Wendy Chambers

1998 release ** "Wendy Mae Chambers (b 1953) is known for the scope and originality of her works, typified by large and unusual instrumental combinations. In Chambers’s own words, Twelve² is a voodoo tone poem in eleven movements for twelve percussionists. Each movement is about 4 minutes in length. The last movement is 4'33" of lots of sound (in tribute to John Cage's 4'33" of silence). Voodoo drumming [calls] forth Cage’s spirit and the bells, chimes, and gongs [celebrate] ... celestial qualities. The work is a ritual to a great man ... [structured] by means of a New Orleans Voodoo Tarot Card “Tree of Life” reading. Each of the eleven cards (picked by chance) determines the character of a movement. Twelve²'s instrumentation includes theremin, Chinese cymbals and gongs, five-tone marimbula, and bowed suspended cymbals. Over the eleven movements, Twelve² traverses a myriad of moods－incantatory, shamanistic, mysterious, dream-like, orgiastic, whimsical, ethereal－all served up on a rich tonal and timbral palette, from thunderous percussive interludes to the delicate shimmers of Oriental chimes."