Gay American Composers, Volume 2

1997: Composers Recordings Inc. CRI CD 750

Henry Cowell

1. Aeolian Harp
2. The Banshee
3. The Lilt of the Reel

    

   Harry Partch

4. Ulysses at the Edge of the World

    

   Samuel Barber

   Excursions for Piano
5. I. Un poco allegro
6. II. In slow blues tempo
7. III. Allegretto
8. IV. Allegro molto

    

   Marc Blitzstein

   Concerto for Piano & Orchestra
9. I. Moderato molto

    

   Aaron Copland

   Sonata for Violin & Piano
10. I. Moderate tempo

     

    Virgil Thomson

    Symphony No. 3:
11. I. Allegro moderato
12. II. Tempo di valzer

     

    Ben Weber

13. String Quartet No. 2, Op. 35

     

    John Cage

14. Ryoanji (excerpt)

     

    Alwin Nikolais

    Electronic Dance Music
15. Frail Demons: Dance 1
16. Tribe: Dance 2

     

    John Cage

17. Sonata XIII (from Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano)

This one I got for the Samuel Barber “Excursions,” which I heard playing one day at Tower Records (on the Ave), upstairs in the Classical section; it was so beautiful, the blues section in particular, that I just stood there pretending to look at CDs or magazines or whatever just so I could hear it through to the end. Robert Cummings has written a very nice succinct description of the “Excursions” for the All Music Guide, describing the second movement well as being “confident in its nonchalance and stop-and-start gait.” Now that I think of it, in some ways that reminds me of Robin Vote (of Djuna Barnes’s novel Nightwood).

I’m not fond of most of the rest of this album, so I don’t play it often…“modern” compositions tend to sound overly intellectualized and not particularly musical, to me.

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Comments © 2005 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.