好腐的一張圖啊！
Symphony No. 8
(2006)
CATALOG:
Orange Mountain Music 0028
TRACKS:
1.Movement I 19:27
2.Movement II 12:18
3.Movement III 6:57
NOTES:
Symphony No. 8 represents a return, after a number of major works, to orchestral music where the subject of the work is the language of
music itself, as in the tradition of the 18th and 19th century symphonies. To elucidate briefly:
- Symphony No. 5 is an extended work for chorus, vocal soloists and orchestra with texts drawn from the traditional religious and wisdom traditions.
- Symphony No. 6 is based on a major poem, "Plutonian Ode," by Allen Ginsberg and was composed for soprano and orchestra.
- Symphony No. 7 "A Toltec Symphony", is based on the indigenous traditions of Mexico and includes extended passages for chorus.
- Symphony No. 8 contains no references or allusions to non-musical materials at all. However, its formal structure is quite unusual and is worth a brief comment. The three movements are markedly different from each other in length, texture and internal musical procedures.
The first movement is the longest of the three, almost 20 minutes in length. It begins with a statement of eight different 'themes.' This series is then developed in whole or in part, recombined with various harmonies and melodic elements and culminates in a series of 'stretto'-like passages producing a highly contrapuntal effect.
The second movement, about 12 minutes long, is in the form of a passacaglia with a series of melodic variations. The harmonic basis of the passacaglia is 16 measures long, which allows for some extended, at times quite oblique, melodic embellishments.
The third movement, by comparison to the first two, is quite brief – a short 7 minutes. However, what it lacks in length it makes up in density. The theme with its accompanying harmony is heard twice then joined by a counter theme, also heard twice. An extended cadence serves as a coda to the third movement and the symphony itself.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Dennis Russell Davies for his invaluable help. There were countless questions and details relating to the actual notes I composed as well as matters of orchestration that he addressed and resolved in his usual dedicated and tireless fashion.
Also, I would like to commend my long-time music director and associate Michael Riesman, who was responsible for the final editing and mixing of the work. This was an especially challenging assignment considering the novelty and complexity of the music.
Finally, I am very fortunate to have had the premiere and first recording of Symphony No. 8 with the Bruckner Orchester Linz. This is an absolutely superb world-class ensemble. They have brought the highest standard and enthusiasm to my work. Many thanks to them.
CD Review: Philip Glass - Symphony No. 8
Published May 08, 2006
Philip Glass is giving conductor Dennis Russell Davies some kind of manly bear hug(腐點) (or perhaps a Vulcan mind meld) on the cover of this CD, and you may be inclined to do the same when you hear the opening of his Symphony No. 8. "Hell yeah, Phil baby," you might exclaim, after hearing these dramatic, pulsating, percussive orchestral attacks... "That's more like it!"
Especially if you patiently sat though Glass's uninspiring Symphony No. 6 (Plutonian Ode). with its never-ending Allen Ginsberg text either tediously warbled by a soprano or spoken by the poet himself, and/or his Symphony No. 5 (Choral: Requiem, Bardo, Nirmanakaya), a sprawling pseudo-spiritual, multi-cultural mess.
[For you completists out there, Glass's Symphony No. 7 (Toltec) is still M.I.A. on CD, but you can hear a few samples online at NPR's website...]
Unfortunately, Symphony No. 8 never quite recaptures the excitement of those opening moments again, but the first movement as a whole does keep you interested throughout its 20 minute duration with multiple motifs alternating and combining together in relatively engaging ways. There's nothing new here, to be sure: scales, arpeggios, repeated fragments... but the rhythm and orchestral texture keeps shifting and percolating while moving forward with a restless urgency, all of it colored by the mildly pungent chromatic harmonies that Glass has been sprinkling throughout his music for the past several years.
Best of all, there are no distractions such as overtaxed vocalists and choirs or exotic foreign instruments to clutter it all up (though Glass's fondness for snare drum, triangle, and woodblock continues to baffle me...)
He probably should have called it quits after this rather remarkable first movement: after all, Sibelius, Strauss, and Barber have all gotten away with one movement symphonies. Instead, Glass forges ahead with "Movement II": a murky, dreary series of variations on not-much-of-a theme. In stark contrast to all of its busy, aimless noodling, though, this movement nicely concludes with a startlingly sparse and ominous coda - which would have also been a fairly effective way to conclude this symphony.
But no, we then get "Movement III," which is even more slow-moving and bleak - it's sort of a funeral march I guess, except for the fact that it's barely moving at all. So you figure after enduring that, you deserve some kind of exciting and compelling finale, right? Nope — that was it. This is the way the symphony ends, not with a bang, but a whimper. Maybe the commission was overdue and Phil didn't have time to compose a fourth movement... or perhaps this is some kind of oblique homage to the "unfinished" 8th Symphony of Schubert (or Sibelius)? All I know is that it's a lame way to end a piece that got off to such a promising start.
Regardless, it's definitely encouraging that Philip Glass has returned to writing some purely instrumental, "absolute" music without any vocalists, spoken word, enviro-mystical pretensions, or world music gimmicks. And even though it's not as compelling as the Low, Heroes, or Third Symphonies, at least the first movement of Symphony No. 8 gives me hope that he may actually come up with a mind-blowing Ninth... "Come on, Phil baby — sock it to me!"
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/05/08/151937.php
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