[Edited 9/7/11 14:51pm]

theAudience said:

[img:$uid]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b59/jbodine/Covers%20II/steve-reich-wtc-911-mallet-quartet-dance-patterns.jpg[/img:$uid]

Steve Reich's forthcoming Nonesuch album, WTC 9/11—featuring the title piece performed by Kronos Quartet, Mallet Quartet performed by Sō Percussion, and Dance Patterns from members of Steve Reich and Musicians—is now streaming in full on NPR Music as an NPR First Listen. The album, which also includes a DVD with a live performance of Mallet Quartet by Sō Percussion, is due out September 20 and is available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. The title piece will be available as a digital EP starting tomorrow. Album orders include a free download of the title piece starting tomorrow and the complete album starting September 20.

WTC 9/11 (2011), the third quartet Kronos Quartet has commissioned from the composer, following Different Trains (1988) and Triple Quartet (1998), is scored for three string quartets; Kronos recorded all three parts for the album. WTC 9/11 also uses pre-recorded voices, the speakers’ final vowels and consonants elongated in a stop-motion sound technique creating a "speech melody."

"Reich weaves the pitches and rhythms of those voices into a work of terrible sorrow and haunting power," says NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas. "Here again and as ever, Kronos plays with fierce beauty and deep intelligence."

Read more and listen to WTC 9/11, Mallet Quartet, and Dance Patterns in full at npr.org.

"The piece's raw emotional impact wells up not just from those incidents of 'speech melody,'" writes Tsioulcas in a separate piece for the NPR Classical blog Deceptive Cadence, "but also from what became the marrow of the piece: the documentary audio and the context of meditating upon 9/11."

Reich spoke with NPR about the piece—how it came to be, the techniques he used in writing it—for the first in a series of interviews with composers who have written works responding to September 11 for Deceptive Cadence. (John Adams, who wrote On the Transmigration of Souls for the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks, will be featured later in the series.)

http://www.nonesuch.com/j...2011-09-05
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Hear Steve Reich's "WTC 9/11" Album in Its Entirety As NPR First Listen:
"Kronos Plays with Fierce Beauty, Deep Intelligence"

[img:$uid]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b59/jbodine/Music%20II/reich_kronos_wide.jpg[/img:$uid]


September 4, 2011

"It was like the twisted steel of Berlin, Cologne and Tokyo come to rest four blocks from where we live." Composer Steve Reich uses those words to evoke the bright and yet terribly dark September day a decade ago. In Reich's WTC 9/11, out Sept. 20, we hear not just his own compositional voice, but also — through the use of documentary recordings — what he calls the "speech melody" of those who bore witness to Sept. 11, 2001. They range from NORAD air-traffic controllers and New York firefighters recorded that day to friends and neighbors recalling events years later. Reich weaves the pitches and rhythms of those voices into a work of terrible sorrow and haunting power. (You can listen to Reich talk about creating WTC 9/11 as well.)

Reaching deep into the immediate chaos and accumulated pain of that day, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer pulls out layers of meaning from the initials "WTC." They stand for World Trade Center, but they also refer to Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier — which Reich chose not to quote directly, but rather honor in spirit.

Inspired by a good friend, fellow composer David Lang, Reich delves into the spiritual and metaphysical dimensions of another "WTC" — the "world to come." Reich, who is immersed in Judaism, draws in the voices of women who fulfilled the Jewish obligation of shmira, or sitting with the victims' remains before burial, chanting Psalms and other Biblical passages to accompany the souls of the dead. But layers of anxiety about our current lives and time in history lurk in that phrase, as well. As Lang says at the piece's conclusion, "The world to come. I don't really know what that means."

For WTC 9/11, Reich's musical companions are longtime colleagues, the members of the Kronos Quartet, who commissioned this piece as well as one of his most widely celebrated works, 1988's Different Trains for string quartet and tape. Here again and as ever, Kronos plays with fierce beauty and deep intelligence.

From the intense grief and undiluted force of WTC 9/11, we circle back to the kind of abstract instrumental music Reich has produced more frequently in the past several years, including the first recording of 2009's Mallet Quartet, co-commissioned and performed by the vibrant group So Percussion. Played on two vibraphones and two five-octave marimbas, the low bass notes of the marimbas sound warm and rich, while the ringing vibes peal out the melodies of the outer movements. But the core here is the surprisingly spare and delicate slow movement.

The album concludes with Reich's Dance Patterns. Composed in 2002 for choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and filmmaker Thierry de Mey, Dance Patterns was part of an hour-long film titled Counterphrases of de Keersmaeker's Choreography. It is scored for two vibraphones, two xylophones and two pianos, with the last instruments functioning as equally percussive partners: a refracted reflection of the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic interplay at the core of Reich's lifework.

Listen here: http://www.npr.org/2011/0...h-wtc-9-11

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=



Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

[Edited 9/7/11 14:51pm]

Wow...power to THIS brotha for the courage to even want to relive something so horrifying and translate said horror into music. I applaud him for this and hope that New York as well as the other stricken sites' witnesses heal eventually over time. Tough 2 forget something as monumentally and emotionally destructive a day as 9/11/01.

whitechocolatebrotha said:

Wow...power to THIS brotha for the courage to even want to relive something so horrifying and translate said horror into music. I applaud him for this and hope that New York as well as the other stricken sites' witnesses heal eventually over time. Tough 2 forget something as monumentally and emotionally destructive a day as 9/11/01.

An excellent modern composer and this project was a definite surprise.

Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

...I. 9/11

Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

Steve Reich is incredible! I played his "Electric Counterpoint" piece for my senior recital in college and it was such an amazing experience.

Glad to see he's getting some press these days. I'm gonna have to check out this new record when it comes out.

...II. 2010; III. WTC




Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

theAudience said:

[img:$uid]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b59/jbodine/Covers%20II/steve-reich-wtc-911-mallet-quartet-dance-patterns.jpg[/img:$uid]

Steve Reich's forthcoming Nonesuch album, WTC 9/11—featuring the title piece performed by Kronos Quartet, Mallet Quartet performed by Sō Percussion, and Dance Patterns from members of Steve Reich and Musicians—is now streaming in full on NPR Music as an NPR First Listen. The album, which also includes a DVD with a live performance of Mallet Quartet by Sō Percussion, is due out September 20 and is available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. The title piece will be available as a digital EP starting tomorrow. Album orders include a free download of the title piece starting tomorrow and the complete album starting September 20.

WTC 9/11 (2011), the third quartet Kronos Quartet has commissioned from the composer, following Different Trains (1988) and Triple Quartet (1998), is scored for three string quartets; Kronos recorded all three parts for the album. WTC 9/11 also uses pre-recorded voices, the speakers’ final vowels and consonants elongated in a stop-motion sound technique creating a "speech melody."

"Reich weaves the pitches and rhythms of those voices into a work of terrible sorrow and haunting power," says NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas. "Here again and as ever, Kronos plays with fierce beauty and deep intelligence."

Read more and listen to WTC 9/11, Mallet Quartet, and Dance Patterns in full at npr.org.

"The piece's raw emotional impact wells up not just from those incidents of 'speech melody,'" writes Tsioulcas in a separate piece for the NPR Classical blog Deceptive Cadence, "but also from what became the marrow of the piece: the documentary audio and the context of meditating upon 9/11."

Reich spoke with NPR about the piece—how it came to be, the techniques he used in writing it—for the first in a series of interviews with composers who have written works responding to September 11 for Deceptive Cadence. (John Adams, who wrote On the Transmigration of Souls for the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks, will be featured later in the series.)

http://www.nonesuch.com/j...2011-09-05
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Hear Steve Reich's "WTC 9/11" Album in Its Entirety As NPR First Listen:
"Kronos Plays with Fierce Beauty, Deep Intelligence"

[img:$uid]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b59/jbodine/Music%20II/reich_kronos_wide.jpg[/img:$uid]


September 4, 2011

"It was like the twisted steel of Berlin, Cologne and Tokyo come to rest four blocks from where we live." Composer Steve Reich uses those words to evoke the bright and yet terribly dark September day a decade ago. In Reich's WTC 9/11, out Sept. 20, we hear not just his own compositional voice, but also — through the use of documentary recordings — what he calls the "speech melody" of those who bore witness to Sept. 11, 2001. They range from NORAD air-traffic controllers and New York firefighters recorded that day to friends and neighbors recalling events years later. Reich weaves the pitches and rhythms of those voices into a work of terrible sorrow and haunting power. (You can listen to Reich talk about creating WTC 9/11 as well.)

Reaching deep into the immediate chaos and accumulated pain of that day, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer pulls out layers of meaning from the initials "WTC." They stand for World Trade Center, but they also refer to Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier — which Reich chose not to quote directly, but rather honor in spirit.

Inspired by a good friend, fellow composer David Lang, Reich delves into the spiritual and metaphysical dimensions of another "WTC" — the "world to come." Reich, who is immersed in Judaism, draws in the voices of women who fulfilled the Jewish obligation of shmira, or sitting with the victims' remains before burial, chanting Psalms and other Biblical passages to accompany the souls of the dead. But layers of anxiety about our current lives and time in history lurk in that phrase, as well. As Lang says at the piece's conclusion, "The world to come. I don't really know what that means."

For WTC 9/11, Reich's musical companions are longtime colleagues, the members of the Kronos Quartet, who commissioned this piece as well as one of his most widely celebrated works, 1988's Different Trains for string quartet and tape. Here again and as ever, Kronos plays with fierce beauty and deep intelligence.

From the intense grief and undiluted force of WTC 9/11, we circle back to the kind of abstract instrumental music Reich has produced more frequently in the past several years, including the first recording of 2009's Mallet Quartet, co-commissioned and performed by the vibrant group So Percussion. Played on two vibraphones and two five-octave marimbas, the low bass notes of the marimbas sound warm and rich, while the ringing vibes peal out the melodies of the outer movements. But the core here is the surprisingly spare and delicate slow movement.

The album concludes with Reich's Dance Patterns. Composed in 2002 for choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and filmmaker Thierry de Mey, Dance Patterns was part of an hour-long film titled Counterphrases of de Keersmaeker's Choreography. It is scored for two vibraphones, two xylophones and two pianos, with the last instruments functioning as equally percussive partners: a refracted reflection of the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic interplay at the core of Reich's lifework.

Listen here: http://www.npr.org/2011/0...h-wtc-9-11

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=



Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

[Edited 9/7/11 14:51pm]

it's nice to c people here mentioning real musicians and composers instead of the usual "Lady Gaga is the only innovating artist of the 2000's" bullshit!

databank said:

it's nice to c people here mentioning real musicians and composers instead of the usual "Lady Gaga is the only innovating artist of the 2000's" bullshit!

Thanks.

I try to do what I can to add some balance.

Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

theAudience said:

databank said:

it's nice to c people here mentioning real musicians and composers instead of the usual "Lady Gaga is the only innovating artist of the 2000's" bullshit!

Thanks.

I try to do what I can to add some balance.

Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

Most people here SO MUCH need to be musically educated! I thank YOU

databank said:

Most people here SO MUCH need to be musically educated! I thank YOU

I don't claim to be any kind of music guru.
I just try to post music that I like that's different than what you generally see here over and over again.

If other folks dig it and care to comment, fine.

If not, that's fine too. Certainly won't change what I listen to.

Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

theAudience said:

databank said:

Most people here SO MUCH need to be musically educated! I thank YOU

I don't claim to be any kind of music guru.
I just try to post music that I like that's different than what you generally see here over and over again.

If other folks dig it and care to comment, fine.

If not, that's fine too. Certainly won't change what I listen to.

Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

I know u ain't, but they need u anyway

Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records