between birds as we stood between different water features in the creek. They made patterns that seemed to repeat themselves in a broad rhythm around our heads as we listened to the flowing waters which kind of broke down gradually after about 5 or 6 repetitions.

Though difficult to fit the whole group on the second bridge, we managed to listen closely to both sides of the bridge and I think the whole group caught the high vs low pitched sides that mixed as we moved from side to side. When we reached the mysterious valley, we were serenaded by a single bird which let out a regular rhythm as well as a distant caw of an eagle in the valley. As this was playing out, a freight train that I had never noticed before let out a loud whistle which filled in the valley with sound and really re-framed the entire sonic landscape. We then returned to the regular rise and fall of various planes flying overhead which made a counterpoint to the train that we were leaving behind. Just at the right time, I began to hear the sound of the drum but stopped a little closer than I meant to however. I thought the over flying planes helped to smooth out the transition though as we approached the drums and the stairs leading up the stairs to inspiration point.

In the end, the group was very brave and went all the way to the edge of the point where they could really hear everything in the valley. The drummers were quite on their game this morning despite the cold.

Whitewater September 4th 2010, 1:00 PM

2010-09-05T06:15:00.000-07:00

Again, an adult style hike. And again, a plane flew overhead right on cue which caused park naturalist Dave Palmquist who joined us for the hike to enquire if I called that plane in on purpose. Dave has bee such a great help in making this hike happen and I have learned quite a bit from his advice about how to run a hike in general and even learned a thing or two about how to run my listening hike so I was really glad to have him along to actually hear what we had been collaborating on for the past few months. Also on the hike was Jennifer from the park office and two couples, one camping in the park and one from St. Charles where my friend Laura at Hava Java is really talking up the hike to the whole town.

Planes were quite the common thread in this hike flying overhead and sometimes mixing with the wind and water below. At one point after the first bridge where we stopped to listen to the water features both to the right and left of us, a plane flew overhead as crickets on both sides made rising and disappearing drone sounds making a unique and beautiful three dimensional sonic mix. When we reached the turn around point, a plane flying overhead framed the sound of the wind and a creaking tree as well as birds chattering in the distance. Then, as we made the return trek and the sound of distant drums became more and more apparent, the sound of another over flying plane framed the steady crescendo of the drum as we walked closer and closer and almost at times disguised it as we rounded the corner into the main valley.

Though it is hard for me to gauge how the sounds in the valley fit together as the hikers sit at inspiration point (you cannot really hear the reverberations from the vantage point of the drums) I think they got an extra interesting improvisation and it seems we are starting to kind of "respond" to one another often slightly imitiating each others sounds from iteration to iterations giving the same sounds to activate different parts of the valley. This is especially interesting form me since I cannot hear the farthest drummer when I play and I know she can't hear me however, I think we are communicating in a way through the middle drummer who we can each imitate and who can imitate each of us.

In any case, the audience was very pleased with what they heard and I think that we finally hit the mark. Amazing what you can do with an amature french horn player and someone who has absolutely no background in music such as the two volunteers who are joining me on this leg of the song path. We are engaging in free improvisation in a giant valley.

Amazing.

Whitewater, Saturday September 4th 10:00

2010-09-05T06:09:00.000-07:00

This hike started with three adults to which a family of 6 was added. I had just finished commenting on how I had not done a full adult hike yet and was looking forward to doing a hike completely silent and though the family of 6 included a few younger children, I had a hunch they could handle it. Anyways, I needed to get my mind in to listening so we stopped just before the first river crossing and did the full meditation with closed eyes. I was amazed at their patience and I think everyone really started to listen carefully.

As I was doing the meditation, I asked the group to open their ears to the larger space and listen to the sounds of planes flying overhead and trucks passing by on the highway. As if on cue a plane was flying overhead and a truck driving by suddenly burst into the sound field.

I discovered a nice spot between the first and second bridge in which two water features frame a field of tall grass containing all sorts of crickets and frogs creating a mix of cicada drones and stereophonic scintillation of the low and high water sounds. A bird with a raspy caw flew overhead and added extra punctuation to the collage as we walked on.

A runner who passed us on the second bridge was looping back when we reached the turn around point at the "mysterious valley" and broke a beautiful silence as there were no birds and wind sounds present for quite some time. It was nice to have a sound come from far down the valley, get close, and then disappear around the corner of the hill. I hope she wasn't too embarrassed. It was a nice moment.

I discovered that if I stop on the way back just after the second bridge, you can hear the iterations of the first drum literally whipping around the corner around your head. I will have to try a few more stops along the way in future hikes.

We made a few tweaks to the "drum" part of the hike which I think make their presence more effective in demonstrating the valleys character and as we climbed the stairs, we were graced with a few more big drum hits which became more and more powerful as we got farther away until they became pure reverberation and slowly faded out until we round the corner to inspiration point where the hikers get the full perspective of all three drums filling the three valleys with sound.

The kids on this hike were so well behaved and such hearty hikers I wanted to buy them iced cream. I will leave that to their parents though.

Whitewater Friday September 3rd 1:00 PM

2010-09-05T06:06:00.001-07:00

Another family, this time of 4. Very exuberant with two young boys who seemed to need to let off some steam. None the less, I did the meditation at the beginning of the hike though it was a slightly abridged version to not bore the two of them too much. We stopped just after the first creek crossing where large concrete slabs act as steps across the water. We listened to the sounds of two different small rapids, the steady sound of wind which was very present as the weather was threatening rain, and we also heard a smattering of birds and crickets in the distance. This is a nice spot because the valley itself is so diverse in its sound and birds that are far off and other sounds that are closer create sharp contrasts from iteration to iteration.

We then began the hike and stopped at places along the way and really heard deeply the sounds of water as we were confronted with a new water feature or insect cluster of sound around each corner. The stop after the first bridge was especially nice as the rain had made a hidden water feature there much stronger and it could be heard clearly against the creek behind us and the buds all around us. We the hiked farther past the second bridge and into what I have termed "the mysterious valley" as the sonic features have an air of mystery to them. There we listened to a section filled with birds and bugs and I then signaled the drummers. We didn't hear them until a bit later, but on occasion, I thought I heard a subtle "coloration" along the edges of the valley which would add to the mystery of this place. We hiked back quickly but still stopped to listen on the bridge and in between the bridges again as the drums became more present. As we got to the top, I realized that I really wanted to sit with the group to gage the effectiveness of the drums and be able to actually hear the right moment to stop them but I have obligated myself to activating a part of the valley with a drum just beneath the stairs. I think this intrigues the audience when I suddenly disappear and then they hear the sound it makes, but from the perspective of the drummer, you don't hear the reverberations of the valley that you are making possible with your playing. Interesting acoustic feature. But this performance is for the audience and not me. I think the fact that I cannot hear clearly what the other drummers are doing from my vantage point and vice versa makes it more "random" in a similar way to the way that sound in the park (water features, bird sounds, wind rising and falling) are "random". That is to say, there are certain mathematical and probabilistic principles at work when water flows over rocks or birds start to chirp or wind begins to wail through the trees. I guess I was trying to emulate that with the instructions I gave to the musicians and to be able to hear and impose a human decision onto that cachophony would be against the point of the piece. Or would it????

The hike ended with heavy winds howling through the valley as the family of four sat on the rocks above. A really nice moment I think. But a bit scary for the boys. But not too scary.

Whitewater Hike, Friday September 3rd 10:00 AM

2010-09-05T05:50:00.000-07:00

A young family of five showed up as the hike was ready to start. We were a little behind schedule. Things got pretty interesting in town.

I had to go into town to check some emails early in the morning so I went in to visit my friends at the Hava Java where I had crashed a family party a few days earlier during gladiolas days and listened to some sweet three part harmonies being laid down outside. They invited me in even though they weren't technically open for business. Love small towns!

Anyways, I got to talking to Laura who runs the coffee shop and gift store as well as practices music therapy and teaches mandolin and guitar to young kids and she was intrigued by the story I had to tell as she made me some coffee and schooled a local man in cribbage. She then proceeded to introduce me to everyone in town as they entered her place and walked me down to the local newspaper where she introduced me to the entire editorial staff (a nice young woman named Linda) and they hooked me up with a story to run the following Friday! So easy!

I also then found out the amazing news-which everyone in town and in Minnesota seemed to know but me- in which two fugitives from the law were apprehended in the park wednesday night by a swat team and a bunch of US marshals with full body armor and assault rifles and accidental rifle discharges and a battering ram and the works. I though I was distracted by 24 hours of moving but imagined how distracted I would be if I was around for that whole drama!

Anyways, back to the hike.

We left from the south picnic as planned and since the hike included three young children, we spent a bit more time talking than I would normally. Despite some contention over the walking order (oldest to youngest or youngest to oldest) between the elder brother and sister, they were extremely well behaved and participated in the listening taking turns hiking a bit farther towards the front near me and really noticing the subtle features of the creek along the way and imitated these features with their mouths.

They had seen the drums along the way and even though there were many interesting things to hear along the way they were especially concerned with the "two girls" and "when would they get to see them play the drums?""

of course, they immediately heard the drums when we started to retrace our steps back to the wooden staircase and when we got near the first drummer were pointing and shouting making a great cacophony in the woods with the sound of the drum. As we climbed the wooden stairs, they asked "why does she keep hitting the drum?" to which I replied "so you can hear how it changes" to which they responded "why?" to which I responded " ...... ?"

But when we rounded the last stair case and hiked over to the edge of inspiration point, I think they finally got it. There is a big area near the last set of stairs where the drums become quite faint but then suddenly re appear when you hike to the point and then are heard in their full glory sailing around the edges of the cliff walls and hills as well as just plain filling the valley floor. As the drums first came into ear shot, I was delighted at they way the rolling sound of the drum rolled around the edges of the valley and blended with the low rumblings of the water making it hard to distinguish as a drum but interesting to hear more as we got closer and closer.

Near the end, I realized the ending signal I had given for the other two to stop playing would not be audible since I had changed the position of my third drum so I called on the two way radio I had signaled the beginning of the drumming with and just manually called them off. It seemed to work even though we never really got in direct touch.

A success!

Whitewater Revisited

2010-09-05T05:43:00.000-07:00

After a few days in Osage, a couple of days in Whitewater, and then a day of extreme apartment moving in Chicago, I finally returned to Whitewater with my sister Jennifer and her friend Courtney who have volunteered to be my musicians for the weekend here. Jennifer has spent 3 years as a teacher in the Brooklyn school system on a Brooklyn College Teaching Fellowship and is currently planing a move to Australia where she is a citizen by birth to pursue some lab assistantships and do some traveling before returning to the states to get a degree in physical therapy. She is also a gifted musician, a trait she cleverly did not pursue as a career, but has kept as a part of her life and personality none the less.

She and Courtney spent the day very patiently hiking, sitting, waiting, beating on drums, making noises with their voices, hitting various percussion instruments, and then doing it all over again a various locations until we found just the right spots. It turned out that the ridge atop the mountain opposite inspiration point that I was so proud of having found a few days before ended up yielding less than satisfactory results once I got atop inspiration point and heard it there. Though the sound came across crystal clear, it did very little to activate the reverberation in the valley below and unfortunately, we had to hike the drum back through the woods and down the hill to the parking lot and then to a better spot along trout run creek trail.

After deciding that the drums were too biased to the right when sitting at the point, I then had my sister hike all around the hill just to the left as you sit on the point to find the place where that part of the valley was most activated by the sound of the smaller drum.

Speaking of drums, I have two new drums with me now bought from my high school alma-mater in Bloomington, John F. Kennedy High. Each of these drums were in fact drums that were used in my tenure on the drumline there. Now one had been tuned lower and used as a taiko drum and then other was an extremely heavy relic from the early days and was replaced after my freshman year. Very heavy for a marching drum.

They sound amazing in the valley. It is not really the drum I am interested in, it is the valley. That is why I hiked one of the drums back down in to it. The point of this hike is not that there are drums in the park, it is that there is an amazing valley who's sonic properties need to be explored and drums alone really reveal that low end response. We spent about 6-7 hours perfecting things, and I wished we had another day to keep on tweaking, but with their patience and enthusiasm I think we have it!.

The first hike is tomorrow at 10. We need some rest.

Wiitewater: The Trout Run Creek Trail and the steps up to Inspiration Point

2010-08-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

After missing the parade and accidentally crashing a local family gathering at the local coffee shop they ran in town, I returned to Whitewater to do a hike of the trail I will be using for Song Path. It follows the trout run creek trail, a trail which is dense with water features around every corner, lots of noisy insects, and birds as well as a plethora of different sonic features including stretches that skirt the edge of steep hills that frame the valley it cuts through. Various bridges give stereophonic perspectives on the shallow creek rapids below and fields of various foliage contain different insect and frog breeds which create unique sonic landscapes in the small nooks and crannys that the trail takes you through.

In sharp contrast to Banning where there were sometimes intense moments of silence and where a constant large water feature took over the sound field and then slowly faded into the background to reveal a more still area, the trout run creek trail is a constant barrage of changing sound which occupies your ears at all times and in a way keeps your attention focused on what is directly around you.

After the hike goes deep into the trout run creek trail, I will activate the surprise at which point we will loop back around and hike at a more brisk pace until we reach the steps going up to inspiration point. At this point, my hope is that the audiences focus will be shifted to the larger space as the "surprise" fills the valley with sound. The perspective on this sound will change gradually as the hikers climb the wooden steps and as they reach inspiration point, exhausted, they will hear as well as see the whole valley below.

I am really looking forward to working on tweaking the "surprises" over the next few days and getting the experience to work as best as it can.

Starting again at Whitewater

2010-08-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

I am not in St Charles Sitting at a table at a local coffee shop but I spent the morning and early afternoon hiking the Dakota Trail to look for nice spots to put musicians. The dakota is a 3 mile hike with at least three major inclines and valleys to overcome so I am a bit tired but still plan to hit the main hike along the trout run trail and up to inspiration point before sundown.

I spent a couple days helping out with an art opening for my father in law in Osage IA before this which was fun. He is a great artist living in Arizona now and this show was to try and find homes for some of the artwork that is still up in this area. (Check it out if you get a chance at the Mitchell County Historical Society in Osage, IA)

I managed to find a place *way off trail but still pretty easy to get to that you can see inspiration point from. I think it will be a good spot but I got a few scrapes on the way down as I didn't follow my tracks thinging I would find my way back to the trail with an alternate route but instead ended up scaling down a big hill that led all the way to the south picnic area. Wow.

The Dakota trail is extremely beautiful but re-affirmed my belief that I had chosen the right trail as many of the other very picturesque valleys did not have the same amazing echoes as exist in the valleys overlooked by inspiration point. Not just visually inspiring. Also sonically!

Gichi Gumi Trail: Monday evening, August 23rd.

2010-08-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

I used the mics I was loaned to record a hike that I had envisioned early on along the Gitchi Gami trail at Gooseberry Falls north of Twin Harbors along the north shore of lake superior. I was extremely tired when I was headed up there, but a little bit of water and some snacks and I was ready though I was missing a wind screen so I had to use some socks. Don't worry, you can't catch any communicable diseases through audio recording as far as I know.

Anyways, I can't quite explain the whole hike but will say that it is a hike I would have loved to include in this run of Song Path but the logistics were just a bit too difficult. I think if I ever do the hike in MN again I will do a weekend or two here logistics or not! Here's a map! It starts over near the upper falls just to the west of the Hwy 61 bridge where you follow the river for a bit past a few sets of shallow rapids and then come upon the full fury of the upper falls. Then you follow the trail around to the falls overlook and then cross the hwy 61 bridge. The constant but uneven iterations of cars and trucks driving by constantly punctuate the various water features you pass here including the lower and upper falls which fade in and out of one another depending on where you are standing but when you pass underneath the bridge you get a real show with a giant reverb chamber and all. Then I followed the Gitchi Gami Trail which goes up an incline to an overlook of lake superior and back again. You never quite get out of earshot of the highway but you do pass various grass and forested areas as well as an overlook of the river valley as it feeds into the lake. A spectacular perspective or series of perspectives on this one dramatic place. As you approach the lake itself, you are treated to several overlooks where the sound of the waves crashing on the beach becomes audible. Finally, you are on a cliff overlooking just the lake and the waves crashing against the rocks below. A spectacular audible moment that only lasts as long as you look over the edge. The acoustic shielding that 300 feet of solid rock provides is quite impressive.

As you loop around and leave the lake, the sound of the waves begins to blend into the distant sound of cars passing by on the highway. They are often at the same rate and their rise and fall seems to almost imitate the other. A creek which was very low when I last visited now runs high and provides several sonic features that contrast the sound of the highway and insects that I pass as I walk. Finally, I emerge onto a bluff overlooking the highway itself where the rock below was blasted out to let the road run more straight. Frogs and crickets give a constant din under which the sound of passing cars rise and fall drowning them out and then letting them cut through once again. Another pass under highway 61 brings us to the visitor center and we end with a similar sound world to what we began with. I plan to post the whole recording here eventually but first I have to edit the segments together. Technical difficulties doncha know!

Monday August 23rd 1:00 PM

2010-08-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

A great group. In fact, so great they were related to me. My brother Mike and his wife Kari and their two young children Madi 6 an Aidenn 2 1/2 (pronounced EEEEEden by the man himself).

Now, we Ingebritsen's are actually not known for our ability to remain silent for extended periods of time. Just ask anyone who knows any of us. Most people who know me who hear about this project wonder how I can manage it. I just tell them it is therapy for me. However, for this hike, I decided it best to just let what happened happen. Just asking occasionally what they were hearing. I found the two little ones to be quite attentive listeners despite a running tally of each sound they were hearing including birds, water, the various parts of the river, the quick rush of the wind through the trees. I even got my niece and god daughter Madi to listen to the way the sound of the waterfall at the bridge slowly turned into wind and back again as we left and returned to the bridge. Despite a quick stop for snacks and some confusion over the location of the drum, the two had a fun hike and I even got by brother in on the action by having him play the drum once we got into the stone crushing area. As this was the last hike, we carried the drum out to the car so it would be ready to go and Madi and Aiden took special pleasure in taking turns hitting it as hard as they could. I showed them how if they wanted to make a bigger sound, they should hit it less hard but just try to bring the sound out of the drum instead of pulverizing it. They were really just having too much fun pulverizing it though.

Glad they came up,

but now tired. And going up to Gooseberry Falls to record a hike along the Gichi Gumi Trail.

Sunday August 22nd 4:00 PM

2010-08-22T17:17:00.000-07:00

Just sitting here at the old Chris' Food Center after my last hike of the day. The first day I had absolutely no reservations at all and also the first day that I managed to fill all three hikes!

This time some friends of my buddy Chris Chelgren to whom he had raved about the hike enough that they made the trek from St. Paul. I must admit to having been a bit worn out by the two hikes I had already done as they were both fairly long and it was a hot day, but this hike was especially worth it for me and I am glad they showed up because otherwise I would have missed it!

It began with the meditation which was mostly wind and water with the occasional distant iteration from the highway which I was glad I specifically pointed out because the larger sound environment became quite important in this hike.

First, as we approached the waterfall (which had died down quite a bit even since the 1:00 hike) we were challenged with the sound of a helicopter flying overhead. As we approached, the helicopter reached a climax and began to dye down and though it was loud, it was no match for the waterfall which was still very loud on the bridge. As we left the bridge and the waterfall died out, we could hear the distant whimpers of the helicopters among another serenade of birds, perhaps the same group from our 10:00 hike.

We then approached the dripping walls (walls now since all the natural walls that you walk past just before the mound have been active with water features since the rain) and I stopped at each one even though much of the water activity had ceased. This gave us the opportunity to listen to silence and then subtle water drops emerging out of the silence as we proceeded until we reached the mound where a small trickle still drips down in a regular pattern but it can only be heard from the top of the mound. As we left the intimate setting of the mound, the distant train began to sound its horn and the freight cars began to fill the space around us. The low and reverberant rumble slowly filled our ears along with the occasional punctuation of the horn while the helicopter returned at regular intervals as we rounded the dripping wall (the main dripping wall) and explored the details and the dripping pool as well as the waterfall near the dripping pool. As the train and plane faded into the distance, we rounded the corner and also left the dripping pool as if to end this section of music and entered cicada alley to start the second movement with the low rumblings of the river contrasting the sounds of a group fishing in the waters along the bank. This all contrasted with the return of the helicopter for one more pass as we proceeded along the river to the rocky river overlook and beyond. I managed to keep my mouth shut this time for the loop around the rock crusher and powerhouse and I think my sudden performance was quite a surprise for my two hikers.

As the surrounding man made features seemed to be the ongoing theme of this hike, I decided to follow the MCC trail to the outhouse where this time of day they seem to always be using some kind of noisy device to clean out the septic tanks. A great ending to a great hike.

Sunday August 22nd 1:00 PM

2010-08-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

Again, despairing of a lack of sign ups and a cancellation for this slot, I went down to the picnic area thinking that I would have an afternoon off, but with the song path, no result can be expected and I was delighted to have a group of college students appear asking if I was "The guy doing the show".

I was.

And quite the show. They asked how long the hike was and stated they might be under some time constraints so I told them I would try and hike a bit faster. As we proceeded though, it appeared that the time constraints might not have been as crucial as I originally thought because as I hiked at a good pace, I noticed that they were mostly lagging behind and even started going off trail to get closer to the river. These 4 were real explorers and wanted to hit all the nooks and crannies near the cliff walls so we did quite a bit of off trail exploring that usually doesn't happen on the hike.

First, we hit the big hole near the dripping wall which had become much more interesting even since the last time I went down there to record with a distinct and quite present low bubbling sound near one corner where water is flowing down a crevice between two slabs into a small cavern underneath.

We did a bit of talking on this tour and I discovered that one of the hikers was a music business student and another a student at Northland College in Wisconsin where she insisted there were lots of kids that would be "totally into this hike". It sounds like a cool place. I am going to definitely be in touch. I think I might need more volunteers for the second weekend in September when I do Song Path down in Whitewater!

Again we hit the river early after cicada alley and then headed straight for the rock crusher and powerhouse loop where we engaged in a kind of freeform improv within each of the walls of the two buildings. Though we spent a lot of time chatting about various things, I think we managed to hear many things in the park that I just would have missed if they hadn't been so curious. I had fun.

Sunday August 22nd 10:00 AM

2010-08-22T16:35:00.000-07:00

Today there were no reservations on the books except for one cancellation so I was prepared to perhaps take a 4:00 journey up to Gooseberry Falls but it was not to be as all three of the hikes were filled with last minute walk ins which were welcomed after a couple of slower days in the park.

This hike started with me pulling in a bit later than normal to meet a retired woman who had intended to come with a few friends but after one thing led to another they all became quite busy so she decided to come herself. I was happy she did as it was my first hike with just one hiker. It was a really different experience as I felt it game me the freedom to step back a bit more and observe what a single hiker would notice on their own. I tried this time to listen and sort of suggest what should be listened to but allow her to guide the experience. I don't think she could tell I was doing this of course, but it was interesting to see what happened.

Right off the bat she noticed that there was a distinct lack of bird noises in the initial leg of the hike. "You need to get some birds out here!" she insisted. Then, as if on cue, a group of birds of different varieties began to lay down one of the most interesting grooves I have heard in a long time like they were making a track for Bjork or Nobukazu Takemura. Sometimes you have to tell singers what to do I guess.

We then proceeded past the bridge which she noticed faded quickly despite the loud sound it made as we passed. I pointed out that sometimes the bird sounds seemed to emerge out of it and again, as if they were trying to prove me right, sang in almost harmony with the waters sounds. They must have heard me calling them lazy in earlier hikes and decided to teach me a lesson.

After the dripping wall, we proceeded to cicada alley (newly named) but of course, they were not up that early in the morning, kind of the Jazz musicians of the forest. I did decide to explore a new path which leads straight to the river in variation to the normal river overlook. The river overlook gives a very sudden and dramatic sonic approach to the river which is at what is normally the "golden mean" point of the tour but exploring the path behind cicada alley has its own reward in that it prepares the ears for the overlook which is now just a wash of high and low sound and rewards the ear with very distinct low gulping sounds that create a nice steady rhythm. These are similar to sounds heard farther up stream but here you hear them much closer up which is less reverberant but more present and a nice contrasting singular sonic moment.

Again on our way back the birds gave a last serenade at the stone steps which is a nice place to hear them as the temporary shielding the sandstone provides from the river allows them to cut through the din ever so briefly and then be enveloped once again in the sound of the rapids.

Saturday August 21st 4:00 PM

2010-08-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

After having an empty 10:00 and a no show at 1:00, I spent most of the morning today getting dirty and putting microphones where microphones were never meant to go along the trail especially in the caves along the dripping wall where my head can't fit but the mics can. Yes, this trip I actually brought some decent mics with me and have spent some of the free time recording, not only the path itself as I normally do it with the audience, but also some closeup recordings of various smaller water features. I am partly doing this for posterity and partly for a project that my friend Brad conceived of while out here with me to make various recordings and do a deep exploration of the natural tones of the park and their harmonic series to create tonal textures. Brad also provided the microphones (sorry to be putting them where they aught not to go. They are really nice) and also has a studio in St. Paul so I look forward to playing with the sounds there when I get a chance. I think it will definitely be a collaborative effort if we make something from the recordings.

In any case, I held out hope for the 4 PM hike and was rewarded with a family of 4 with two girls who seemed to be around late junior high or early high school aged. We started down the trail on a very calm afternoon with the river raging at perhaps the highest point it had been all weekend or would be to come. Many of the water features began to recede but the waterfall by the bridge was still raging and the occasional interjection of birds emerged from the din as we left the bridge.

I have become more fond of encouraging hikers to spend time listening to the caves I spoke of earlier as I find it gives them a chance to explore certain areas on their own which I think is an important feature of the song path. Each hiker hears differently, so they should have a chance to follow their own ears at times. This group was especially curious in this area and listened to the low drips of the cave intently.

The cicadas were again out in full force and as we rounded the south west end of the loop we listened as their drone became louder and louder against the receding sound of the waterfall near the dripping wall. We then proceeded into an area covered in small sandstone shards and the constant drone of the cicadas with the individual insects turning off their part of the sound as you would approach mixed with the sound of the rocks crunching under foot.

The river was still very high but the sound of frogs and other bugs surrounded us as we stood on the river overlook and not even the constant rush of water could drown them out.

We ended the tour with the sound of a couple of birds of the MCC trail making a regular pulse with some variation. The sounds of the parking lot began to come into focus as we walked closer to the picnic area and made a nice counterpoint to this regular pulse.

Friday August 20th, 4:00

2010-08-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

A real nice afternoon. After a day of more rain, the 4:00 hike was filled by a mother and daughter team from who's accent I placed to be from somewhere in either southwest or northern Minnesota. Of course, I am bad a placing accents.

The rains we had had during the week of and the previous evening on into the morning made the water level extremely high and the water features were going full force. The hike started off with the usual meditation during which we were subtly teased by the distant sound of birds which often blended with the higher scintillation of of the river and the high pitch of the wind. This theme of animal sounds gently protruding and emerging from other features was a re-occurring theme this hike. As we hiked near the river, these background noises would emerge at times in places where the river was more dampened. Then, as we left the now raging waterfall under the bridge, a small group of birds were singing up the path and the high rhythms of the river did a sort of crossfade as if the birds emerged out of the river sound. Later in the path, after we stood atop the large mound where the water was creating a swift "buzzing" type rhythm, a squirrel let out an angry buzz of his own as if in imitation of the water feature.

The wind was very quite which made it's occasional appearance that much more dramatic and it made me think about how many animals and bird sounds get covered by the wind as I heard these features more prominently on this hike. The activity of the now dozens of water feature made it easy to hike the trail at a slightly faster pace between the mound and the dripping wall as each of the features was loud enough to hear from a distance and hiking a bit faster allowed us to sort of Cross Fade between each of the features from subtle drips to raging waterfalls. It was a spectacular display which helped to set the stage for the deeper exploration we would do then at the dripping wall and the small caves that we had discovered on a previous hike.

As the river was running high and fast, the major sound it made was the high pitched sound of breaking waves which made it so that when you got closer, some of the lower more rhythmic features were covered but as you got farther away, these low sounds became more pronounced above the din so or path along the river at the lower part of the trail was bombarded by the occasional low swell which made stone crusher and power house that more interesting to just stand and listen in. There was no drummer this hike, but I though it was just as interesting to make the hikers more suddenly aware of the space when we entered and I did a short improvisation. I am having more and more fun with the short slap delay in the rock crusher and have found that the sound drastically changes as you go from left to right in the space itself. The two hikers were treated (or subjected) to an extra long improv in the rock crusher. I hope they did enjoy it!

Thursday August 19th 4 PM

2010-08-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

Not but 30 minutes after the end of the 1:00 hike, it was time for the 4. A single hiker named Holly joined me and we were later joined by Patrick mid trail. This hike got very deep as both Patrick and Holly were interested in exploring every aspect of the places we stopped. Though my poor sister was waiting longer than usual for us to arrive, I could not possibly rush them. We were given a bit of an extra performance by a squirrel throwing nuts down at us near the large mound on the initial leg of the hike. I have found that today I had a hard time getting hikers to follow me to the top as they explored other aspects of the space but encouraged them to go there as it is only atop that mound that the dripping water by the natural cliff wall can be heard clearly. It makes a great contrast to the mix of silence, angry squirrel, and distant birds.

After that point, we were made aware of the larger space due to a large group of kids jumping off the cliff walls into the river in the distance. The iterations of them jumping into the water seemed to occur at a similar interval as I have instructed musicians to hit the drum so I at first thought that my sister had just become impatient with waiting and decided to start smacking the drum. A nice sort of fore shadowing.

At the dripping wall, we again explored the space very deeply and discovered that with the extra moisture in the ground, there were many small caves below us filled with empty space and dripping water that we stuck our heads near and listened to many different sonic spaces within a few square meters of each other. This addition made this quite area very dramatic and as we then pulled our attention back to the larger space there seemed to be so much more to hear as if we had discovered an entire universe in a space that was previously only a planet.

The sound of the cliff divers continued to fill the greater space and re-informed the more intimate sounds we were hearing. We hiked off trail again where the cicadas were waking up and lingered there a bit before hiking on. We noticed that as we approached a certain spot where one of them was sitting under the rocks, they would stop making noise creating a sort of gap in the sonic texture and causing a sort of electronic sounding shift in the chord that was being struck by all of them together.

After we lingered a bit at the river, we marched on to the powerhouse. While we were listening closely to the bass line that the water created, a gaggle of geese flew overheard making a semi-regular rhythmic sound that is characteristic of them which seemed to mix quite intentionally with the sound of the water and made a brief counterpoint.

Again, I could not get the hikers to bend to my will when passing the powerhouse but this time did not notice that they had gone off the trail until after I had arrived at the rock crusher. Instead of going back though, I just began my improvisation in the rock crusher and kept it going until they finally returned to the trail and saw me there. This made the whole area a bit more interesting in that they got to see the powerhouse twice and were a bit more free to explore it more deeply the second time. When I began my improv there, they joined me and Holly even broke out into song singing a few blues and jazz standards from, as I learned later, her time as a singer in a blues band. As she sang, Patrick and I ran around the powerhouse to hear how the sound changed from different perspectives and this song path ended when the kids that had been cliff diving approached the powerhouse and began to pummel it with rocks. A big no no in the parks, but from our perspective, an amazing sound.

Though one of the longer hikes I have done, I felt it was one of the most rewarding and really enjoyed the experience.

Thursday August 19th, 1 PM

2010-08-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

The 1 PM hike was dedicated to staff as the naturalist for St. Croix and Banning came out to experience the hike along with my sister Jennifer with her boyfriend Patrick manning the drum.

Megan Johnson, the naturalist who joined us, is also the person that recommended I check out Banning while I was doing some hiking around St. Croix last year. I explained my concept to her and she seemed to immediately get it and pointed me in the direction of the quarry loop trail which I still think is perhaps the ideal place for the Song Path. It was great to have her on the hike to see what she listened and looked for.

We started a little closer to the river for the meditation which I find to be more interesting when listening to the water, especially when there are fewer birds around. Thanks to some heavy rain while I was safe and sound in the cities the water features were up again and the waterfall underneath the bridge was raging. However, the dripping wall was still fairly subtle and we had an amazing time exploring that place a bit more deeply than I had in the past.

Megan, being a mother of two, a naturalist, and general park staff, was multi-tasking as she listened and found all sorts of interesting things in the park such as mushrooms, grasses, pieces of coal, and snake skins as well as pulling up wild mustard weed when she saw it. She also did some incredibly deep listening not just to features that I was pointing out but also to micro-features of the park that I had not considered before. She would put her ear right up to trees to hear the insides as well as listen for birds hiding in the branches and also listened closely to sounds occurring underneath certain weeds and shrubs on the ground. She was graced with the sounds of a couple of small spiders chasing each other around in the small microcosm of the ground and got us both to listen to these features more deeply. We were also serenaded by a couple of small birds (sadly I do not know the species) that had very short and regular chirps but who were chirping at different regular rates creating a sort of out of phase rhythm. As they made their percussive piece, a couple of woodpeckers began to fly overhead and peck at the wood in slow regular intervals as well as tear at the bark to get at insects inside the tree. I learned from Megan that the fast pecking we usually associate with woodpeckers is literally more for communication than feeding and that when they are eating they peck much more slowly.

Later, when we reached the powerhouse, Megan heard the sound of the drum and went into park ranger mode thinking there was someone throwing rocks or something vandalizing the inside of one of the structures. It actually took us off our regular course but since that is where the hike was going, I followed. When she realized what it was, she was relieved and we did a backwards loop starting at the power house and ending with the rock crusher.

We ended the hike with the sound of a loud AC or vacuum unit inside one of the buildings near the parking lot. A great way to end.

Jennifer and Patrick.

2010-08-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

After spending a restful three days in the cities and hosting a retirement party for my father, I hit the road again up to Banning Thursday Morning. This time I was joined by my sister Jennifer and her boyfriend Patrick. They were troopers in getting up at the crack of dawn to join me and helped me with my 1 PM and 4 PM hikes, both of which went longer than I had told them. Jenny played the french horn in school and I am not sure what Patrick's musical background was but they both did a great job and followed my always vague instructions to a tea. They now travel on to Winnepeg and I wish them a great trip.

Monday August 16th, 4:00 PM

2010-08-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

After a quite morning of emailing and eating a health campfire breakfast with Shannon, we headed to town for some emailing and then did a 1:00 hike just the two of us. Shannon hadn't actually been on the Song Path and it was quite relaxing and a nice chance to spend some quality time together. We then tore down our campsite and headed back to the trail for a 4:00 hike that was booked for two families with children ages 2-13. I was prepared.

At around 4:03, a mini-van containing two adult men comes tearing into the parking lot and a head sticks out of a rolled down window, "are you the nature tour guy?". They get out and explain that the tour was going to be 9 people but they had just done a long hike with all the kids and they were not having another hike just after so the two decided to go it alone.

Under normal circumstances, I would insist that a hike with adults be totally silent, or at least attempt to do so, but the two asked if they could chat along the way and for some reason I thought it wouldn't ruin the experience with the two of them so agreed to a chatting tour. I did point out that the experience would be best if they allowed themselves to listen in particular places. This actually made the tour quite interesting as I learned along the way that one of the hikers was also a composer and cellist named Aaron Kerr who performed his own works and as it turned out, had recorded in my friend Brad's studio in St Paul called Essential Sessions. I also learned that the other hiker Dean was involved with charter schools and knew a lot about acoustics as he had been in charge of a project in which they measured the acoustics of the rooms at their charter schools and got recommendations on how to improve them. Apparently, the acoustics of a room have been proven to effect the performance of students in a given class as certain places in a room make the teacher hard to hear and muddled. He was often commenting on the hike that a certain location would be great to work in.

Though I feel we might have missed some interesting transitions along the way, I also realized that allowing them to chat and ask questions along the way allowed us to reflect on particular features as we walked. I also felt more free to go off trail in places that I had not ventured with other groups and we made some amazing sonic discoveries. After the first and second dripping walls, there are a stack of rocks left over from the quarry mines. Rocks that were still there after the last train pulled out of Banning. We spent quite a bit of time walking between these rocks as they noticed the very dry acoustic that part of the path makes but then we ventured behind them, a somewhat more difficult area where uneven rocks have moss growing on them where I am disinclined to take people normally. Behind these rocks, after carefully scaling some larger rock faces- and being careful not to trample some small fern like plants growing on the rocks- we emerged in a small chamber created by the quarry miners as rock was piled up on one side and sheer cliff walls surrounded it on the other two. This was perhaps the quietest place I had been in the park and even the very slow trickle of water down the walls seemed quite dramatic.

Later in the hike, stopping to hear the sounds of cicadas, Aaron actually went off path himself to follow the sound to its source so Dean and I followed to great reward as we were surrounded and enveloped as we walked with their texture slowly changing and deepening as we turned one way and another while walking of shards of left over sandstone from the stone cutters near the south west leg of the trail. I we then hit the river overlook which was the most spectacular I had heard it yet and we actually again stayed off trail longer than I normally do braving a section of trail that is a bit more narrow and overgrown and very close to the river's edge. Normally I would avoid this part as it seems a bit dangerous for kids and maybe older folks which my two brave hikers confirmed "yeah, we wouldn't have tried this with the kids!"

The stone crusher and powerhouse were also extra interesting as I asked the two of them if they would care to join me in a little jam session in the strange reverb chambers. They were more than happy to oblige and we ended up doing kind of slow rhythmic improvisations in each with the drum punctuating our playing. Fun!

I ended this tour earlier than normal as the sound of the bubbling and lapping against the sandstone at the river near where the quarry loop and spur trail split off was so spectacular. It just seemed like an appropriate place to stop and reflect.

Sunday August 15th 4:00 PM

2010-08-18T06:38:00.000-07:00

My first mixed crowd. Meaning, my first hike with two groups of people that did not know each other before. A family of 5 with 3 very attentive older children and an older couple by themselves. I know I keep mentioning the makeup of each group. It is important for me in that I feel different types of groups will have different ways of enjoying the experience.

I will admit that on this hike I at first thought it would be a challenge to create an experience that everyone would enjoy but then decided just to run the hike as if it was a single group of adults with a few extra stops for the younger crowd and maybe a little bit of interaction to keep their attention.

I found that it was much easier than I had expected to keep everyone's attention and that the kids were just as intent in their listening as the adults. I also found that often they were lingering in places longer than I was inclined to which, as I have said before, makes me feel like I have done my job. In the end, I felt that all of us were listening with similar ears as we got used to each other and it ended up being a very satisfying hike despite a very pointed lack of bird sounds. This singers taking the afternoon off!

The water features and wind really came out in this hike and as the wind would rise and fall it really emphasized the subtle sounds of water and the rare punctuation of a bird, insect, or squirrel. This time, the mixing of the low river sounds and the drum actually slightly frightened one of the hikers as they really thought it was rocks turning over in the water and then realized it was coming suddenly from further inland. I don't think the fear was too great though as she said she was coming back next weekend.

The water features are really starting to recede but instead of making things less interesting it is in fact making those places more intimate but also more sonically diverse as you can hear more details of minute water drops.

My wife Shannon played the drum for this hike. I am happy to have her here after a month apart. I think she is also glad to be out of Chicago for a few days. It's really loud there.

Shannon Budd

2010-08-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

I also want to take the opportunity to introduce my wife Shannon Budd. She has been REALLY busy while I have been here. A series of unfortunate and unexpected events have made it so we have to move to a new apartment in Chicago while I am here doing this residency. She has pretty much been doing everything as well as maintaining her music teaching business and generally holding down the fort in Chicago while I have been gone. Luckily we have many friends and relatives willing to pitch in, but still, I have to give here a special load of credit in making the song path possible. In general, in making the whole music career possible. Without her support and constant advice, I would probably not be here doing the song path right now. So, thanks dear.

She is also helping out with an art opening in Osage IA for her father Eric which happens on the 28th of August. She is busy!

Shannon is a talented flutist and music educator and runs a center for a children's music program in Chicago called Music Together. She also teaches a full studio of very successful flute students (one of whom went on to Depaul University to study with Mary Stolper among others) and I have gotten lots of good advice on how to lead hikes with kids just by watching how she runs her classes and listening to her tell me about her days.

Despite all the events that have popped up this summer, she found time to drive up to Chicago and visit me and help out with the Song Path. I think sitting in the woods and beating a drum every once in a while is quite therapeutic given everything that has been going on. I really appreciate having her here. She is helping me with a couple of days in Banning as well as possibly coming up for the first few days of labor day weekend in Whitewater.

Chris Chelgren

2010-08-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

In an ongoing series on this blog, I am going to spend one post each talking a bit about the musicians that are helping me out with the Song Path as they appear. I already told you about my friends Brad Matala and Steve Laukannen and now I would like to introduce my old friend and fellow composer Chris Chelgren. Chris and I were roommates at St. Olaf College and we took many of the same classes of which we attended as many as we could given our rigorous sleep schedule. We were actually the original Song Pather's in a way as we spent many a night on the hill hiking through the woods and listening to things, especially the two big blue water towers that protruded from the top of the hill which were like gigantic space crafts at night if you just leaned up against them and looked up at the stars. We spent hours at night playing those towers and howling to the universe as college age people tend to do. Fun times. Chris is now teaching viola as well as holding down a full time day job much as I normally do and is composing and making tunes for his viola and other instruments. When I told him about the song path, he couldn't wait to get back on the trails. He will be helping me out a couple of days in Banning as well as down at Whitewater the second weekend in September. I a really glad to have him here. His drumming will be exquisite!

Sunday August 15th 10:00 AM

2010-08-17T06:42:00.000-07:00

Another Great morning hike. A couple from Minneapolis who were both writers as well. And with the water levels and water features caused by earlier rains receding a bit, there were even more moments of poetically rhythmic patterns emerging from these places. More and More I really fell musical rhythms coming out of them and the young woman on the tour even pointed out a type of poetic meter (the name of which I can't remember of course) that was occurring in the waterfalls under the bridge.

Everyone hears differently and this hike really re-confirmed an earlier notion I had about this hike that the actual "music" of the Song Path is created in the head of each individual listener depending on their specific way of hearing and interpreting each sound in relation to the other sounds. I also have noticed the extreme differences that are made in sound environment when the head is moved even a little bit in relation to certain features. This group was extremely verbal after the hike and described many things that I was not specifically hearing at the time but I immediately knew what they were talking about based on their description of these moments. Very multi-dimensional.

The winds played beautifully through the trees on this hike and at times in the beginning after getting away from the river I felt like we were listening to the hike in headphones as the winds enveloped us in their sound. The drum was also effective here and as the river had receded a bit further, the sounds of water lapping against the sandstone continued to follow us from the stone cutter shed to the powerhouse. The sound of the drum seemed to emerge from these low river sounds and it created a beautiful transition which I felt expressed maybe even something a bit metaphorical about the dual nature of the park as a natural site as well as one forged by the will of human enterprise.

August 14th 1:00 PM

2010-08-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

This hike started with a very enthusiastic family of five including a couple from St. Paul and their 3 children Andrew (5), Emily (3), and Olivia (1). Of course, on a hike with smaller children, I do the hike a bit different, but Banning's Quarry Loop Trail is still a big loop and there is no easy way to make it any shorter, so after I gave my routine on the length of the hike and the parents said they had no problem with it, we soldiered on. And to great reward!

In a hike with small children of course it is more or less impossible to do a completely silent hike so we opted to just walk and talk and in some key places, just listen for a little bit. I often asked the kids what they heard and was rewarded by a flurry of excited answers including birds, water, more water, and more water. They loved the water- especially little Emily. So we were lucky that the water features were still going strong and spent lots of time hear the streams and waterfalls and especially the "dripping wall" as I have come to call the quarry area near the north west end of the loop.

This hike was a bit longer due to a bathroom stop, a lost shoe, and a few arguments over the relative merits of carrying a very big stick as opposed to a smaller, very special stick, but it was worth it to see the small kids really get into listening, albeit in between playing in some of the water, which was also very fun to watch.

I think the highlight of the tour might have been the trip through the stone crusher and powerhouse as it gave me an opportunity to lead the kids and parents in a short "jam session" inside each of these unique sonic spaces. We clapped and stomped in rhythm and even though it takes a heavy stomp to activate the powerhouse, both Andrew and Emily were able to see how their foot steps and hand claps sounded inside the massive structure. At least that was the highlight for me, I think the kids like the water the best : )

At the end, the parents were amazed at how good the kids did even though the hike was a total of 2 hours and 40 minutes! But between the walks, listens, and detours, the parents also had a chance to stop for a second and listen deeply and relax. I was glad to have been able to share an experience that both generations could enjoy.

Now I am sitting back at my campsite just trying to remember all the things that occurred. I don't want to forget anything!

August 14th, 10:00 hike

2010-08-16T09:46:00.001-07:00

In sharp contrast to the previous days, Saturday was sunny and warm, but not TOO warm, and the wind was fairly calm so the birds were out in full force and this time quite audible. The hike started with a young couple from my home town of Bloomington MN though they did go to Bloomington Jefferson rather than my cross town alma-mater of Bloomington Kennedy. But then again, nobody's perfect : )

As the sun was shining and it was slightly windy, we did get a good mix of water, wind, and bird noises for the meditation. The water fall near the bridge was raging and the quarry cliffs were awash with water features from small droplets in the distance to full on waterfalls that had not been there even the day before despite the rains that had fallen previously. there were many places where the couples listening far exceeded my expectations and I realized that if I was going to get them to move to the next place I would somewhat have to interrupt their experience and start walking quite loudly to indicate I was moving. That was very gratifying for me and I really never wanted to interrupt what they were listening to. All the various water features gave us interesting perspectives on the rock formations as we would hear them from far away and then be able to go in close to hear more minute details and then sound environment near these formations changed dramatically. The water really works better than most of the musical ideas I had earlier envisioned putting in these spaces.

This was also the first hike in which I had someone playing the optional drum solo. I will refrain from revealing the location so as not to ruin the surprise for future hikers, but its sound made just the blending with the river I wanted and emerged out of a wash of sound and helped as I had thought it would, to accentuate the man made features of the park.

The singers were not sleeping on this hike as the sound of birds singing at one point surrounded us on all sides in the woods leading back to the river and powerhouse as well as when we climbed the stone stairs near the end of the hike. This made for a great closing moment before we followed the river back to teachers overlook. I was really happy to hear their comments after the hike and think I am going to learn a great deal about the human element of this piece as I do this first weekend of performances. Everyone will hear something different and everyone's exploration of the sounds will in should be completely unique and individual.

Brad and Steve

2010-08-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

I have to take a minute to Thank my friends Brad Matala and Steve Laukannen who helped me out Part of Friday and all of Saturday with the hikes. Steve and Brad are both friends of mine from High School who I was in a band with late high school and early college. Steve now works and lives in the twin cities area as does Brad who runs a recording studio in St. Paul called Essential Sessions. They were amazing and amazingly patient with me as the hikes are taking longer than I had anticipated and they waited patiently in the power house for two full hikes on Saturday in between fishing in the river and soaking up the sun. They also rescued me from myself and my campsite for an evening but it was decided before they arrived that the destination would be Grand Casino Hinkley and the all you can eat buffet! With all this hiking, I can eat quite a bit. And we won some of the money we spent there playing Black Jack! I am not a gambler normally, so I had no problem stopping while I was ahead. We then hit the city of Sandstone's Quarry Days celebration which kept me up too late but was immensely fun as we hung out at my favorite bar there, the Gaslight, and took in two bands and some fireworks. Hearing bands that have their entire speaker system, instruments, and audio reactive lights set up inside of a SEMI with a removable side panel play "Ramble On" by Led Zeplin and "Summer of 69" by Brain Adams for some reason never gets old to me. All in all, a good night.

Thanks Brad and Steve!

Evening. More rain. Going to Quarry Days to Drink with Friends

2010-08-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

Well,

My earlier enthusiasm about a great 4:00 hike was brought back down to earth as even though I had a very enthusiastic group of hikers willing to face the wet weather, BOOM! CRASH! FLOOD! the rains came down with a fury. We dispersed, they to St Paul (and then back to France as I understood) and I to my tent to listen to some of the recording I did earlier.

I am being joined tonight by my friends Brad and Steve whom I used to be in a band with in the Early 90's in Minneapolis. The Unfinnished. Yes, with two N's. (they are of Finnish descent). But our musical journey continues as they have agreed to help me out tomorrow with the song path in between pulling bass out of the kettle river (I hope, because I want to eat some fish! MMMMMMMMM).

But some good news came with the rains. A segment on the Song Path Aired today on MPR's All Things Considered.

You can listen to it here.

2010-08-13T17:24:00.000-07:00

August 13

The rain has been somewhat of a constant so far this weekend having rained pretty hard the first night as well as all last night and now again during the day today. Not just rain, but thunder storms. I started out this morning at 10:00 doing a solo recorded hike to start gathering material to post on the DNR website. I have decided I will most likely edit out several segments of 6-10 minutes so people can peruse online and then perhaps create a map from the PDF template that catalogs where on the trail each segment was taken. I also decided that instead of leaving behind a MP3 of the meditation, I would instead write out several different meditations depending on the season so that an interested party could download and print out a PDF Song Path guide with both a printed meditation and a map showing the exact trail and starting point with some suggested stopping points along the way. That way the hiker can really get the experience of the space at the moment they are there rather than being transported backwards in time to the season and day that I was making the recording.

To give a bit of context on this, Amy Barrett at the Minnesota DNR, who is now my main contact for the entire project, thought it would be a good idea to leave something behind in each park that people visiting the website or the parks could enjoy after my project was done. I thought at the time that an MP3 of the along with a MAp showing where the song path goes would be a good idea as well as some MP3 files of the hike itself so people could get an idea of what it was like without actually being there. In retrospect, it seems that really "being there" is a part of the experience so even though I still plan to post some audio clips, I just think a recorded meditation would take a potential hiker OUT of "being there". The park changes so much from day to day and week to week that I think it would be best for them to have some sort of reference that didn't impose a certain time an place on their ears before they begin hiking the trail.

So, back to the rain, I am sitting in a tent right now wondering if my scheduled 4:00 hike will go off. The rain isn't coming down too hard actually and if there was still a bit of thunder in the background it would be incredibly interesting. Nina and Hans -Georg and I experienced this in Whitewater and it was spectacular but I fear the hikers won't show. I would love to be able to find them to encourage them to do a rain hike with me but we'll see. Crossing my fingers.

August 12th. First day of Song Path

2010-08-12T15:42:00.000-07:00

Had the first tour today. I decided that I would chronicle each tour in blog form to give the participants a chance to comment if they wished to share their experience with others.

I have no idea if anyone will, but I thought it would be nice for me to share the experience and to keep it for my own records.

Thursday August 12 10:00 AM, Banning State Park.

Today was another fairly hot day but started early so the 10 AM tour I had was still quite pleasant. The birds were not quite as active as normal at first but the increased water levels and recent rains made many of the stone and quarry features much more interesting. When we neared the west end of loop, we left the trail for a bit and were rewarded with a spectacular "rhythm section" -as one hiker put it- of water dripping into the deep pools below as well as high waterfalls that had formed from rainwater. None of this was present in my initial hikes three weeks ago, but they were a welcomed addition to the hike. I have noticed that the sun has quite an effect on bird and other animal sounds and as we rounded the west section of the loop, the sun burst through the clouds letting out a cacophony of bird sounds which then also instigated insects and a few squirrels who I have noticed make strange threatening noises when people approach. Probably a way of marking their territory, but against all the other sounds, a beautiful addition. At certain times, there were even regular polyrhythms formed between the different animal sounds that were somewhat reminiscent of the rhythms that the water on the quarry rocks was making just previously so it seemed to me a large scale structural element in the sonic composition the park was playing.

This hike, and those I assume that will come the next few days, were mostly about intimate spaces rather than the details of the larger expanse of the park as the sound of the Kettle River dominated the soundscape a bit more than it had previously. On the other hand, there were quite a few more interesting details than had existed before due the the addition of extra water features and when the bird activity increased, there was a lot more diverse sound occurring in the background than had been. There were also more details that you could hear in the river itself as the large eddies that create the famous potholes of the kettle river could be heard loudly with their low swelling noises as large swells of water slapped against the rocks.

In general I was quite satisfied with the hike though I think I might have lingered a bit too long in certain spots as we hiked for nearly 90 minutes. The group seemed quite interested in the sound worlds we stopped in so I decided not to take them away from the pre-maturely. I will be very interested to hear the difference between today and tomorrow though I think the water level may remain consistent as the forecast tonight is for rain. I think I hear thunder now!!

Back To Banning

2010-08-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

Ahhh.

China, done.

I could go on here for about 20 pages about the experience of playing at the International Society of Music Educators conference with my friend and long time collaborator Jason Wampler in our electronic music duo We Can and We Must, but that is for another blog!

Now, after a few days getting settled back in in Minnesota, I am back at Banning. Things have been a bit hectic so instead of doing multiple blog entries I will just summarize the last several days here in one entry so blog time and real time can re-connect.

After a few days organizing my gear, washing cloths, and catching up on emails and phone calls as well as getting over a mean case of Jetlag (I am still waking up in the middle of the night), I finally headed to banning on the 10th (yesterday). When I arrived, it almost immediately began to rain so I set up my tent really quickly, then saw my father off after a quick stop at Toby's for a caramel roll, and then hit the trails. What I realized almost right away was that the rain has even more effects than I thought. First off, I had heard word via a call from my wife on the cell phone that it was supposed to possibly hail and thunderstorm so I hung out by the bathrooms for a bit in case it was true. After it seemed unlikely we would get any hail, I set out on the quarry loop trail which was almost completely dominated this time by the various water features that are not nearly as present when the weather is more dry. I also noticed that the wildlife is much less present in the rain and in general, when it is cloudy out which I did not experience as much during my previous stay. I decided, despite further threatening storms, to hike the trail in its entirety and was rewarded by several additional waterfalls, thunder claps, and even a few freight trains in the distance which made a beautiful slow moving musical structure as I walked through the various terrains.

Today I hiked the trail again with sunny skies but the amount of rain the fell last night left the park a wash with new water features and a very high river which carried much farther than it previously had. I am looking forward to hearing how this new water level and these new features change over the course of a hopefully dry weekend though the forecast does show a chance of showers for the next few days.

Tomorrow the Song Path and though there are no reservations on the books I have had a few people approach my campsite asking about the hike so perhaps I will have a few takers. I guess the fliers in the park worked despite my new beard.

July 19th and last post until I get back

2010-08-11T15:20:00.000-07:00

WORL LISTENING DAY

2010-08-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

This and the next few posts are ones that I wrote on paper during my stay at Whitewater state park but didn't have web access/time before I left on a two week trip to Beijing where I discovered, not surprisingly, that my blog site was blocked by the government filters there. I have now been back in town a few days and have been catching up on some organization and getting ready for the first performance dates at Banning State Park which begin this Thursday the 12th.

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July 18th 2010: World Listening Day

Today is World Listening Day as declared by the International Society for Acoustic Ecology: an international organization devoted to listening and to preserving and documenting man-made and natural sound environments around the world.

So, since I recently became a member at the encouragement of members who I know and found out about Song Path, I decided I would use this opportunity to participate by bringing some friends of mine and fellow WLP members who lived in the area on a sound hike of Whitewater. We set out in the morning and were accompanied by a group of enthusiasts including Poet James Armstrong, MPR's Marc Sanchez who brought along some recording gear, Videographer and film maker Jason Schumacher, Hans and Nina, and my lovely wife Shannon who surprised the three of us in the middle of our rendition of Johny Cash's "Jasckson" last night at Nye's driving all the way from Chicago to do so! That's dedication.

Though there were some difficulties finding each other at Whitewater and we were running quite late, we finally all set out on a hike in the afternoon shot by Jason and Recorded by Marc. It was my first hike with a large group and though I was a bit nearvous, they were a captive audience and surprised me by at times stopping in places I did not intend to and sometimes lingering longer than I was inclined to. If every group is that into what they are hearing, I will be quite pleased.

After a very interesting hike, Shannon, Hans-Georg, and Nina left and made some noises in the park itself while Marc, James, Jason, and I listened from Inspiration Point. It was an incredible experience to sit and listen to different parts of the valley come together as the sun went down. I also noticed that the wildlife in the park seemed to respond to the man made sounds and once they stopped, we had an sort of "coda" performed by the local wildlife. I hope they weren't noises of displeasure, but as the naturalists seems to think we are not disturbing things too much, I think they are most likely just natural responses to stimulus. I have also noticed that the sun, rain, wind, and mere presence of human beings does seem to influence the amount and type of sound the animals make. I really think the heightened awareness of the space the instruments will bring to audience member is worth the metaphorical disruption the sounds bring. I also found that fellow hikers started to join in at certain moments. It almost made us feel like we all belonged there.

Later, we did a brief interview to use to accent the video document and perhaps to become an audio segment on Minnesota Public Radio and got a great recording of some hawks either mating or fighting. Whatever it was, it was spectacular.

July 16th at Whitewater

2010-08-09T18:06:00.000-07:00

This and the next few posts are ones that I wrote on paper during my stay at Whitewater state park but didn't have web access/time before I left on a two week trip to Beijing where I discovered, not surprisingly, that my blog site was blocked by the government filters there. I have now been back in town a few days and have been catching up on some organization and getting ready for the first performance dates at Banning State Park which begin this Thursday the 12th.

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July 16th-17th at Whitewater. We headed out to Whitewater State Park today with a full cooler of food that should be just enough for the three of us (we like to eat). I sit now at our campsite which was saved for us, an overflow site near the visitors center, even though the campsites were all full. Dave Palmquist, who is the park naturalist at Whitewater, has been incredibly helpful as have all the park staff. They have an amazingly calm way of taking care of an incredibly busy park that has recently undergone severe flood damage. They are also all pretty much comedians and a visit to the park office is usually as entertaining as it is informative.

On the way in, we stopped for some blackberries and strawberries which were growing at a local farm and were able to pick them straight off the vines. In Chicago, we would probably pay extra for that privilege, but in this case, at a discount. I love it when things make sense!

After a quick orientation with the park staff and working out some details about dates, times , and starting places, we set out on the Chimney Rock Loop towards Inspiration Point. (for reference, here is a PDF Map of the park). When visiting here last year, I recalled this trail being quite active with both bird and insect life and also recalled that there were some quite dramatic looking ravines just north of the trail and all these features contrasted the sound of the river that the trail follows most of the way to inspiration point. but, as I have found to be true at Banning, looks can be deceiving. Many of the features that appeared to be quite dramatic visually actually yielded very subtly results when sounds were made within them and the wildlife this time seeded to be a bit more subdued than last year. Of course, the difference in animal, namely insect noise, can be attributed to a slightly different season as I was last there in mid September but it was disappointing to find that my assumptions about what I thought would be my trail were in fact wrong. Inspiration point proved to be the exception to this as Nina and Hans-Georg descended the long stairs that lead to the valley below and created a cacophony of sounds that resonated throughout the valley. The valley that Inspiration point overlooks is really a central meeting point of three different river valleys where Trout Run Creek and the Whitewater River conjoin. It was interesting to note that certain higher pitched sounds or those with sharp attacks seemed to resonate not only locally in the depression in which they were created but also in the greater valley which joined all these geological depressions. It was also interesting to note that the sounds which resonated throughout the valley seemed to do so at a higher altitude than the lower sounds.

After leaving inspiration point, we decided to take a detour down Trout Run Creek instead of taking the route I had intended to be the end of the trail which leads back to the south picnic area. We quickly realized that This trail is everything I had hoped that Chimney Rock Trial would be with incredibly diverse wildlife and water features as well as several really interesting wooden bridges. It is far more isolated than Chimney Rock and further from the swimming area which provides a constant din as you approach inspiration point from that side which can be distracting. I nearly immediately decided that I had the trail all wrong and it should start from the south picnic area and first explore this more isolated and intimate path, then end after returning from the end of this trail to inspiration point up the long set of wooden stairs that lead there. I can then give the audience two different perspectives on the trail, one, an intimate exploration from within, and then, after turning the group around, the musicians in the park can start to make noises which will bring their perspective outward and get them to focus on the larger valley that they will eventually perceive in its entirety as they look out from inspiration point.

Or something like that.

But for now, there are burgers and zuchinni to eat, and wine to drink.

Nina, Hans-Georg

2010-08-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

Back in the cities.

2010-07-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

I returned to the twin cities last night and am now just trying to catch up on some rest and generally reflecting on my experience at Banning. I did not really realize it until I got back here, but the day to day activities in the state park over the course of 5 days has me thoroughly exhausted. Strangely, I did not really feel it while I was in the process. I guess it is kind of like 5 days of keeping up a similar level of concentration as playing a piece of symphonic music for extended periods of time as well as intense hiking that does it. You never feel it while you are in the midst of it, but once it is over and then euphoria wears off, you crash. None the less, it is day now and despite an attempt to take a nap, I am awake so thought I would just share a few things about the experience so far.

I am really pleased with how the week went. I think I came in with a different expectation and memory of what the park looked and sounded like and it took me a couple of days to try to erase my pre-conceptions from my psyche as well as wind down from my usual level of conscious activity in order to really hear what was in front of me. I now realize that the park has even more of a musical shape than I first encountered and that very little has to be added or should I say brought out of the park with human interaction. I actually expected to want to impose more on the park or insert more sound into the natural sound environment but then realized that the park was so active as it was that such an imposition was hardly necessary. I think the balance I have struck should create a profound experience. At least it does seem to for me. I really think the hike takes me into a sort of dream like state that takes me a few hours to come out of and after 5 days of hiking the trail a few times a day I feel it will take me a few days to get out of it completely. I did however feel that the week had a sort of musical arc of its own. day 1-2 just getting settled in and in tune with listening, day 2-3 really working out details and digging in. Day 3-4 fine tuning my listening and getting various perspectives as well as getting out into the community a bit more, and day 5 wrapping up and making final conclusions (as well as getting back to civilization a bit earlier than expected due to rain).

I have to quickly switch gears for Whitewater and am now joined by my friends Nina and Hans Gyorg from Germany who are visiting the states for a month and have graciously agreed to accompany me for a couple of days. It will be nice to have some assistance as whitewater is a much more expansive park and the sound world I need to stimulate is much larger and involves greater distances. I am going to pick up a walkie talkie or two (I guess you need at least two, right?) and do a lot of long distance improvising with them hitting drums for me. Fun!

Now I must shift gears.

2010-07-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

The last full day at Banning.

RAIN!

After four days of amazingly good weather and a few near misses, mother nature finally had had enough and dumped a mass amount of rain and unleashed a good deal of thunder and lightning as well. I awoke to the sound of thunder and though I had had a fairly wrestles evening as it was, I decided to get up and pack my things as I was planning to leave at the end of they day anyway. After grabbing a quick breakfast in town, I returned to the park to meet Randy Gordon, the park ranger and naturalist, in order to do a quick tour of the songpath for his final approval but by the time I arrived, the full fury of the storm had broken loose. This pretty much put the kaibosh on our little trip as well as on a preview tour I had planned with a group of school kids at East Central Community Ed. It did give me a chance to go across the street to East Central Community Ed (which is right across HWY 23 from Banning, and meet some of the folks I had been corresponding with leading up to my visit.

After the rain died down a bit, I did what will be the final hike I will take until I return to Banning in August. The rain persisted now and again and added a whole different dimension to the tour. The sound of the rain itself changed in unexpected ways along the path and as it became stronger and weaker, covered and then revealed subtle sounds the were present in the background. This also made the moments where the river was near much more dramatic. It also added to the existing water features and provided a few that had not been present on earlier hikes.

In a conversation I had with Randy earlier in the day while waiting for the rain to die out, we discussed a few issues that they thought of in reflecting on previous descriptions of what I planned to do. First, there are a few places on the trail they were concerned older hikers might have a problem with. I agreed that that could be an issue and we worked out a couple alternate routes that seem to work well. We also discussed the issue of rocks. There are parts of the trail covered in a multitude of loose sandstone and I had originally thought it might be a nice touch to use some of it to make noise but the more they thought about it they thought it might give hikers the impression that it was OK to remove and even throw rocks. We compromised on liming the use of these rocks to one specific location and using them in a way that merely moved them a bit farther down the quarry (not to give too much away) into the shallows of the river. I am lucky to be working with folks that know their parks so well and are enthusiastic about the idea. It would be easy enough for them to just say not to some of my ideas just to err on the safe side but they have been very generous with their time in helping me find solutions that work for artistic purposes while maintaining the integrity of the park itself.

We also discussed the idea of doing a "Serenade to the Quarry" one of they days when I have multiple musicians helping. I should explain. During the Song Path dates. I have a number of musicians who are available at varying lengths of time and there are certain overlaps (tbd still) so at certain times I might have 3 or more musicians joining me. Of course, they don't all need to be on the song path at once as I am striving to keep the path itself quite minimal in its utilization of man made sound (although the park itself was really made by man so in a way, it is all man made sound~~~). Last night at around 6, one of the musicians whom I have mentioned before, Chris Chelgren, came with me on the path and was, as I was at first, really obsessed with seeing how every nook and cranny, pit and valley sounded. What we found was that close up, these features sometimes made disappointing sounds in relation to their visual grandeur. I realized that this was mostly due to the sandstone itself being somewhat porous an therefor, it absorbs sound. We did realize however, that from certain vantage points sound could probably be heard throughout the park, just not when obstructed by the sandstone formations and piles in the park. So we thought it would be great to do an impromptu serenade in the park in which we all just played our respective instruments (flute, violin, viola, and percussion) but at great distances. I have a sort of call and response piece that should work for just such an occasion and once I figure out when we are going to do them I will post it here and other places. This is kind of a fun idea that I think will work easily after a day of song path tours at around 6 or so. Then dinner and drinks around the campfire.

But now, I have to talk a little about last night when I decided I was a little sick of my campfire fare and I went into Sandstone for dinner and drinks at The Gaslight Bar and Cocktail Lounge. I have found that just going in to the most popular looking drinking establishment in any small town is usually immensely fun and fruitful in terms of meeting people. I went in to the bar and thought perhaps that this would be the exception as there was nobody there but me and the bartender and a couple playing pull tabs. But there were some good beers so I sat down and had a Schells Schmaltz Alt, a kind of creamy dark porter from New Ulm Minnesota. Started up a conversation with the bar tender and then a woman of about 55 years walked in and ordered a red wine. As I explained to the bartender what I was doing in the park, she became more curious and eventually asked me if I had visited South East Minnesota. I told her I was doing the project in Whitewater as well to which she responded "I used to work there!". So I asked if she knew Dave Palmquist (the naturalist who I have been working with) and she responded "He was my boss!". Turns out that had she been working there still she would have been the one handling reservations and promotion for the project. She now worked in Indian Mound as a prison psychologist and had some very interesting stories. This conversation eventually involved the whole bar which by this time had grown to around 6 people at its height. They all seemed interested and vowed to spread the word about it. Hopefully I converted a few folks and I know I enjoyed good conversation and good beer. The feeling I had in my head when the thunder woke me up this morning confirmed that perhaps I had one too many (two).

Tonight I return to the twin cities and get some rest until the 16th when I head down to Whitewater State Park early morning to check in with Dave Palmquist and his crew and start this whole process over in a new space. I have to finish my notes and then clear my head. And sleep lots!

Banning, Day 4.

2010-07-13T14:49:00.001-07:00

Fourth Day here at Banning State Park.

I am now sitting in the Sandstone Public Library after taking a tour of the Audubon Center of the North Woods near Sandstone. The Audubon Center has lots going on including caring for rehabilitated birds including ravens and raptors that have been injured, mostly by being hit by cars believe it or not. On beautiful and quite Grindstone lake, they not only have camp facilities for kids k-12 and meeting and conference centers, they are also an active natural farm and garden, an alternative energy site, and a bird tagging facility in which kids and adults get hands on learning in conservation and other related fields. Kind of a place to go to generally find out how all these things, conservation of forests and habitat as well as energy are all completely connected and our encroachment on animal habitats have real and visible consequences. I saw a few of the animals they cared for and was simultaneously struck at how incredible it was to see a bald eagle up close but how sad also that this bird would not be able to live again in the wild due to its injuries.

I am reading now on the history of Sandstone and the quarry mine that was built here as well as at Banning state park. Banning was an active quarry mine until about 1915 and sandstone until the mid 40's. It is really interesting to see pictures of what the area looked like before and after the quarry both from a geological standpoint and from a social standpoint. Sandstone was once a thriving city which was once predicted to be the largest city between Duluth and Minneapolis. The sandstone that came from the mines built many of the oldest standing buildings in Minneapolis and St. Paul as well as other buildings across Minnesota and the Nation. A vast railroad network exists here and freight trains pass through during the night at quite high frequency. It is interesting that the sound of the freight trains is not so present from the Quarry Loop Trail Itself. It is also interesting that the very material the rails were designed to transport out of here is the reason the quarry loop trail exists in the first place. While I have been designing the song path at the Quarry Loop, the concept of the whole space being half forged by nature (the river), and half forged by man (miners)has been in the back of my mind. I have mostly decided to let the park speak for itself as it seems the most interesting details are those that are subtly revealed when you get really close to them and away from the ever present river. However, it seems to make sense to have a human interaction near the stone cutting building and the powerhouse which are clear symbols of the way in which the whole space was created. But in the end, the trail ends where it begins. With the river, the wind, and the birds. Just like it was before the quarry was mined.

I meet again with my good friend Chris Chelgren this evening to experiment with drums and rocks in the powerhouse and along the banks of the river. More human interaction. Which will be welcome even though I have greatly enjoyed the solitude of the last 4 days. Just what a composer is always looking for.

July 12th 2010. Banning Prep Day 3

2010-07-12T17:40:00.002-07:00

After a brief meeting with Randy Gordon and Staff yesterday, I tried and re-tried a few things along the path. There were some concerns over starting the trail near the boat landing as the parking lot tends to get rather full and though I thought I had found the magic spot to start the hike and do the meditation between there and the beginning of the loop, Randy suggested an alternate route which would start the hike near the picnic area a bit farther away from the river. To my surprise, on doing the hike two more times, once from each starting point, I was entirely wrong about the magic spot. In fact, there is no magic spot. I was entranced with a particular mix of bird activity, wind, and river noise. Today, I found that in fact, the birds seem of course do not stay stationary over the course of a day and especially not from day to day so the "sweet spot" in which all sounds will be well balanced enough to guide the audience through listening to all the sounds will change from hike to hike. But in general, I think Randy had the better idea regarding people finding the trail head. Park Ranger 1, composer 0! We will meet again Sir.

I also had a visit from my longest supporters as a composer, that is, my parents, this afternoon and they volunteered to be guinea pigs for the hike. It was great to try the hike with actual live people to get a chance to run through the meditation out loud as well as to practice dealing with chance encounters such as how to stay a reasonable distance from other hikers without seeming rude, and dealing with hikers who are, how to put this........mature in body.....through the park trails. I think I can confidently say that Banning's Quarrty Loop will definitely be a hike that most adults will be able to handle, even in advanced years.

In doing a few hikes, it has become clear that using musicians in any spot but the last part of the loop will be completely unnecessary as the first part of the loop, especially the south west section where the river becomes almost completely inaudible, requires subtle listening rather than any man made stimulation, to create a convincing musical arc. I did discover one surprise spot on the east side of the loop by the river where a clear picture of the river can be heard by bring the group slightly off trail. Between this and the power house/ stone crusher area, I think there will be plentiful opportunities for human interaction. After all, these are the structures where the workers toiled to shape the quarry area into what it is today by cutting out stones one block at a time for decades in the late 1800's which basically made the park what it is today and left us with such unique sonic features. But more on that later. For now, I am pooped and need to take some pictures yet this evening.

To take a closer look at what I am talking about, check out the PDF map of the park here

July 11th 2010 day 2 at Banning

2010-07-12T17:40:00.001-07:00

Today I started early with a hike around the Quarry Loop Trail Itself. I began by doing a brief "listening meditation" that I plan on starting the hikes with focusing the ears on particular elements present in the park (wind, water, bird and animal noises). Once I had my ears in the right place, I began the path. I was immediately struck by insistent and repetitive phrasing of the various bird songs and the consistency with which other birds seemed to respond with similar phrases. This kind of stereophonic juxtaposition set the stage for what I heard when focusing on the sound of the wind as often wind seemed to move in two dimensions through the trees above and different speeds of wind wound create different textures in the leaves. I also noticed that even though I was simply standing in one spot, different parts of the river would stick out more at different times also giving the impression of a stereophonic texture and further upstream at times would be more low and bassey sounds and further down was swiftly flowing rapids. Then, when I focused on all elements together, it was like I was listening to a cohesive quadrophonic composition done in a studio but with an infinite number of different recording chambers as each sound I heard seemed to come from a different part of the overall space with different levels of reverb. As I started the hike, I was then able to take this initial picture with me and focus on the sounds I had been hearing and notice how these disparate elements began to change their character slowly as I walked, and especially when I would pass through a very rocky and enclosed space.

Though it was my intention to do a straight walk around the park and time how long it took, I ended up getting distracted by the many side paths that lead away from the main quarry trail and then back again taking you on a detour closer to the sheer rock faces that were cut away over 100 years ago by miners. The empty space that exists there now and allows me to experience that space are mostly now part of many of the old sandstone buildings in Minneapolis and St. Paul and appropriately, the neighboring town where most of these miners lived, is called Sandstone. Now, water slowly trickles down the sides of these rock faces creating pools of water that fill in pits that were created by sandstone being cut out of them and then further shaped by this steady but extremely slow flow of water. Other side paths include several paths on the south east side of the trail which lead to the rivers edge and several that lead to the various abandoned structures that the miners once worked and lived in including the stone cutting facility, the power house, and the stone crushing room. These structures are mostly now just ruined walls but their shape can still be made out and their impact on the sonic environment which they surround is still very present. A quick walk into the powerhouse tells a story and the sound of your boots stomping through the mud and clay reverberate through the entire chamber. Too many idea to count (or possibly do all of them) rushed to my head after spending a few moments in this chamber. Think it will be a challenge to narrow it down into something that will be enlightening for the audience without going overboard and lessening the overall experience of the park, but that is where the technique comes in, right?

Musical Instincts and years of training don't fail me now!

July 10th. Day 1 at Banning

2010-07-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

Today was a day of late starts and great surprises. First, a "meeting" on the 9th with some friends went a bit over. That is to say, until 2:00 in the morning. Though 2 is not what we may have referred to as a late night in the old days, 8 am really hurt (those of you reading this who above age 30 will know what I mean). However, After a quick breakfast and gathering a few extra sundries and borrowing a few more things from my brother Mike, I was on the road. Then quite to my surprise, I received a phone call from a friend of mine in Germany (also one I have not really spent much time with since around 2001), Nina Gühlstorff, who announced her intention to come to Chicago next week as the beginning of a three week long vacation starting in Chicago and ending in New Orleans. After lengthy negotiations with the Germans, now their plan is to take a quick detour and fly north to Minnesota where they will join me later this week at Whitewater State Park where I will be doing a preview hike for World Listening Day which will be shot by videographer Jason Schumacher (another German I think?). Nina is an old friend of mine who I met in Krakow, Poland while studying there in 1997 and she is also a theater director who is well established in the German theater. Her husband Hans Gyorg is the dramaturge of the Dresden Opera.

So, that was a nice surprise, as was meeting my friend and fellow composer and violist Chris Chelgren here at Banning upon my arrival. Chris has been very gracious in offering to come out to the parks to help out making noise on some of the days the tour is taking place. Banning is filled with interesting soundscapes and old abandoned mining buildings along the Quarry Loop Trail. It was an active quarry mine until about 1915 and the juxtaposition of the natural sounds of the park and the manipulation of that natural space by man made features provides an incredible variety of sonic spaces as well as really interesting visuals.

Today I got settled in to my new surroundings and did a bit of hiking on various trails including the quarry loop as well as doing a little snooping around in the Sandstone and Hinkley areas.

July 8th 2010 A Week of Meetings.

2010-07-12T17:37:00.000-07:00

A few meetings this week. One with Craig Carnihan from the American Composers Forum who administer the Mc Knight Foundation Visiting Composer Fellowship, one with Amy Barrett from the Minnesota DNR, and one with fellow composer and head of the Southern Theater's McKnight Program, Mary Ellen Childs. Each of these meetings and some practical motivation but I was pleasantly surprised that each of them yielded some great ideas related to the hike itself including the possibility of posting a recorded hike on the DNR and McKnight foundation Website as well as posting a video taped preview tour that will occur July 18th on the DNR website. I will post it here as well once it is up.

Other meetings were of a more personal nature and included getting back in touch with many old friends from my Minneapolis days, some of whom I had not seen since around 2001. the last 9 years that I have been a Chicago resident have really flown by, I was pleased to find that even though Minneapolis had changed quite a bit since then, the people I knew had not. That is to say, they are still people from whom I have been able to draw a great deal of inspiration. It was nice to see that even though many of our lives have gone in different directions, the sam enthusiasm for music and life in general that sort of drew us together was still there. On a less tangential note, some of these friends have volunteered to come out to the parks and assist with noise making and various other necessities (like keeping me company) during the run of the actual tours in August and September.

Songpath Begin July 4th 2010.

2010-07-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

Riding on the Amtrak from Chicago to Minneapolis and already tuning my brain up for some heavy listening as I watch the landscape gradually change as we cross Wisconsin and then head up the Mississippi river to the twin cities. The train I am on happens to be a part of the "Trails and Rails" initiative. A collaboration between Amtrak and the National Parks. A member of the National Parks Interpretive Program talks in the observation car about the geological and social history of the areas around the Mississippi river and the glacial features that created it. Then, around 9:30 at night, fireworks everywhere! The best place to see a fireworks display is from the observation car of an Amtrak going down the Mississippi. You pretty much see all of them as you go by. Thank goodness no air carriers would let me check all my camping equipment!

My first week will be spent in Minneapolis and then I will head up to Banning to begin intensive listening and planning along the Quarry Loop Trail.

Song Path: What is this?????

2010-07-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

Hi,

First off, you will notice that this post will be immediately followed by a number of posts that are dated before this posting date. That is because due to a mix of lack of internet access and lack of time in the first few days getting ready for my first trip to Banning state park here in Minnesota, I have neglected to post them even though I have been writing down the posts on paper (I know, paper!) as things transpired. This may indeed happen a bit though I will admit, there is really no place on earth (at least in Minnesota) where you are too far from a Wi-Fi connection these days. I am sitting currently in a grocery store cafe in Sandstone MN which is the small town near Banning State Park.

So, I think I need to go into a bit more background about the project in general. Songpath is a project that has been ruminating in my head for about the last 15 or so years. Though I did not realize specifically at first that I was coming up with a concise project idea until sometime in around 2002, I would say that a series of unrelated experiences in the wilderness, as well as a few experiences I had creating various interactive art pieces, really fed in to the final concept. Mostly, I am an avid fan of the out doors and especially hiking in areas where water has somehow cut into and transformed the landscape. My wife Shannon and I take frequent trips in whatever direction seems best weather wise and go for long hikes. We are both attracted to sound (she being a flute player and teacher and me a composer and sound engineer) an of course, we tend to spend long periods of time stopping and listening. I remember a particular experience hiking around Starved Rock State Park in Illinois where we went from one area to the next in which the path led us through rock formations that seemed to form natural reverberation chambers. I thought it would be nice to put musicians in them and perhaps write site specific compositions that highlighted the sonic features of that space and allow the audience to hike from one space to the next. I thought it would be like a multi-movement composition more than a listening walk but thought that the various sounds in the park could be incorporated into the individual compositions in different ways and it could even be a collaborative piece. A quite different idea from the current concept, but still one that informed what I am doing now. Another experience which comes to mind was a time while living in Poland when I traveled to Wielki Wies for a day with some good friends to grill kielbasa, drink Zywiec, and swim in the river. After much of the prior had been done, I spent some time just sitting on the river bank ( more of a stream) throwing rocks into the water and taking note of the sound that each one made as a sort of meditation. I realized that it was not just the sound of the rocks entering the water that impacted the general shape and timbre of each instance, but the space in which all this sound was taking place. Moving down stream into shallow water yielded a very different result and I realized that the sound environment was nearly as important as the rock and the depth and swiftness of the water. In fact, louder sounds would often stimulate a greater range of sound environments and create different kinds of echo than softer ones. Another experience that has attracted me to this project is the general experience of being a sound engineer as well as a composer of electro-acoustic music which I see as inseparable activities. Learning how various rooms have quite different sound reactions and what specific properties exist that create those reactions and how they can be minimized or accentuated has informed everything about my sound art and composition. In fact, most of my current music plays with the idea of manipulating the sound environment in which a performer plays in real time. When I began to listen more deeply on trails I hiked on across the country, I realized that the many static features of each path (wind, running water, bird calls, etc) were constantly being manipulated in the sense that the sound environment in which I was listening was gradually changing as I walked. Sometimes these environments change quite drastically and at other times, extremely gradually over time, but by choosing certain paths and deciding in the moment how fast to walk, when to stop, and what to focus on, I could essentially create my own "musical composition" in my head. The composition had in fact been pre-composed by the natural and man made elements in the park but would change each time depending on what I decided to focus on in each moment and where I chose to walk.

It was this realization that finally caught my interest to focus these disparate ideas into a listen walk called Song Path. I have spent the last several years in and amongst other activities trying to generate interest and support in the idea and finally found my answer here in Minnesota. Thanks to the generous support of the McKnight Foundation and hard work of the staff at the American Composers Forum, I am finally here and I could not have asked for a better and more supportive environment to start the project and cut my teeth as a sound walk artist than in the Minnesota State Parks.

In early 2008, I began inquiring with the parks regarding the idea and was almost immediately referred to Bryce Anderson who was at the time the head of Interpretive Programs for the Minnesota DNR. He almost immediately took to the idea and agreed to write a letter of cooperation that could be used for grant writing purposes. As luck (or destiny?) would have it, I was awarded the McKnight Foundations Visiting Composer Fellowship for 2009-2010 and got straight to work by contacting the regional directors and interpretive directors to narrow down my search for a park to do the project in. I decided to take a trip to Minnesota in mid September of 2009 to hike through a short list of parks (which was about 11 parks long over 4 days!!) and eventually decided on Banning and Whitewater. Banning because of the ease of access and relative ease of walking along the Quarry Loop trail as well as its many extremely interesting sonic features and the very obvious musical arc it created. Whitewater I chose mainly because of the grandiose nature of the Inspiration Point Trail as well as the many natural sonic features the park provides.

The concept of a listening walk is of course, not a new idea. I had heard of composers doing listening walks. I have since starting the project learned that there is an international movement of people interested in what is called Acoustic Ecology who's interest range from using listening to gauge wildlife patters and environmental impacts on various physical and sonic phenomena on wildlife habitats, to strict musical listening exercises. Though my idea did not necessarily stem from having reviewed the history of this movement, it has been enlightening for me to realize there is already an existing history with this activity and that I am not alone in the interest in this type of listening as well as to have a chance to draw on previous work in the field. Especially reading about the work of R Murray Schafer who founded the ISAE and is credited with leading the first sound walks has helped me become more confident in the idea that people will, in fact, follow me into the woods and treat the parks as a musical composition.

The hike itself will begin in a specific trail head in each park and after a short listening meditation, the audience will then follow me around the trail where I will often stop in specific spots to take in particularly interesting juxtapositions and give them an opportunity to re-focus their listening. In both Banning and Whitewater, I will enlist the help of musicians (or a musician depending on the overall need) who will perform very subtly improvisations, often using the rocks, sticks, and water features themselves to accentuate certain features in the park. These musicians are not necessarily there to play mini-concerts as was the intention in earlier ideas, but rather to stimulate the space so the audience can fully hear the hidden features intrinsic to the park.

Wow, that was a long one! Sorry to descend briefly into self indulgent rants, but I thought it was important to share my experience with anyone who will read in hopes that those who come on the hike can compare that experience to their own and perhaps reflect against a history of experience much as I have against the prior experiences of Schafer and others. Both Banning and Whitewater are sure to be ear opening experiences and the few hikes I have already taken around Banning have surprised me in their diversity of results and in just how "musical" a feeling I walk away with after doing each one when in the right frame of mind. I hope that those of you who come will have the same experience.

Coming Up on the Song Path Blog

2010-05-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

This is the official blog of the Song Path in the Minnesota State Parks where composer and sound artist Ryan Ingebritsen will be giving regular updates on the newest developments and progress of the Song Path, a guided compositional sound walk which will be premiering this summer in the Minnesota State Parks. The tours will take place at Banning State Park along the Quarry Loop Trail in mid August and again at Whitewater State Park in early September. Specific Dates are as follows.

Banning State Park:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/banning/index.html

The song path will begin at the Quarry Loop Trail head. Hikes begin 10 am, 1 pm, and 4 pm August 12-16 and 19-23rd.

Whitewater State Park:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/whitewater/index.html

The song path in Whitewater will meet at a location TBA and will run September 2-6 and 10-12 at 10 am, 1 pm, and 4 pm.

contact the park office to make a reservation and get more details.

Song Path in the Minnesota State Parks is made possible by the generous support of the McKnight Foundation, the American Composers Forum and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Check in with the blog for updates on day to day happenings and realization that I am making while creating the various paths that will eventually make up the Song Path.

Hope to see you all this summer!

Ryan Ingebritsen

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