1. Pythagorean Xydiko Machine 3:24
2. Love Answers under Rain's Allure 8:49
3. The Shade Never Was 3:27
4. Ex Periculum 4:46
5. All Night I Heard the Birds Flying 12:55
6. Cool Shoes 3:07
7. Still Life 3:46
8. Song Without Words 4:12
9. Dancing in Bedlam 7:52
John P. Hoover - Saxophone
Shane Cadman - Saxophone
Scott McIntosh - Clarinet
Christine Dietrich - Cello
Paul Greenhaw - Piano
AMG:
"The Illustrious Theater Orchestra was a chamber group founded in 1989 and based out of Cal State Fullerton. Led by saxophonist and keyboard player Shane W. Cadman, the group consisted of keyboard player Paul Greenhaw, cellist Christine Dietrich, baritone saxophonist John P. Hoover, and clarinetist Scott McIntosh. Unlike any other classical chamber ensemble of its time, the members of the Illustrious Theater Orchestra insisted on playing their own compositions, which were informed to a small extent by minimalism and unvaryingly tonal, though not new agey, and they did not venture into jazz-styled territory or indulge in improvisation. The compositions, often bearing bizarre, whimsical titles such as Hats Off to the Lemming People and Love Answers under Rain's Allure, were designed to reflect their own strengths as an ensemble and their love of certain harmonic combinations; Cadman's All Night I Heard the Birds Flying was conceived, for example, as a clarinet concerto for McIntosh. The Illustrious Theater Orchestra felt no pressure to make the music thornier just to conform to the established taste of the music conservatory environment of the time, nor to pretty it up to please the crystal worshipping pyramid power crowd - it is the perfect synthesis of classical chamber music and what used to be considered pop music.
For a time, this approach was viewed as fresh in some quarters, and the group got strong support from public radio, particularly at KCRW in Los Angeles where it was championed by Chris Douridas. The Illustrious Theater Orchestra self-produced two full-length CDs, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (1993) and Pythagorean Xydiko Machine (1995), both of which were well received, although record stores found it difficult to figure out just where to stock them. Nevertheless, as the 1990s wore on, outside commitments began to tug at the members of the Illustrious Theater Orchestra, along with the realization that the new music scene in the United States was still too hostile to accept them on the kind of concert tour they could realistically book. After Cadman left the group, citing family commitments, the group struggled on for a while before finally disbanding. The Illustrious Theater Orchestra was mostly forgotten thereafter, but when the book is finally written on the transition from late modernism to twenty first century styles, it will figure as a prominent stepping stone between these two historical poles."
Pythagorean Xydiko Machine
or
Pythagorean Xydiko Machine