More stuff about the Bach Festival
Jun. 25th, 2005 08:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThings continue to be great, except for the growing exhaustion. I think I will have to exert some willpower tonight and bow out of the evening social time down at the pub. I need more sleep soon or I am going to crash hard at some much less convenient later point.
One of the other composers here, who also conducts, is very interested in my Autumn Quintet. He really liked it, despite the rough recording. He is considering doing it here. That is among the most complimentary responses I have ever gotten to a piece.
Last night was the final of three performances we attended of Osvaldo Golijov's "La Pasion Segun San Marcos". Well, the first performance we all went to was actually the dress rehearsal. It's an amazing piece - it tells the story of the Passion using South American music, both folk songs and dances like the samba and such. It also has some intersting juxtapositions of South American elements and more typical classical music styles. And there are so many beautiful moments, and it never drags. Yesterday in the seminar session we had with Golijov, he said that the piece is about South American Christianity. His comment made me realize just how successful the piece is, because I pretty much got that right from my first hearing of it. Golijov makes several very interesting choices about how to set the text, some of which are pretty unorthodox, but which nevertheless do make sense. The dance elements are even used for the more serious parts of the action. Some people seemed to find it perhaps disrespectful to use such upbeat, almost joyful music for things like the flagellation scene and the crucifiion itself, but I don't feel that way at all. First of all, I felt that the dance music was written for a more dynamic and dramatic effect than a cheerful affect. Second of all, I think it does highlight the dichotomy of the Passion - this horrible thing happened to this man, but it gave salvation to humankind.
One of the other composers here, who also conducts, is very interested in my Autumn Quintet. He really liked it, despite the rough recording. He is considering doing it here. That is among the most complimentary responses I have ever gotten to a piece.
Last night was the final of three performances we attended of Osvaldo Golijov's "La Pasion Segun San Marcos". Well, the first performance we all went to was actually the dress rehearsal. It's an amazing piece - it tells the story of the Passion using South American music, both folk songs and dances like the samba and such. It also has some intersting juxtapositions of South American elements and more typical classical music styles. And there are so many beautiful moments, and it never drags. Yesterday in the seminar session we had with Golijov, he said that the piece is about South American Christianity. His comment made me realize just how successful the piece is, because I pretty much got that right from my first hearing of it. Golijov makes several very interesting choices about how to set the text, some of which are pretty unorthodox, but which nevertheless do make sense. The dance elements are even used for the more serious parts of the action. Some people seemed to find it perhaps disrespectful to use such upbeat, almost joyful music for things like the flagellation scene and the crucifiion itself, but I don't feel that way at all. First of all, I felt that the dance music was written for a more dynamic and dramatic effect than a cheerful affect. Second of all, I think it does highlight the dichotomy of the Passion - this horrible thing happened to this man, but it gave salvation to humankind.
