Kandinsky Trio: On Light Wings (OmniTone 15219)
Program notes by the composers
Read composer's program notes:
Natural Bridge by John D'earth
Silent Faustus by John D'earth
Piano Quartet ("On Light Wings") by Gunther Schuller
- Natural Bridge by John D'earth
"Natural Bridge attempts to combine the languages and procedures of two musical worlds: classical/contemporary chamber music and what is inadequately referred to as “jazz”. These worlds have not often co-mingled but in the minds of those who love both worlds it seems, and sounds like, a natural combination. Perhaps one discovers, as this combination is explored, that these two musical worlds are not so very different, after all; that they invite each other in and, by reciprocal influence, suggest new directions and possibilities...." [Read more] - Silent Faustus by John D'earth
Silent Faustus is John D'earth's made-for-Kandinsky adaptation of a two-hour score he created for Mernau's 1926 silent film masterpiece Faustus. That composition, completed in 2003 and performed live to screenings of the film, features trumpet, multiple reeds, orchestral and jazz percussion, chapman stick and acoustic bass. The present adaptation for violin, cello and piano is a condensed version of the original score that relies less on the linear and literal unfolding of the famous tale than on a musical evocation of the four main phases of Faust's story.... [Read more] - Piano Quartet ("On Light Wings") by Gunther Schuller
My Piano Quartet is one of many recent works in which my primary concern is with the forging of a recognizably personal harmonic (melodic) language. For it seems to me that the rediscovery of a readily identifiable language, which can communicate all aspects of human expression, is what is most lacking in late twentieth-century music. To me it borders on the miraculous that composers such as, say, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Dvorak, all using the same harmonic vocabulary (i.e., the same repertory of chords, for example), could nevertheless create a totally personal language, whereby one can never confuse one bar, one phrase of any one of these composers with one of the others! [Read more]
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