rigorousintuition.ca

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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”.

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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.

Contrast Vaughan Williams’s indubitable Englishness as heard in his compositions and style to John Adams’s minimal music.
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• Doctor Atomic Symphony, 2007 | John Adams
  
  
  
  Grand Pianola Music, 1982 | John Adams
  — the ensemble includes two pianos, three female
  vocalists, woodwinds, brass and percussionists
  
  
  
  Phrygian Gates, 1977 | John Adams
  — piano solo
  
  

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• Sure on This Shining Night | Samuel Barber
  — choral arrangement by the composer
  
  
  
  Poetry by James Agee
  • Sure on this shining night
    Of star-made shadows round
    Kindness must watch for me
    This side the ground
    
    The late year lies down the north,
    All is headed, all is health
    High summer holds the earth,
    Hearts all whole
    
    Sure on this shining night
    I weep for wonder
    Wandr’ing far alone
    Of shadows on the stars.
  Adagio for Strings | Samuel Barber
  — synchronized to sequences from the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey
  
  

POST 1354

Neko Case - Bowling Green
Mary Lou Lord - Some Jingle Jangle Morning
Alice Donut - Big Cars & Blow Jobs
Caustic Resin - Station Wagon

forget the most importland rock album evah, listen to TODAY'S most important rock band ever...




if you're only going to hear one, pick this one...

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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!

• This Masquerade | Jazz Baltica, 2003
  — Pat Metheny Project & Michael Brecker
  
  
  
  • Nils Landgren: Trombone, Vocals
    Michael Brecker: Tenor Saxophone
    Esbjorn Svensson: Piano
    Pat Metheny: Guitar
    Lars Danielsson: Bass
    Wolfgang Haffner: Drums

POST 1358