a r t i s t : David Lang
t i t l e : The Passing Measures
d a t e : 2001
l a b e l : cantaloupe
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : Dec/2008
t r a c k s : 01
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 51,7 MB
_______________________________________________________________________
Painfully slow and achingly beautiful, The Passing Measures -
for bass clarinet, amplified orchestra, and women's voices -
is an ambient and emotionally charged meditation on the
passing of time.
"This heartfelt, mournful piece, a wordless, 45-minute quasi-
concerto for women's chorus, bass clarinet, and amplified
orchestra, is a welcome surprise from a composer whose always
deft and subtle work has often seemed ironic and arch. The
clarinetist Marty Ehrlich, the Birmingham Contemporary Music
Group, and members of the City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra Chorus, conducted by Paul Herbert, provide a
dignified performance, giving gentle life to the work's
lustrous waves of color. [This is one of the] best classical
albums of 2001."
- Russell Platt, The New Yorker
"Sits and shimmers gently, like a jeweled pendant turning very
slowly in the light."
- Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
"Lang has created a moody, moving 43-minute experience."
- Bradley Bambarger, Billboard
David Lang on The Passing Measures
"I think one of the reasons our commercial culture likes all
music to be fast and snappy is because in fast music it is
much harder to recognize the passing of time. You listen to
the tunes, to the catchy phrases, but you are not allowed to
feel just how time slips away. Fast music is stirring,
optimistic - that is why we are bombarded all day by active,
energetic music that tries to make us buy things or do things
or think things. Slow music, on the other hand, is good for
contemplation but is terrible for business, so you don't get
much of it in your daily life. More and more I have become
convinced that one of the noblest things you can do in a piece
of "serious" music is to allow for an experience that can't
happen in your everyday life. The Passing Measures is that
kind of experience.
My piece is about the struggle to create beauty. A single very
consonant chord falls slowly over the course of forty minutes.
That is the piece. Every aspect of the piece is on display,
however - magnified, examined, amplified, prolonged. The
soloist's notes are impossibly long, requiring frequent drop-
outs for breath and for rest. The players are all instructed
to play as quietly as possible, and then are amplified at high
volume, in order to make their restraint an issue of the
piece. Four percussionists scrape pieces of junk metal from
start to finish, as if to accompany the consonance of the
chords with sounds of dirt and decay.
The Passing Measures is dedicated to the memory of Bette
Snapp.
The Artists
David Lang - COMPOSER
David Lang the prolific, enthusiastic and complicated composer
embodies the restless spirit of invention. Musically
adventurous yet deeply versed in the classical tradition, Lang
is constantly in search of new musical forms and determined to
make a music that resists categorization. What unites his
compositions is the fierce intelligence and clarity of vision
that inform their structures.
Lang's extensive catalogue includes opera, orchestra, chamber
and solo works, which are by turns ominous, ethereal, urgent,
hypnotic, unsettling and funky. Moments of heart-wrenching
lyricism may be pushed up against metal-crunching chords.
Intense rhythmic patterns may fracture or unravel into
luminous pockets of harmonic sound. Much of his work seeks to
expand the definition of virtuosity in music ??even the
deceptively simple pieces can be fiendishly difficult to play
and require incredible concentration by the musicians. The
effect is spellbinding.
"There is no name yet for this kind of music," writes music
critic Mark Swed, but audiences around the globe are hearing
more and more of Lang's work in performances by such
organizations as the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco
Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Kronos Quartet; at
Tanglewood, the BBC Proms, the Munich Biennale, the Settembre
Musica Festival, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival and the
Almeida, Holland, Berlin, Strasbourg, Huddersfield and Dresden
music festivals; in theater productions in New York, San
Francisco and London; in the choreography of Twyla Tharp, La
La La Human Steps, the Netherlands Dans Theater and the Royal
Ballet; and at Lincoln Center, the South Bank Centre, Carnegie
Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Barbican Centre and the Brooklyn
Academy of Music. Recent projects include monumental musical
environments like the floating and meditative amplified
orchestra piece The Passing Measures; The Difficulty of
Crossing a Field, an opera for the Kronos Quartet with a
libretto by Mac Wellman and direction by Carey Perloff; the
critically-acclaimed opera Modern Painters about the curious
and tragic life of art critic John Ruskin; the evening-length
piano solo Psalms Without Words; and the bittersweet comic
book opera The Carbon Copy Building, with cartoonist Ben
Katchor, Bob McGrath and the Ridge Theater and composers
Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe.
Lang has been honored with the Rome Prize, the BMW Music-
Theater Prize (Munich), a Kennedy Center/Friedheim Award, the
Revson Fellowship with the New York Philharmonic, and grants
from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the
Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the American
Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1999 he received a Bessie
Award for his music for choreographer Susan Marshall's The
Most Dangerous Room in the House, performed live by the Bang
on a Can All-Stars at the Next Wave Festival of the Brooklyn
Academy of Music. The Carbon Copy Building won the 2000
Village Voice OBIE Award for Best New American Work.
Lang is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of New York's
legendary music festival, Bang on a Can, and Composer-in-
Residence at the American Conservatory Theater in San
Francisco. Born in Los Angeles in 1957, Lang holds degrees
from Stanford University and the University of Iowa, receiving
his doctorate from the Yale School of Music in 1989. He has
studied with Jacob Druckman, Hans Werner Henze and Martin
Bresnick. His work is recorded on the Sony Classical, BMG,
Point, Chandos, Argo/Decca and CRI labels.
Marty Ehrlich - BASS CLARINET
Marty Ehrlich is active as a composer, ensemble leader, and
instrumentalist. His Traveler's Tales group and his Dark Woods
Ensemble perform throughout America and Europe and have
reocrded 10 CD's of original compositions. The New York Times
calls him "one of the premiere melodicists of his generation,"
and The Nation says "he is one of his generation's most
original thinkers with a rare and wonderful talent, a now
yearning, now biting attack, and a stunningly voice-like
expressiveness."
Ehrlich has been commissioned by the New York Composer's
Orchestra, the Lydian String Quartet, the Rova Sax Quartet,
the New York String Trio, and pianist Ursula Oppens. He has
received grants from the NEA, the Mary Flagler Charitable
Trust, Meet the Composer, and the New York Foundation for the
Arts. He has been composer-in-residence at the Isabella Stuart
Gardner Museum in Boston, and in 1999 was the Peter Ivers
Visiting Artist at Harvard University.
Since coming to New York in 1979, Ehrlich's sideman credits
are a who's who of contemporary music. He has performed with
Anthony Braxton, Jaki Byard, John Carter, Anthony Davis, Jack
DeJohnette, Chico Hamilton, Julius Hemphill, Andrew Hill,
Wayne Horvitz, Roscoe Mitchell, Bobby Previte, George Russell,
and John Zorn, among others. He has played new works with the
New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet, the St. Luke's
Chamber Orchestra, and the Birmingham (England) Contemporary
Music Group. He appears on close to 100 CD's with these
artists and ensembles.
Marty Ehrlich is currently the musical director of the Julius
Hemphill Sextet, and continues to conduct and perform the late
composer's music throughout Europe and America.
Paul Herbert - CONDUCTOR
Paul Herbert has worked largely in theatre and opera in the UK
(with the Birmingham Opera Company, Buxton and Cheltenham
Festivals). He is also involved in large-scsale community
events, most recently including major productions of
Berinstein's Mass and Satyagraha by Philip Glass. Previous
work with BCMG has included a music theatre piece, Silent
Scores (1995), and Stockhausen's Sternklang (1992).
The Orchestra and Chorus
Horns: Mark Phillips, Peter Currie, Martin Wright, Peter Dyson
Trumpets: Jonathan Holland, Jonathan Quirk, Wes Warren
Trombones: Philip Harrison, Danny Longstaff
Bass Trombone: Alwyn Green
Tuba: Jim Anderson
Percussion: James Strebing, Simon Limbrick, Annie Oakley,
Jenny Marsden
Pianos: Malcolm Wilson, Tim Horton
Bass Guitar: Mark Goodchild
Cellos: Ulrich Heinen, Elaine Ackers, Richard Jenkinson, Kate
Setterfield, Jill Heartfield, David Russell, Catherine Ardagh
-Walter, Vicki Parkin
Double Basses: John Tattersdill, Julian Atkinson
Chorus Director for The Passing Measures: Adrian Partington
Members of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus: Alison
Bownass, Tracy Bowden, Sarah Ennis, Joan Field, Diana Jackson,
Laura James, Jennifer Mason, Margaret Wilson
The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) was formed in 1987
by players from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and
is established as one of Europe?s leading ensembles. Sir Simon
Rattle has been BCMG?s Artistic Adviser since the Group?s
inception. BCMG also has a close relationship with Thomas Ad?
s, who conducts the Group regularly and was its Music Director
from 1998 to 2000. BCMG won the 1995 Gramophone Award for Best
Orchestral Recording for its EMI recording of Schoenberg's
Chamber Symphony Op 9, conducted by Rattle. In 1993 BCMG won
both the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Chamber
Ensemble Award, and the Prudential Award for Music.
The core of BCMG's work is the commissioning and performance
of new music. The Group has given over 50 premieres of new
works, many commissioned through BCMG's unique Sound
Investment scheme, which has revolutionized the way new music
is brought into being by involving a wide range of people in
the commissioning process. Through its dynamic programme of
Urban and Rural Tours and its popular Symphony Hall Late-
Nights, together with Sound Investment, its education
programme, its award-winning concert season in Birmingham
("The Series"), and its touring programme, BCMG has built a
wide and enthusiastic audience for its work. BCMG broadcasts
regularly on BBC Radio, and has made television programmes for
both BBC and Independent Television.
Highlights of past seasons have included a collaboration with
CBTO (now Birmingham Opera Company) in 1997 for the first
British
triple-bill performances of Britten's three Church Parables in
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, London's South Bank and at the
Aldeburgh Festival; performances of Stockhausen's Momentein
1994 in Birmingham, London, and at the Huddersfield Festival;
collaborations with Birmingham Royal Ballet for new
productions of Stravinsky's Renard (in 1994), The Soldier's
Tale (in 1996 for the BBC Proms) and Maxwell Davies's Vesalii
Icones (1997/8); and appearances abroad in the Salzburg,
Cologne Triennale and Wien Modern Festivals.
During summer 1999 BCMG performed at the Spitalfields
Festival, the Aldeburgh Festival, the BBC Proms with Thomas
Ad?s and Sir Simon Rattle; and in a collaboration with Almeida
Opera for performances of Thomas Ad?s? opera, Powder Her Face.
Summer 1999 also saw the release of two BCMG recordings -
Bernstein?s Wonderful Town (EMI/Rattle) and Thomas Ad?s?s
Chamber Symphony and Concerto Conciso (EMI/AdΦs). In
November/December 1999, BCMG performed with Sir Simon Rattle
in Birmingham and Paris and premiered a new commission, About
Time, by Mark-Anthony Turnage at Ely Cathedral for a live
BBCTV Millennium concert. March 2000 saw the release of an NMC
CD of music by Philip Cashian. In May 2000, BCMG and Trestle
Theatre Company premiered Bitter Fruit, a new music theatre
piece by John Woolrich, and in summer 2000 BCMG returned to
the Aldeburgh Festival and BBC Proms with Thomas AdΦs, and
appeared in the Lyric fm Gerald Barry Festival in Dublin. In
October 2000 BCMG completed a major European Tour with Simon
Rattle to London, Cologne, Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna and
Birmingham. During November/December 2000 BCMG toured two
productions: "Future Perfect," a music and storytelling
collaboration between Judith Weir and Vayu Naidu on the CMN
circuit; and John Woolrich's silent opera Bitter Fruit, with
Trestle Theatre Company.
City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus
Adrian Partington - Chorus Director for The Passing Measures
The City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus was formed in 1973.
Working closely with Music Directors Sir Simon Rattle and
Sakari Oramo, and Chorus Director Simon Halsey, the Chorus has
become one of the finest of its kind, performing with the CBSO
and now in regular demand from world famous orchestras such as
the Leipzig Gewandhaus, St Petersburg Philharmonic, San
Francisco, Vienna and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. It has sung
in all the major concert venues in the UK, and has toured
extensively across Europe, the USA, Canada, and Australia. The
Chorus has made over 20 recordings, both with the CBSO and
independently, which have won numerous major awards. 2000
yielded a Grammy nomination for "Best Choral Performance" and
two Gramophone Awards for "Best Choral Recording" and "Best
Opera Recording."
The CBSC embarked on a momentous world tour in August 2000,
performing Jan?cek?s Glagolitic Mass at Festival Vancouver
with Andrew Litton and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and
opening the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival, leading an 875
-voice massed chorus in Mahler?s Symphony No.8 under Edo de
Waart with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the 20,000-seater
Sydney Superdome. October 3 2000 saw the Chorus perform The
Dream of Gerontius from memory with the CBSO and City of
Birmingham Choir, to mark the centenary of the work?s premiere
in Birmingham.
Credits
Marty Ehrlich
Paul Herbert, conductor
Members of City of Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Members of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus
Produced by David Lang and Ken Thompson.
Recorded live Sunday May 3, 1998 by Paul Sparrow at Adrian
Boult Hall, Birmingham, UK.
(www.cantaloupemusic.com/album.php?catno=ca21003)
_______________________________________________________________________
01-The Passing Measures [42:16]
-------
42:16 min