I could have sworn I already started a Gloria Coates Thread with this same Title?
Anyhow- for those who are enjoying Nancy Van de Vate, Gloria Coates is another American, living in Germany, who has forged a style more unique than Mrs. Smith (Vate's 2nd husband). I have enjoyed Coates's String Quartets 3 and 4 on Naxos for quite some time- very alien (from the '70s)- Klingon-type scary space music- very atmospheric!
I know there are at least two fans out there!
A number of years ago I was playing one of Coates symphonies - I do not remember which one - and my wife who is usually very tolerant of my taste in contemporary classical music remarked that it sounded to her like a space ship taking off. I do not think she was giving a complement.
Quote from: UB on September 02, 2014, 09:49:00 AM
A number of years ago I was playing one of Coates symphonies - I do not remember which one - and my wife who is usually very tolerant of my taste in contemporary classical music remarked that it sounded to her like a space ship taking off. I do not think she was giving a complement.
Now I
know there is another Thread. You told the same story in that one! :laugh: :laugh:
Sixteen symphonies, ten SQs and... three posts? Twelve hits on the entire forum?! Let's get your Coates on, folks.
(https://i.ibb.co/3c4nq6r/midnight.jpg)
This disc is the perfect appetizer, as the works included span across five decades of her career. Holographic Universe is the star here and it's the piece that led me to Coates (bless SimonNZ for mentioning it (https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,29778.msg1285792.html#msg1285792)). Now I'm planning a deep dive into the SQs – the first two are short, single movement dirges, coated (pun not intended) in a generous layer of existential dread. Think slowed down Black Angels (which the first quartet precedes by five or six years).
Best works are those without her repetitive, long-drawn glissandi, IMHO ...
Saddened to lear that Gloria Coates died last month. And that it took me a month to know it.
So many recordings that should be better known. So much not yet recorded.
But there will come a day
Only heard about it today as her obituary was in the newspaper.