Year: 2005
Genre: Modern Classical
Country: US
Link (PT 1):
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?0j4673ie4gby9t4
Link (PT 2):
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?8p42sln0nmg7sn2
*deep breath*
Julius Eastman is my favorite
composer and if I could tell you why that is in a matter of a few
paragraphs he wouldn't really be my favorite. Eastman was born in the
suburbs of western NY (you know, like us), and went to college at
Ithaca. He spent most of his life composing music before attempting to
acquire a teaching job at Cornell University, and when they rejected
him, he took to drugs and alcohol; dying alone at a hospital in Buffalo
in 1990.
He's most known today for his innovative
technique which he describes on this album as an "organic principle",
where each measure of music contains all the information from previous
measures, and eventually the music is taken out at a "gradual and
logical rate."
"Stay on It" is the first piece on the album, an obvious example
of the organic principle, where the repeated cadence provides a
framework for both unity and deception. Eastman used silence, like John
Cage, to keep the piece lively and interesting, and at the middle of the
piece it begins to disintegrate upon itself, completely removing the
cadence from the equation.
"If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?" is a much different
piece, a much more challenging piece. Taking name from a populist
platitude, the piece contains two horns, four trumpets, two trombones,
tuba, piano, chimes, and more. Most of the piece is an escalation of
half-steps, expressing minimalism with a large ensemble. Again Eastman
borrows from Cage, writing a piece without a beginning, middle or end, a
piece in itself. It ends with a chromatic violin solo, but never
persists upon itself.
The pieces on the second piece are politically jarring, written
during a time period when Eastman desired some sort of rebellion. "The
Holy Presence of Joan D'Arc" is a piece that almost escapes description,
or at least beyond Eastman's introduction:
"It is a reminder to those
who think they can destroy liberators by acts of malice, treachery and
murder...Like all organizations, especially governments and religious
organizations, they oppress each other in order to perpetrate
themselves. Their methods of oppression are legion."
"Crazy
Nigger" is my favorite piece of music that I have come across thus far.
To me, it is a reminder that music still holds new territory, new
meaning, that one can breach through reality with sound alone. It is
the most energetic piece on the album, written for four pianos, one
played by Eastman. It is split into three parts: "Gay Guerilla", "Evil
Nigger" and "Crazy Nigger." Gay Guerilla contains a pulsating rhythm
heard counterpoint to one or more of the other pianos. Half way through,
a familiar piece comes through--"A Mighty Fortress is Our God", Martin
Luther's hymn, in octaves. Eastman wrote the piece as a "gay manifesto."
Evil Nigger is ever more pulsating, with a faster tempo. Crazy Nigger
ends the piece, creating a wall of tension before coming to rest on the
lowest C sharp of each piano at once, from which the final harmonic
series is built up.
Well, it wouldn't be my favorite album if I couldn't write something about it.
