On the transmigration of souls / John Adams.
By: Adams, John [composer]
.
Contributor(s): Grey, Mark [sound engineer] | Smith, Philip (Trumpeter) [performer] | Maazel, Lorin [conductor] | Flummerfelt, Joseph [conductor] | Berkun Menaker, Dianne [conductor] | New York Choral Artists [performer] | Brooklyn Youth Chorus [performer] | New York Philharmonic [performer].
Material type: 
MusicPublisher: New York : Nonesuch Records, 2004Copyright date: ©2004Description: 1 audio disc : digital ; 4 3/4 in.Content type: performed music Media type: audio Carrier type: audio discSubject(s): Choruses, Secular (Mixed voices) with orchestra | September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001 -- Songs and musicDDC classification: CD/5246 New York Choral Artists ; Joseph Flummerfelt, director ; Brooklyn Youth Chorus ; Diane Berkun, director ; Mark Grey, soundscape engineering ; New York Philharmonic ; Philip Smith, solo trumpet ; Lorin Maazel, conductor.
| Item type | Current library | Call number | Status | Barcode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General lending | MTU Cork School of Music Library CD | CD/5246 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 00235211 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
After John Adams turned 50, one of his biggest developing influences turned out to be a fellow New England native, the iconoclastic Charles Ives. Ives' mystical bent, best-known from his enigmatic mini-masterpiece "The Unanswered Question' turned up in Adams' Naive & Sentimental Music (1999) -- and when he was asked to compose a piece for the New York Philharmonic as a memorial for the appalling events of September 11, 2001, Adams once again turned to Ives for inspiration. Hence On the Transmigration of Souls -- a disturbing, at times eloquent, mystery laden collage for orchestra, chorus, and tape that owes its soul to Ives' meditation upon an earlier historical tragedy, the sinking of the Lusitania, in the third movement of his Orchestral Set No. 2. The Adams piece opens with the taped low-level roar of New York City, distant sirens, and the names of the dead and missing in the World Trade Center as a chorus gently enters and an orchestral undercurrent evokes "The Unanswered Question." The full resources of the orchestra are permitted to erupt only in a brief spurt of anguish in the center and extended agitation near the end of the piece; otherwise the volume is quiet -- and all the more disturbing for it. The chorus is eventually asked to sing descriptions of the missing taken from the New York Times' "Portraits of Grief" series, as transformed into Adams' peculiar, stylized, conversational choral style. This turned out to be the first recording for the then-newly established team of Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic -- a brave statement of enterprise -- and the 25-minute work was released all by itself in what amounted to an overpriced ($13.99) CD-single. It's hard to see this becoming a repertory piece, given its complex combination of resources, the very specific time and place it was meant to commemorate, and the painful emotions that the event generated. But do hear this work if you can; its atmospheric afterglow will stay with you for hours. ~ Richard S. Ginell
For orchestra, mixed chorus (SATB), children's chorus and pre-recorded soundtrack.
"A New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center's Great Performers co-commission in honor of the heroes and in memory of the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001"--Insert
Program notes (including the essay "Memory spaces" by David Schiff), texts and credits (28 pages) : color illustrations) inserted in container.
New York Choral Artists ; Joseph Flummerfelt, director ; Brooklyn Youth Chorus ; Diane Berkun, director ; Mark Grey, soundscape engineering ; New York Philharmonic ; Philip Smith, solo trumpet ; Lorin Maazel, conductor.
Recorded in concert on September 19-24, 2002 at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City.
Compact disc.
Sung and spoken in English; texts from missing-persons posters and memorials posted in the vicinity of the ruins of the World Trade Center, Lower Manhattan in September and October, 2001; personal reminiscences (principally drawn from interviews appearing in the "Portraits of grief" series in The New York Times); and a randomly chosen list of names of the victims.
Alan Cutts Collection.