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21st Century Composers: Max Richter
21st Century Composers: Max Richter
POSTED SEPTEMBER 11, 2020
Max Richter is one of the most popular and respected composers of classical music today. Born in Germany, he grew up in England and studied composition and piano at the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Academy of Music, and with the Italian experimental composer Luciano Berio in Florence. His compositions do not fit into tidy categories but he works within post-minimalism, contemporary classical and alternative popular musical styles. His orchestral works often combine ambient sounds, voices and readings (of poetry and other text) with the music. Richter has also composed a large body of work for stage, opera, ballet and screen.
Max Richter is one of the most popular and respected composers of classical music today. Born in Germany, he grew up in England and studied composition and piano at the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Academy of Music, and with the Italian experimental composer Luciano Berio in Florence. His compositions do not fit into tidy categories but he works within post-minimalism, contemporary classical and alternative popular musical styles. His orchestral works often combine ambient sounds, voices and readings (of poetry and other text) with the music. Richter has also composed a large body of work for stage, opera, ballet and screen.
His most ambitious project was the eight hour composition, "Sleep", an 8.5 hour listening experience released in 2015 and targeted to fit a full night's rest. The album itself contains 31 compositions, most of them reaching 20–30 minutes in duration, all based around variations of 4-5 themes. The music is calm, slow, mellow and composed for piano, cello, two violas, two violins, organ, soprano vocals, synthesizers and electronics.[1] Richter has described the work as a statement against the "super industrialised, intense, mechanised way of living right now...a call to arms to stop what we’re doing." This year, "Sleep" was developed into an app, which "enables users to create personalised musical sessions for a chosen period, with planetary animations programmed according to Sleep’s musical themes."[2]
His most ambitious project was the eight hour composition, "Sleep", an 8.5 hour listening experience released in 2015 and targeted to fit a full night's rest. The album itself contains 31 compositions, most of them reaching 20–30 minutes in duration, all based around variations of 4-5 themes. The music is calm, slow, mellow and composed for piano, cello, two violas, two violins, organ, soprano vocals, synthesizers and electronics.[1] Richter has described the work as a statement against the "super industrialised, intense, mechanised way of living right now...a call to arms to stop what we’re doing." This year, "Sleep" was developed into an app, which "enables users to create personalised musical sessions for a chosen period, with planetary animations programmed according to Sleep’s musical themes."[2]
Here is one of the pieces from the work, "Dream 3 (in the midst of my life)".
Here is one of the pieces from the work, "Dream 3 (in the midst of my life)".
He has taken on political issues in his music. He's responded to the conflict in Kosovo (Memoryhouse), the Iraq War (The Blue Notebooks), and the 2005 London terrorist attacks (Infra). "The Blue Notebooks", released in 2004, featured the actress Tilda Swinton reading from Kafka's "The Blue Octavo Notebooks" and the work of the Nobel-Prize-winning poet Czesław Miłosz. In its citation, the Swedish Academy called Miłosz a writer who "voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts". Richter explores this theme in "The Blue Notebooks" which he described as “a protest album about Iraq, a meditation on violence – both the violence that I had personally experienced around me as a child and the violence of war."
He has taken on political issues in his music. He's responded to the conflict in Kosovo (Memoryhouse), the Iraq War (The Blue Notebooks), and the 2005 London terrorist attacks (Infra). "The Blue Notebooks", released in 2004, featured the actress Tilda Swinton reading from Kafka's "The Blue Octavo Notebooks" and the work of the Nobel-Prize-winning poet Czesław Miłosz. In its citation, the Swedish Academy called Miłosz a writer who "voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts". Richter explores this theme in "The Blue Notebooks" which he described as “a protest album about Iraq, a meditation on violence – both the violence that I had personally experienced around me as a child and the violence of war."
"On the Nature of Daylight", one of the works on the album, has been extensively used in films. NPR describes a performance in their studios[3]:
"On the Nature of Daylight", one of the works on the album, has been extensively used in films. NPR describes a performance in their studios[3]:
a simple theme rolls out slowly in the low strings until a violin enters with a complimentary melody in a higher register. Richter, at the keyboard, adds a subterranean bass line for added gravitas, while high above another violin soars sweetly, mournfully. With all elements interlocked – and sensitively played by members of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble – the piece gently sways, building in intensity. It all adds up to a six-minute emotional journey that, if you open yourself to the sounds, can leave you wrung out.
The recently released "Voices" draws its inspiration from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights combines Richter's haunting music and vocals with text from that document. Drawn up following the dark days of World War II, the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights gives us a beautiful vision of a better world. Although Richter began composing "Voices" ten years ago, its release in August seems totally fitting to the world's situation today. A video from one piece on the album ("All Human Beings") is below.
The recently released "Voices" draws its inspiration from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights combines Richter's haunting music and vocals with text from that document. Drawn up following the dark days of World War II, the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights gives us a beautiful vision of a better world. Although Richter began composing "Voices" ten years ago, its release in August seems totally fitting to the world's situation today. A video from one piece on the album ("All Human Beings") is below.
For a further introduction to Richter's music, see "Best Max Richter Songs: 20 Essential Modern Classical Tracks" from the uDiscover website.
For a further introduction to Richter's music, see "Best Max Richter Songs: 20 Essential Modern Classical Tracks" from the uDiscover website.
References
[1] Wikipedeia
Minimalism and the music of Philip Glass
Minimalism and the music of Philip Glass
NOVEMBER 15, 2020
Characterized by extreme simplicity of form, Minimalism is an artistic movement that began in 1960's America - primarily in New York and San Francisco - as a reaction to the dominant forms of art and music of the time. In the visual arts, it was a reaction to Abstract Expressionism, emphasizing anonymity over overt symbolism, expressiveness and emotional content. In music it was a reaction against the complexity, density, and sheer difficulty of recent modernist music, which Minimalist composers felt had created a rift between the music and the listener. [1.2]
Britannica succinctly summarizes the goals of Minimalism: “In both music and the visual arts, Minimalism was an attempt to explore the essential elements of an art form. In Minimalist visual arts, the personal, gestural elements were stripped away in order to reveal the objective, purely visual elements of painting and sculpture. In Minimalist music, the traditional treatment of form and development was rejected in favor of explorations of timbre and rhythm.” [3]
The composer Philip Glass was one of the first minimalists and became one of the most influential figures in the music of the second half of the 20th century. Born in Baltimore in 1937, Glass moved to New York in the mid-1950's and was at the center of the Minimalist movement that was beginning there.
His works often blur the distinction between classical and popular and between Western and Eastern music. He has written numerous operas and musical theatre works, twelve symphonies, eleven concertos, eight string quartets and various other chamber music, and film scores. He's written operas (nominally) about Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, and the Pharaoh Akhnaten; counts John Cage, Ravi Shankar, Mahatma Gandhi and Allen Ginsberg among those who influenced his music [6]; worked with David Bowie, Brian Eno, Paul Simon, Suzanne Vega, Laurie Anderson and David Byrne; and has been nominated three times for an Academy Award.
Einstein on the Beach, a five hour opera "with its creative tension between slow-moving images and fast-moving music...forever changed the way we view the term opera". It is "less a biographical study of its titular hero and more a meditation on time, space and man’s place within it, eschewing traditional narrative structure in favor of a digressive, poetic, at times hallucinatory approach. In the opera house, it is a singular experience." [4,5] A brief selection from the opera is in the sidebar.
Glassworks is a collection of "short, accessible pieces from 1982 was specifically made to introduce Glass to a wider audience." Marketed as "chill-out music for baby boomers," it remains one of his most popular recordings. Glassworks includes "fine examples of both sides of Glass's art, from the lyricism of 'Facades' to the kinetic energy of 'Floe'. " [4,5] The complete album is in the sidebar.
Written to mark the turn of the millennium, Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 5 "manifests Gustav Mahler’s opinion that 'The symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything.' Glass draws from diverse spiritual wellsprings, including the Bible, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Koran, Hindu scriptures, and West African traditions to create an epic narrative." [7] A selection ("Before the Creation") from Symphony No. 5 is in the sidebar and you can hear the entire work at this link.
Finally, WQXR has produced an excellent introduction to Philip Glass's works. It includes brief selections and discussion of "ten essential recordings." [Sidebar]
References
[1]https://www.allclassical.org/the-story-of-minimalism-part-one-a-new-way-of-listening/
[2] https://www.theartstory.org/movement/minimalism/
[3] https://www.britannica.com/art/Minimalism
[4] https://www.wqxr.org/story/231895-top-10-essential-philip-glass-recordings/
[5] https://www.factmag.com/2012/03/27/the-essential-philip-glass/
[6] https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/08/influences-composer-philip-glass.html
[7] https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/video/philip-glass-symphony-no-5
Peter Kater's Elements
Peter Kater's Elements
POSTED AUGUST 30, 2022
If you are looking for some calming, meditative music after a long, stressful day, look no further than the pianist and composer Peter Kater. German-born, he moved with his family to New Jersey at the age of four in the early 1960's. Kater is often described as a New Age artist, and he has won two Grammys in that category. He would prefer his music, which he self-describes as spanning Smooth Jazz, Contemporary Instrumentals, Healing Music, and Relaxation Music, to not be so labeled, but adds "I try not to worry about that too much. I’m just trying to follow my muse and stay true to my own interests.”
Besides his dozens of albums, Kater has scored the music of over 100 television and film productions, 11 on & off-Broadway plays, and is a recipient of the Environment Leadership Award from the United Nations.
In 2005, Peter Kater released his Elements series of albums: Earth, Fire, Water, Air, based on the ancient Greek's four primal elements. * Like the ancient Greeks, who later added a fifth element, "aether", he released a fifth album in the series, Etheria, in 2015. In all of the albums, Kater focuses on the comforting aspects of the elements. The cuts on "Fire", for example, have nothing to do with raging conflagrations or bad-tempered personalities.** Rather they evoke the beauty of light that drives away darkness and the comfort of coming home: "Eternal Sunshine", "The Way Home", "Twilight", "Hearth Fire", "Northern Lights", "Solaris", "Afterglow".
The instrumentation varies by album and there are subtle differences in the music among the albums. Water is all acoustic with Kater on piano, Paul McCandless on oboe and English horn, and Mike Hamilton on guitar. Air features Kater on piano, vocals, and electronics; Paul McCandless on penny whistles, oboe, and soprano saxophone; and Richard Hardy on bamboo and soprano flutes. Fire is warm and melodic, while Etheria is more meditative and, true to its name, ethereal.
Here are links to selections from each of Peter Kater's Elements albums. Sit back, relax, enjoy.
Wings of Sound - YouTube ( From Air)
Celestine - YouTube (From Earth)
Northern Lights - YouTube (From Fire)
Substance of Life - YouTube (From Water)
Celestial Light - YouTube (From Etheria)
Notes:
*The ancient Greek concept of four primal elements - earth, water, air, and fire - dates from pre-Socratic times and persisted throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, deeply influencing European thought and culture. These were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Aristotle later added a fifth element, aether, to describe the unchangeable nature of the heavens.
**Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, associated the four elements with four "humours" that influenced the body and the emotions. "Yellow bile" associated with fire was the dominant element in choleric personalities.
Sources: Get Boulder, Wikipedia, Real Music, Mainly Piano
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