Augusta Read Thomas: Sol - Augusta Read Thomas: Sol - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The vibraphonist and composer, Pascal Schumacher has made a name for himself in a variety of collaborative endeavors. From quartets to symphonic orchestras, jazz tunes to classical chamber music, he has built a unique relationship with his instrument and has been relentless in assuring his position as a versatile and adventurous musician. Now he launches his first solo album, SOL via Neue Meister tag. SOL captures Pascal's newfound passion for solitude in all it's magnetism. Yet, it remains true to a relationship's main characteristic, intimacy. First imagine empty space. Darkness, then a spark, a central light. A lone figure stands revealed by in a strange ambience of purple and blue and white. In front of him, the metallic edifice of a vibraphone. The figure bows, he gazes forward. When he strikes the bars with two blue-tipped mallets in each hand, the notes chime and ring out through the darkness like signals through the cosmos. Shimmering, the volume of the notes pulsates, dilating and swelling in darkness, twinkling and dissolving. A reverie is born of the otherworldly quality of the solo vibraphone, pulsating in space, with Pascal Schumacher caught in a hollow square of light, a lonesome figure behind a bank of instruments. There is in intimacy illuminated within the profound darkness circling around the central tableau puts you into a unique, personal one-to-one interaction. This isn't just solo music because it is performed by one person, it is solo because it insists on a direct one-to-one intimacy with the listener. Other forms of music-terrace anthems, party hip-hop, funeral dirges-are experienced as a shared group activity, but this is intimate music that directs the listener to listen personally and intently. Album Tracks 1. Amarcord 2. Tropismes 3. Melancolia 4. Sol 5. Falling Falling 6. Twinkle 7. Air 8. Tubular Bells 9. Tearjerker

Album Tracks 1. Caprice No.9 in C Major (Disc 01) 2. Prelude, Op.9 No.1 3. Tango-Etude No.3 4. Ferdinand Le Taureau 5. Serenade and Dance 6. Tango-Etude No.4 7. Tango-Etude No.1 8. Bourree 9. Divertimento Op.18, No.7 I. Aria Del Piccolo Marinaio 10. Divertimento Op.18, No.7 II. Scherzo 11. Divertimento Op.18, No.7 III. Allegro 12. Ferdinand the Bull

I am humbled by this opportunity to compose an octet to celebrate the opening of the Tanglewood Center for Music and Learning. The title MAGIC BOX hopefully captures the lively spirit, exquisite creativity, motion, enchantment and positive energy of the Center. I love composing. In a good way, my nerve endings for sound are always dialed up high - actually, they are on perpetual alert. If I hear one note or chord or if, for example, I play one on an instrument, I get lit up as if electric shock ribbons instantly race from my ears and fingertips to my imagination and then my creativity and craft play high-speed ping-pong! Where the ball is bouncing back and forth 100 times a second. The outcomes are unpredictable to me. I stay absolutely flexible. Everything is malleable, springy, stretchy, coil-able, color-able, twistable, bouncing, zig-zagging, and splinter-able. It feels like I am dancing with contrapuntal flickering sonic lights that accumulate into a spinning pinwheel spawning sound and form. I slide, skate, swivel, and spin with my materials - crafting nuance and finesse - and then I sculpt, shape, chisel, fashion, and form. At the end of all of that, I feel as if the piece wrote me - not as if I wrote the piece! My music has it's own inner life. If I listen carefully, the piece I am composing will tell me what it next needs. (Augusta Read Thomas, transcribed from the Miller Theatre at Columbia University MISSION COMMISSION Podcast interview)