Terry Riley (b. 1935)

[torut]

Terry Riley : Requiem for Adam



Requiem for Adam is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet. The music was composed by Terry Riley, commissioned by the quartet; the album is a requiem for Adam Harrington, the son of Kronos co-founder David Harrington.

Adam Harrington, age 16, died of heart failure caused by a blood clot, sustained while hiking with his family on Mount Diablo, a 3,849 feet mountain in the San Francisco Bay Area, on Easter Sunday, 1995. Riley finished the three-movement composition in 1998, and it was first performed in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on 28 June 1999.

The first movement is beautiful. The second movement was really surprising when I first heard it.

On November 13th, Cantaloupe music will release Transient Glory III by Young People's Chorus of New York City, which includes Riley's Another Secret eQuation. I think this is the first recording of the piece.

[track list]
Michael Gordon: Every Stop on the F Train
Bora Yoon: Semaphore Conductus
Meredith Monk: Things Heaven and Hell
Terry Riley: Another Secret eQuation (ft. Kronos Quartet)
John Corigliano: One Sweet Morning
Paquito D'Rivera: Tembandumba (ft. Payton MacDonald)

[vandermolen]

I hardly know anything by this composer. I just heard 'One Earth, One People, One Love' on BBC Radio 3 which I found rather moving and gripping. Any recommendations for a Riley novice?

PS tracking back through this thread I realise that I do have Shri Camel but can't have listened to it for a long time (am listening to it now).

PPS Requiem for Adam looks worth investigating and there is an inexpensive boxed set of Riley's music also at least one CD of his music on Naxos.

[Papy Oli]

Vandermolen,

In case that is of interest, there is a documentary currently on BBC I-Player on minimalists, that includes an interview of Terry Riley.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b09tbfp6?suggid=b09tbfp6

The 2-part documentary also includes Glass, Reich and Lamonte Young. I found it very instructive and entertaining.

A few Glass CD's have gone in my basket as a consequence. Need to look further at the others as well.

[vandermolen]

Vandermolen,

In case that is of interest, there is a documentary currently on BBC I-Player on minimalists, that includes an interview of Terry Riley.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b09tbfp6?suggid=b09tbfp6

The 2-part documentary also includes Glass, Reich and Lamonte Young. I found it very instructive and entertaining.

A few Glass CD's have gone in my basket as a consequence. Need to look further at the others as well.

Papy Oli,

Very many thanks.

That looks like a very good starting place.

[aukhawk]

In case that is of interest, there is a documentary currently on BBC I-Player on minimalists, that includes an interview of Terry Riley.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b09tbfp6?suggid=b09tbfp6
The 2-part documentary also includes Glass, Reich and Lamonte Young. I found it very instructive and entertaining.

I enjoyed those as well, though the actual analysis of the music was not as detailed as I would have liked.  In interview, Terry Riley seems a very likeable and self-effacing character.  So too, to some extent, Steve Reich.  And I was rather interested that each of them alluded at some point to a spiritual side - I don't know why that should surprise me, but it did.

[bhodges]

Recently I mentioned In C to a pianist friend, who was unfamiliar with Riley's work. He seemed eager to hear the piece, so I browsed YouTube for versions to suggest, and wow, there are quite a few good ones. The one that surprised me was by Brooklyn Raga Massive, with 21 musicians crowded into a small room in Brooklyn. The group uses Indian instruments, which is wholly in keeping with Riley's aesthetic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I_VUKmIB8c&t=2s

Also found another live one, filmed in 2012 in Russia. The ensemble (sorry, I don't read Cyrillic) incorporates a few balalaikas among the other instruments, and it's also quite spirited:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kA-LaYXaE0&t=465s

--Bruce

[calyptorhynchus]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before but there is a performance of Riley's Concerto for String Quartet on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA1PGppySZA

A very nice piece. I like Riley's music when it comes closer to the classical mainstream (never thought I'd use that phrase without irony). My favourite piece of his is Salome Dances for Peace, easily outstripping Robert Simpson's String Quartet No.9 in length!

[Brian]

First time listening to this 110 minute cycle of 10 piano pieces, and I'm loving it. Enjoy the way that gradual changes manifest over time and keep your ears just on edge a little bit. Also dig that "Return of the Ancestors" lives up to its name by bringing back and combining motifs from the previous pieces.

[Luke]

That's good to read! One thing I love about this piece is that, by shifting the tonal centre from piece to piece, he finds totally new harmonic worlds for each (because of the just intonation, meaning that each 'key' has a different microtonal construction, unlike in ET). So that when e.g. The Orchestra of Tao begins, the harsh, buzzing, twangling sound is entirely new, and yet wholly of a piece with what has preceded it. To me this is one of the great piano works of the last century. Maybe I'm just too under its spell...

[Karl Henning]

First time listening to this 110 minute cycle of 10 piano pieces, and I'm loving it. Enjoy the way that gradual changes manifest over time and keep your ears just on edge a little bit. Also dig that "Return of the Ancestors" lives up to its name by bringing back and combining motifs from the previous pieces.

For my first go, I am savoring it movement by movement.