What are you listening 2 now?

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

NP: Reich Jacob's Ladder



About Reich's Jacob's Ladder

The entire text for Jacob's Ladder is Genesis 28:12:

Va yachalohm
Va heenay, sulahm
mutzav artzah
Va rosho mahgeeah
ha shamymah
Va heenay, malachay
Elokim ohlim v'yordim bo

And he dreamed,
And behold, a
ladder set up
on the Earth
and its top reached
heaven
and behold, messengers
of God ascending and
descending on it.

Jacob's Ladder cries out for commentary. The imagery is compelling yet wide open. William Blake drew it as a winding staircase; you can see ladders all over Bruegel's "Tower of Babel." There are mysterious ladders in late Phillip Guston paintings. There are all kinds of interpretations of ladders. Powerful images originate from everyday objects and radiate out to infinity.

When I first approached writing the piece, it seemed that the most obvious musical analogue to a ladder was a scale. (Incidentally, the word 'Sulahm' in Hebrew is used for both 'ladder' and 'scale.') What followed was a lot of wasted time trying to rewrite Hanon and other exercise books. I finally realized, any melodic movement—up, down, or held—can find its analogy on a ladder. Sometimes one only goes up a few rungs to reach something and then descends, or perhaps climbs higher, pauses, and then descends pausing at each rung on the way down. That got me out of the trap of thinking only in terms of scales, and into a frame of mind where everything I composed was totally intuitive, yet still a connection between heaven and earth.

There are four short sections—exposition, if you like—on each of the four lines of text I mentioned and then four longer sections elaborating on and developing those first four. What's particularly interesting to me in these much longer sections is that they are mostly instrumental music. The instrumental music interprets the movement of messenger/angels going up, down, or pausing on a ladder (or ladders) between heaven and earth; a musical interpretation without words. Probably as a result of thinking of the 'notes as messengers,' I ended up with a little more than half the music purely instrumental. The voices return at length, however, in the final section. The constant 16th-note pulse slows to eighths and finally to quarters as the voices and instruments broaden out to a still, held point at the end.

—Steve Reich, 2023

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

NP: Ravel Ma mère l'oye

[ritter]

First listen to this recent purchase. Sylvano Bussotti: Pièces de chair II. E-MEX Ensemble, Monica Benvenuti (sop.), Renatus Mészár (bass-baritone), Martin von der Heydt (pf.), Christoph Maria Wagner (pf. and cond.).



This is supposed to be Bussotti's first major work. Its world premiere in Darmstadt in 1959 (with David Tudor at the piano) was only fragmentary, because the director of the Summer Courses, Wolfgang Steinecke, intervened, saying the notation style was too "hermetic" (probably a euphemism for "too wacky"  ).

[JBS]

First listen to this recent purchase. Sylvano Bussotti: Pièces de chair II. E-MEX Ensemble, Monica Benvenuti (sop.), Renatus Mészár (bass-baritone), Martin von der Heydt (pf.), Christoph Maria Wagner (pf. and cond.).



This is supposed to be Bussotti's first major work. Its world premiere in Darmstadt in 1959 (with David Tudor at the piano) was only fragmentary, because the director of the Summer Courses, Wolfgang Steinecke, intervened, saying the notation style was too "hermetic" (probably a euphemism for "too wacky"  ).

If that cover image is a photo of the score, I would not want to the musician assigned to the middle stave.

TD


The fourth of the 5 CDs devoted to DuFay in the MEoL set.

[Spotted Horses]

Now on Beethoven's quartet Op 74 again. (it seemed suspiciously familiar and consulting my notes I see that I already visited this as the previous installment of my Beethoven Quartet tour). This time Chiaroscuro, which I didn't find entirely satisfying. It is PI but it didn't present a clear contrast to MI to my ear. And quiet parts tend to be too quiet for me.

I did go back and listen to second movement by the Narratio Quartet, and found it more to my taste. I think for the remaining Beethoven Quartets I will follow Takacs with the Quartetto Italiano and the Narratio.

[Traverso]

NP: Reich Jacob's Ladder



About Reich's Jacob's Ladder

The entire text for Jacob's Ladder is Genesis 28:12:

Va yachalohm
Va heenay, sulahm
mutzav artzah
Va rosho mahgeeah
ha shamymah
Va heenay, malachay
Elokim ohlim v'yordim bo

And he dreamed,
And behold, a
ladder set up
on the Earth
and its top reached
heaven
and behold, messengers
of God ascending and
descending on it.

Jacob's Ladder cries out for commentary. The imagery is compelling yet wide open. William Blake drew it as a winding staircase; you can see ladders all over Bruegel's "Tower of Babel." There are mysterious ladders in late Phillip Guston paintings. There are all kinds of interpretations of ladders. Powerful images originate from everyday objects and radiate out to infinity.

When I first approached writing the piece, it seemed that the most obvious musical analogue to a ladder was a scale. (Incidentally, the word 'Sulahm' in Hebrew is used for both 'ladder' and 'scale.') What followed was a lot of wasted time trying to rewrite Hanon and other exercise books. I finally realized, any melodic movement—up, down, or held—can find its analogy on a ladder. Sometimes one only goes up a few rungs to reach something and then descends, or perhaps climbs higher, pauses, and then descends pausing at each rung on the way down. That got me out of the trap of thinking only in terms of scales, and into a frame of mind where everything I composed was totally intuitive, yet still a connection between heaven and earth.

There are four short sections—exposition, if you like—on each of the four lines of text I mentioned and then four longer sections elaborating on and developing those first four. What's particularly interesting to me in these much longer sections is that they are mostly instrumental music. The instrumental music interprets the movement of messenger/angels going up, down, or pausing on a ladder (or ladders) between heaven and earth; a musical interpretation without words. Probably as a result of thinking of the 'notes as messengers,' I ended up with a little more than half the music purely instrumental. The voices return at length, however, in the final section. The constant 16th-note pulse slows to eighths and finally to quarters as the voices and instruments broaden out to a still, held point at the end.

—Steve Reich, 2023

fortunately without moths

[brewski]

Erin Gee: Mouthpiece XXIV (2015) performed by Ryan Muncy on tenor sax and Ross Karre on percussion

[DavidW]

[ritter]

First listen to another recent purchase.



The (German) Trio Lézard pay homage to the Trio de Anches de Paris, a pre-WWII group that included Fernand Oubradous as bassoonist (anches means reeds). The programme of this disc (see back cover for details) includes works by composers of the second rank who have more or less lapsed into oblivion, intermingled with arrangements of popular chansons of the thirties. Also, the only available recording of Reynaldo Hahn's short Eglogue is included.

[vandermolen]

Arvo Part: De Profundis
Shostakovich Symphony 13 'Babi Yar'
I find the short work by Arvo Part to be very moving.
I remember seeing the Monument to the Victims at Babi Yar when I visited Kyiv in 2017

[VonStupp]

FJ Haydn
Symphony 61 in D Major
Symphony 62 in D Major
Symphony 63 in C Major 'Roxelane'
Austro-Hungarian HO - Ádám Fischer

VS

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Bloch, E: Suite for viola & orchestra, etc. Gerard Causse (viola); Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

[AnotherSpin]

A drone attack on Odesa was just stopped. I'm awake now, listening to Bach: Trio Sonatas, BWV 525-530

[JBS]

The final CD of this set


Opus 131 in c-sharp minor
Opus 135 in F major

The opening section of Opus 131 is one place where the use of PI makes a perceptible difference.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

NP: Feldman Piece for Four Pianos

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

NP: Bruckner Mass No. 2 In E Minor, WAB 27

[steve ridgway]

Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 3

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Last work for the night --- Delius Violin Sonata No. 3

[steve ridgway]

Stravinsky - Capriccio For Piano & Orchestra

[Que]

Missa De Beata Maria Virgine
Magnificat Primi Toni
Marian motets

Despite minor reservations (this doesn't sound very Spanish, for instance), it is incomprehensible that this major Victoria issue had only a small physical edition which ran out in an instance - never to be seen again...