CLASSICAL OPUS no.24

Toshiro Mayuzumi: “Nirvana Symphony”

黛敏郎 – 「ニルヴァーナ交響曲」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 37 minutes

These disquieting, razor-sharp and flamelike mantras roast uncomfortably in claustrophobic caverns. The composer exposes the vestiges of his country’s heterophonic tradition with precise interplay between the basic structure and simultaneous ornamentation.  For the brave only.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

http://www.jerretanner.com/blogs/2015/6/1/toshiro-mayuzumi-1929-1997-nirvana-symphony

 

A REFLECTION

As autumn mountains

Tinged with scarlet were you, maiden,

A pliable bamboo,

Supply bending, lady,

Of what

Were you thinking?

 

Man’yoshu (by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro): Waka “mys ii: 217”

Published in: on December 7, 2018 at 5:57 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.79

Henry Cowell: “Ongaku”

ヘンリー・コーウェル： 「音楽」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 14 minutes

In a belated bow to Japonsime, Cowell masterfully assembles a toxic palette of shimmering komorebi, diverting in form (though not in spirit) from the flute- and drum-reliant canon of traditional gagaku music.  As the grandfather of tone clusters and polyharmonies, the composer excelled in metrical inventiveness – which was abundantly clear in his Persian pieces, but is less immediately observable here.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=FECD-0003&catNum=FECD-0003&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English

 

A REFLECTION

Softly, O softly we bear her along,

She hangs like a star in the dew of our song;

She springs like a beam on the brow of the tide,

She falls like a tear from the eyes of a bride.

 

Sarojini Naidu: “Palanquin bearers”

 

 

Published in: on October 12, 2018 at 5:28 pm  Leave a Comment