Does anyone here listen to Crumb? His chamber works, especially "Songs,
Drones, and Refrains of Death", the extended cycle of vocal works based on
Lorca's poems, seems to be a fantastically rich expression, very evocative.
A perfect match for the poetry.
What other current composers out there are working successfully with
contemporary poets... or at least
modern ones? Where's the great work being done?
-- Jerry
> Gotta love the Princeton Record Exchange five minutes from where I work.
> Took at last the Ives plunge via used CDs (in case I absolutely hated
> the stuff): Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the Chicago Symphony in the
> New England Holiday Symphony, The Unanswered Question, and Central Park
> in the Dark. The Lydian String Quartet performing Quartets 1 & 2 plus
> Hymn and Hallowe'en.
>
> This is inaccessible? Some of it is a bit harsh, yes, but some of it is
> gorgeous by any measure; and the Decoration Day movement of New England
> Holidays Symphony is wonderfully emotional and quite unlike what I
> expected. I don't know if Ives was dealing in nostalgia or musical
> translation as well as adapting and reading in old popular and patriotic
> tunes--but the effect feels from here like a kind of memorial recovery
> of something that may have once existed but is now gone.
>
> It's moving and...a word I never thought I'd apply to a supposed
> dissonant like Ives...lovely. Only I'm not sure how dissonant he is.
>
> Which makes me both surprised and glad.
>
> Nice to learn he was a former insurance salesman. I am too, one of my
> multiple incarnations as a David Mamet character. Ives had a much
> longer career at it than I did. He also wrote better music, and I don't
> think Mamet would be interested in him.
>
> Ken
> --
> Kenneth Wolman
> Proposal Development Department
> Room SW334
> Sarnoff Corporation
> 609-734-2538
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