Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

In ancient Greek mythology, the muse Terpsichore, a daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, is the goddess of dance and delight. With her in mind, I have sought to sculpt music that allows our individual and collective creative work to turn freely in the air. Terpsichore's Box of Dreams is by turns lively, sprightly, spry, energetic, vigorous, it is animated, traveling, flexible, versatile, changing, fluid and buoyant. While this is not exactly a "concerto for ensemble," each of the thirteen musicians is featured in several soloistic, virtuosic passages. What will pop out of Terpsichore's box next? [Augusta Read Thomas]

The value of such arrangements is that they allow a wider perception into a composer's compositional processes, and which have the potential for presenting new insights and different characteristics to particular pieces of music, which might not be evident in the originals. Hence these arrangements extend a practice that was normal in the early eighteenth century, and in this recording they are played on instruments with which Bach would have been entirely familiar. What revelations they reveal! David Ponsford

Bebop Riddle IIB is by turns sprightly, spry, energetic and spirited. Thomas crafted animated, traveling, flexible, versatile, changing, fluid and buoyant sonic adventures. Iridescent, bold and scintillating, the carefully sculpted and fashioned musical materials of Bebop Riddle IIB are agile and vivacious, and their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, rhythmic and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed - at times whimsical, jazzy and be-bop-like, layered and reverberating, with lyrical resonance, pirouettes, fulcrum points and vitality. The two equally virtuosic parts, which require highly characterized dynamics and articulations, bubble forth for 8 minutes and 15 seconds, unfolding continuously developing phrases. The music is organic and, at every level, concerned with transformations and connections. Bassoon can be substituted by baritone saxophone or bass clarinet. The range of the bassoon part is C2 to E5.

Relatively speaking, bassoon concerti are rare. CARNIVAL shows off different attributes of the instrument and soloist with inventive music that seamlessly embraces lyrical, jazzy, spirited, stately, expressive, and many other qualities. This music is fun to play because it is engaging to bring to life Thomas' distinctive, personal, clever sonic-storytelling.

Organic and, at every level, concerned with transformations and connections, the carefully sculpted and fashioned musical materials of SUN DANCE are agile and spirited, and their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed - at times whimsical and light, at times jazzy, at times almost Ravel or Stravinsky-ballet-like, at times layered and reverberating with lyrical resonance, pirouettes, fulcrum points, and effervescence.

The word "mobile" denotes both the noun (a decorative structure that is suspended so as to turn freely in the air) as well as the adjective (lively, sprightly, spry, energetic, vigorous; animated, travelling, flexible, versatile, changing, fluid, and on the move). On this mobile, three circa 4-minute dances are hanging. Between them are moments floating in the air until the suspended mobile is activated and set into motion. To be performed with dancers when feasible. Dance Mobile is a spin-off of material Augusta developed in her much longer ballet. Commissioned by the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Eastman School of Music.

The romantic character pieces of Schumann and Brahms have been my musical companions since childhood. In earlier years, I was immersed in their emotional content. The craft, especially the economy of scale and refinement of compositional technique, captured my attention as a college student. Later, new discoveries were revealed at the intersections of my musical journey where emotion was guided by intellect. Throughout my career, I have championed new music created by fellow students and colleagues. Shortly after assuming the deanship of the Yale School of Music, it occurred to me that the expansive piano repertoire could be enriched further by contemporary character pieces. These would be in the tradition of the romantic era, each one being three to five minutes in length with an inherent emotional impulse. Yale School of Music and new music are synonymous, dating to it's founding in 1894 with Horatio Parker and throughout the history of YSM a composition faculty with an international presence - Paul Hindemith, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jacob Druckman, and Martin Bresnick among them. Approximately two thirds of the Pulitzer Prize recipients in composition have some relationship to the Yale School of Music. When asked to compose a contemporary character piece that I would perform and record, my faculty colleagues and friends were most gracious and responded affirmatively. I should add that all of them exhibited exceedingly generous patience while waiting to hear premieres due to my unanticipated schedule intrusions. My gratitude and admiration for each of them is boundless not only for their personal encouragement but also for this significant contribution to the piano repertoire and our musical life. � Robert Blocker

Having studied the cello as a child, I have always felt a special affinity with string music. My introduction at the age of 14 to the music of Britten was through his first string quartet, the opening of which still fills me with awe, and his works - especially those for strings - have remained a lifelong inspiration. I am delighted therefore that this recording of my String Quartets Nos. 2-4 has been released, made possible by the generous support of the Richard Thomas Foundation. I have been fortunate to work closely with the Piatti Quartet over a number of years. It was they who commissioned my String Quartet No.1 (2014), a piece they have performed extensively and recorded (Champs Hill Records 2018). Their enthusiasm encouraged me to continue exploring the genre, and - a decade later - it has been both a privilege and a huge pleasure to have another opportunity to write for them (String Quartet No.4). � Joseph Phibbsv

Two musicians stand in a crowded pub on the Irish island of Inis O�rr; a flame-haired girl silences the room with a quiet unaccompanied song - Molly's voice was worth the silence. An impulsive decision follows, and at sunset the next day, Molly, Adam and Cormac meet at a timeless shipwreck on the wild Atlantic shoreline. They sit on a rock and a simple traditional song emerges - just voice, fiddle and bodhr�n. No rehearsal, no arrangement - the song performed intuitively... The seed of an idea that grows into The Haar, the lineup completed when Molly and Murray (accordion) meet for the first time in the studio to record Irish traditional songs tackling love, poverty and oppression - subjects that link the peoples of these islands. In the studio, the music flows from the band's first notes together - reminiscent of the haar, a sea mist that rolls in from the Irish and North Seas: fleeting, intangible, headily thick, suddenly overwhelming and then unexpectedly clearing for a glimpse of precious sunlight. The band make no plans, just letting the music create itself; the tracks on the album are the first and only versions, as unpredictable and ephemeral as the haar itself.

I love listening to music that feels as if it is being created at that very moment - and whatever I am playing, that is what I hope to access. I first realized how important this is to me as a performer during a live BBC World Service broadcast on which I was featured as a student - spontaneously deciding not to play what I had planned, but just to play and see what happened, introducing it with something like, people say that when I play at my best, it sounds like improvising - so I am going to improvise". That didn't feel like a brave or reckless step at the time, it did not even occur to me that I might dry up - or that some might think that music created live would have less merit than the compositions of the classical masters or an old folk tune. And - still - it doesn't feel like that. That's exactly what this album is." (Adam Summerhayes)

Adam Summerhayes and Cormac Byrne write of their new release: "This album is the result of an experiment, our goal was to create something from that very sacred space that lies between composition and improvisation. Fascinated by the unique energy generated live where performer and audience are locked in a moment of unplanned creativity, a moment where anything and everything can happen, we vowed to delve into this pool of creativity and unleash it's energy onto record. Our intention was to create an album of bodhran and fiddle music. As the recording session grew ever closer. It became clear that making an album of solely bodhran and fiddle music would somehow not tell the full story. Why impose those limitations anyway? Artistically we had more to offer and could enrich this music with diverse flavors. Inspired by the folk tale of the 'Stone Soup', we began to assemble raw ingredients. I scanned my rehearsal space for the appropriate additional sounds. Seeking to include instruments that I had yet to experiment with in recording. Each track, one by one, found it's feet and fell into form. Often a track flowed from beginning to end in a single take. Other times we'd record a segment, listen back and feel where to go from there. The order in which the album appears is almost identical to that in which it was recorded. The result is strangely coherent: linked improvisations that appear almost as a pre-meditated. It forms an album in the traditional sense: a work that is intended to be listened to as a whole. We truly hope you enjoy this album as much as we enjoyed making it."

Returning from 300 years of extinction, Dodo Street have recorded a trailblazing, joyously wild musical odyssey, encompassing melodies from the shores of the Hebrides to the mountains of Eastern-Europe. Their history-defying existence brings extreme velocity and inhuman precision from Adam Summerhayes ("astonishing, all-out virtuosity" New York Times) and Piers Adams ("superhuman" Washington Post) - and the rest of the band is equally virtuosic. Master accordionist Murray Grainger and one of Europe's most renowned bass players, Malcolm Creese, provide the powerful core of the band as well as dynamic solos. The livewire Cormac Byrne, king of Irish percussion and BBC Folk Award-winning bodhran player, can easily steal the show. But it is the music that is really remarkable. There is nothing predictable about their tunes. On Natural Selection, a famous Irish melody might take a wild Klezmer twist, an ancient Scottish wedding song is recast in a mesmeric soundscape that evokes the lonely island from which it came, gypsy tunes and Eastern European rhythms spiral faster and faster, impossible not to dance to. Instrumental limits are pushed to the extreme, but the band never loses control or tightness and the music is, above all, driven by potent melodies, whether centuries old or newly penned.