SOUNDTRACK: PHILIP GLASS FLASH CHOIR-“The New Rule” (Field Recordings, July 10, 2012).
One of the first Field Recordings I posted about was with Philip Glass. So I thought it would be fun to complete the Field Recordings (this is the last one) with Philip Glass as well [A ‘Flash Choir’ Sings Philip Glass In Times Square].
This is one of those super-fun, public Field Recordings. And it’s more public than most.
To honor Philip Glass’ 75th birthday this year, we here at NPR Music commissioned Glass to create a short work that would be great fun for amateur and professional singers alike. So Glass took a work he had first written for soprano and instruments as part of his 1997 3-D “digital opera” Monsters of Grace, and arranged it for soloist and eight-part chorus. And were very lucky indeed to team up with the Make Music NY Festival, member station WQXR and the Times Square Alliance to realize this project at one of the world’s most iconic spots, the Crossroads of the World, Times Square.
As with the Red Baraat Make Music NY Festival, this is a wonderful public event where all manner of people came out to sing along.
A big part of what we do is to try to make all kinds of music engaging and accessible — and wouldn’t it be great to invite anyone who wanted to come and sing in a world premiere by one of the most celebrated composers of our time? About 200 singers gathered to sing with the ebullient Kent Tritle, one of America’s most accomplished and beloved choral conductors, and soprano soloist Rachel Rosales. (And a handful of singers were folks who had simply been walking by and were swept up in the moment.)
Before the song begins you can hear someone say, has anyone rehearsed this? And the response is no, I think that’s the point. And indeed, 200 voices joined together, even if some are imperfect (and who knows if anyone is) sound fantastic.
On this sweltering day, the singers’ mindful intention to gather in Times Square and its visceral result — all breath and sweat and palpable effort in the middle of glossy Times Square, with stifling heat, noise and a zillion blinking distractions — was just amazing and honestly quite moving.
The chorus sings with typical Glassian aplomb (repeating doo doo notes) while Rachel Rosales sings the lyrics. I love hearing the bass voices do their part, it’s otherworldly.
For his text, Glass selected words from the medieval Sufi Muslim poet Jalaluddin Rumi, as translated by Coleman Barks. In his poetry, Rumi urges the reader to break free of the constraints of daily life — to upend expectations and jettison traditional thinking in an unending quest to unite with the divine. “Here’s the new rule,” Rumi wrote. “Break the wineglass, and fall towards the glassblower’s breath.” And somehow — beautifully, magically and only briefly — this fleeting chorus became the heartbeat of Times Square
It sounds great and rally captivated everyone. And that’s why I love the Field Recordings and hope they bring them back.
[READ: February 4, 2018] “In Dreams I Kiss Your Hand, Madam”
This is from a 1947 manuscript published in 2008 in Ninth Letter. Gaddis used some of this material in his book The Recognitions.
The story is set in a lush apartment. The host is a man named Alex P_____. He had recently published a book, an anthology called In Dreams I Kiss Your Hand, Madam, “a collection of imaginative love stories, stories of beauty and devotion, tales of passion and gallantry…from writers of seventeen countries n the past seven centuries.”
It was dedicated to Christine Ludington. She had just referred to Alex as a pig because of what he said about the wife of young writer he has just published. Then she changed the subject to say she could not imagine the satisfaction in breeding basset hounds.
Alex muttered that it was because she had never been a basset hound. (more…)
Read Full Post »
Protomartyr’s second album Under Color of Official Right was one of my favorite records of 2014. I loved the noisy music that the band made while singer Joe Casey yelled his abrasive ideas at us.
I Just Read About That... 