Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible. -- Lawrence of Arabia
. Thank you, Searcher08, for the Steve Reich vid. I’ve pulled more of his works once I found a choral piece (the fourth video below) composed for text from a Wittgenstein excerpt.* Among other genres, Reich composes minimalist pieces.
Music for 18 Musicians |Steve Reich — Section IIIA
Music for 18 Musicians | Steve Reich — Section IIIB
Music for pieces of wood | Steve Reich
Proverb | Steve Reich — text by Ludwig Wittgenstein
^ [YOUTUBE NOTES; excerpt from Wikipedia.] Proverb is a musical composition by Steve Reich for three sopranos, two tenors, two vibraphones, and two electric organs. It is set to a text by Ludwig Wittgenstein. It was written in 1995 and was originally intended for The Proms and the Utrecht Early Music Festival. It was premiered at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on February 10, 1996 by Theatre of Voices with Paul Hillier, to whom the piece is dedicated.
Proverb was written during a period when Reich was experimenting with “speech melody”, and is influenced by the period Reich spent working on The Cave with Paul Hillier and singers with a strong background in medieval polyphony. This is especially apparent in the two tenor parts, which pay homage to Pérotin and organum in their use of rhythmic modes and pedal points. The text is: “How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life!” This text is an excellent explanation of the piece itself, as well as perhaps Reich's career, much of it spent exploring minimalism.
* [NOTES FROM BOOSEY & HAWKES.] The short text, “How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life!” comes from a collection of Wittgenstein’s writing entitled Culture and Value. Much of Wittgenstein’s work is ‘proverbial’ in tone and in its brevity. This particular text was written in 1946. In the same paragraph from which it was taken Wittgenstein continues, “If you want to go down deep you do not need to travel far”.
Art will be the last bastion when all else fades away. ~ Timothy White (b 1952), American rock music journalist _________________
. The exquisite examples (that justdrew posted) of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s choral music moves the listener from matured mellowness of cultural songs and ballads to classic ethereals in vocal textures, any and all of which are welcomed by two ears, each mounted on either side of my head.
"O Oysters," said the Carpenter, "You've had a pleasant run! Shall we be trotting home again?' But answer came there none-- And this was scarcely odd, because They'd eaten every one.
. Okay. This isn’t rock, but I just now finished listening twice to this vid—that made almost 30 minutes of listening. One damn good piece of jazz, I’d say. I’ve been dancing around in my man cave—got lost almost immediately in the music! And that’s so not like me, really. (Well, Mozart is another story .) Hope you like!
Nils Landgren: Trombone, Vocals Michael Brecker: Tenor Saxophone Esbjorn Svensson: Piano Pat Metheny: Guitar Lars Danielsson: Bass Wolfgang Haffner: Drums
POST 1358
Art will be the last bastion when all else fades away. ~ Timothy White (b 1952), American rock music journalist _________________
by justdrew » Fri Sep 16, 2011 8:34 pm 
.) Hope you like!
