The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind "The movements of this work sound to me as if written in three of the different languages...

The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind "The movements of this work sound to me as if written in three of the different languages spoken by the Jewish people throughout our history. This somehow reflects the composition's epic nature. I hear the Prelude and the first movement, the most ancient, in Aramaic; the second movement is in Yiddish, the rich and fragile language of a long exile: the third movement and Postlude are in sacred Hebrew". (Osvaldo GOLIJOV) Soundshapes II It is in four short movements. Beginning with open strings, harmonics and gradual shifts between notes with vibrato and those without, the listener is led through a variety of soundshapes. Musical gestures emerge from a spacious and fluid background. The clarinet is both contrasted with and blended with the string sounds in a search for echoes and resonances between the two instrumental timbres. Quintet The Quintet is written in the form of a theme and variations, where the theme of the work is the character of the Jewish people. Some sections of the piece are in themselves a micro-variation on this theme, whilst others in transmuting the source material more dramatically reach towards a universality that alleviates the music from the role of mere stone setting and aspire to effect an alchemical reaction. Correspondingly, the piece moves rapidly between movements; sometimes barely giving an idea a chance to develop, whilst at other times allowing it to grow towards a natural conclusion.