Seeds

PRODUKTBESCHREIBUNGEN
Track Listing: 01. Russell Nadel - Orchard Sunset 02. Michael Weinstein-Reiman - Roland 03. Claude Debussy - Nuits d'étoiles 04. Naftali Schindler - Chants, Pastorals, and Antiphons of the New Moon 05-06. Erik Satie - Gnossiennes Nos. 2 and 4 07-09. S. Beth May - Three Pieces for Horn and Harp Shelf Life Mask of the Red Death Runk Pock 10. Aaron N. Price - Amber Veil 11. Astor Piazzolla - Café 1930 from Histoire du Tango About the album: This album and the commissioning project that sparked it were funded by the generosity of 115 backers through Kickstarter and a Yale School of Music alumniVentures grant. We gratefully acknowledge the Atlantic Music Festival of Waterville, Maine, for inviting us to perform many of the new pieces on this album during an artists' residency in July 2012; Christ Presbyterian Church in New Haven, CT, for allowing us to use their facilities for recording; and the New Haven Lawn Club and Union Station for providing the perfect settings for our album art. On this album, Emily plays a Kortesmaki double horn by Karl Hill and Colleen plays a Camac Athena EX concert grand pedal harp. Program Notes by Track: 01. Orchard Sunset - Russell Nadel (notes by the composer) I was delighted when Emily and Colleen requested this composition from me, as I had worked with Emily before, and I was familiar with her superb musicianship. I had never before composed for the harp in a chamber music context, and learning about it's unique and sonic abilities was inspiring, especially from such an outstanding musician (and editor) as Colleen. In Orchard Sunset, I experimented to some degree with writing for the horn in a lower range than chamber music typically features, allowing the harp to dance above and below the horn in a steady flow of arpeggios. I enjoyed the challenge of composing - especially for the harp, but also for the horn - using musical language and idiomatic figurations that would be both familiar (i.e., playable) and distinctive. I particularly enjoyed writing many chances for each instrument to bring out the flowing, cantabile melodic style that they perform so very well. The word "Orchard" in the title comes equally from the fact that Emily grew up on a cherry farm in Michigan, and from the duo's unique name - "orchard" was an evocative word I chose because it has in common both apples and oranges. The "Sunset" came from repeated listening to the composition; after assigning the music the setting of an orchard, so to speak, the image of the sun setting very slowly, over the course of the entire work, came easily to mind. Orchard Sunset was premiered by Apple Orange Pair at Christ Presbyterian Church, in New Haven, CT, on May 28, 2011. I am grateful to Apple Orange Pair for their support, encouragement, editing assistance, patience, practice and enthusiasm, and for their friendship. 02. Roland - Michael Weinstein-Reiman (notes by the composer) The Chanson de Roland (12th century) is an epic poem on which this piece is loosely based. In it, Charlemagne crusades against Muslim and Jewish forces in Spain. Roland, Charlemagne's nephew, volunteers his step-father, Ganelon, to lead the charge. Roland accompanies him, taking with him his Oliphant-horn, which he is to sound in order to call Charlemagne for reinforcement when necessary. Spanish forces massacre the Franks when Roland refuses to sound his horn. Only when the cavalry is practically annihilated does Roland call for back-up, and the force he uses to blow on his horn is so great that his temple shatters. He dies just before Charlemagne returns to battle, avenges the death of his kinsmen, and forces the conversion to Christianity of the villagers captured. Instead of following the storyline directly, I chose rather to musically characterize the various images the narrative evokes. I was captivated by Roland's stubbornness in contrast to how heroically he is portrayed in the poem. Why not call for help sooner? Why wait until the situation is so dire and countless lives are lost? I became fascinated with these questions and how I would depict Roland's final horn call musically. At it's core, the Chanson de Roland is an artful piece of propaganda that glorifies war, crusaders, and Christianity. Obviously, my composition does not (I hope). I set out, instead, to create a musical world that highlights Roland's hubris and fallibility in the face of trauma. 03. Nuit d'étoiles - Claude Debussy (notes by Colleen Potter Thorburn) Debussy published Nuit d'étoiles (translated "Starry Night") in 1880, his first art song as a young composer to be published. While it's harmonies and melodic treatment sound considerably more traditional than Debussy's later Impressionist songs, we nevertheless found this song charming and well-suited to our instruments. The sweeping melodic lines, originally for a singer, translate well to the horn's timbre, and the piano's lush rolled chords are perhaps even better realized on harp. The song is set in a simple verse-refrain form, with it's original text describing a lover walking through woods and shadows under the stars, dreaming of a "love lost." In our recording, we try to make the last refrain particularly haunting, with special attention to a slower, softer musical setting to create a truly bittersweet mood of nostalgia for the last mention of this "love lost." 04. Chants, Pastorals, and Antiphons of the New Moon - Naftali Schindler (notes by the composer) I got the idea for this piece from harpist Colleen Potter. After commissioning the piece she helped spur my creativity by reminding me that the harp and horn are very ancient instruments. I thought of how in the ancient temple in Jerusalem, two of the main instruments were the kinnor (a type of harp) and the hatzotzra (a silver horn). That led me to Psalm 104 which is typically recited by Jews (and probably sung in the Jerusalem temple) at the beginning of a month (in the lunar calendar, hence the New Moon in the title). We have no knowledge of what the temple music was like, so I just went with my inspiration as shaped by various ancient vocal traditions from around the world. The traditions that inspired me in this piece are Yemenite Jewish antiphonal singing (i.e. soloist being answered by a group), Tibetan monk chanting, Mongolian long song, and overtone-centered music from central Asia. The fact that I was inspired by that music doesn't mean the listener will necessarily hear those traditions in my piece and I don't intend that. The listener will hear, however, the harpist chanting snatches of Psalm 104 in the ancient Yemenite pronunciation of the Hebrew text. The piece is shaped as a very free developing rondo. The core of the piece consists of a chanting main theme and an antiphonal second theme. These themes, plus some new 'pastoral' material, are developed between recurrences of the chanting theme. The two themes appear near the end with the second theme, taking on the tonal language of the first theme. The piece is framed by shofar (ram's horn) blasts on the horn. The interval of the fourth (central in Yemenite singing) is important for the vertical sonorities of the piece as well as in the long-term tonal arrangement. 05-06. Gnossiennes Nos. 2 and 4 - Erik Satie (notes by Emily Boyer) The Gnossiennes present austere melodies propped up by static chords. They, along with other piano music by Erik Satie such as the Gymnopédies, are some of the simplest music in the piano repertoire. Satie obviously favored simplicity, and did not just reserve it for his music. He is said to have furnished his small apartment with only a chair, a table, and a hammock; to have eaten only foods that were white in color; and to have filled his closet with only gray, velvet suits, which he wore daily. This is why he became known as "The Velvet Gentleman." By arranging these two short Gnossiennes that were originally for solo piano for horn and harp instead, we have the opportunity to utilize a wider variety of soun

Number of Discs: 1

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