Cunningham / Various - Ecumenical Spirit - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Prodromides - Goya [COMPACT DISCS] date 12/12/1997

Navona Live is proud to announce the of INDIANA COLLECTANEA, which celebrates and preserves composer Michael G. Cunningham's residency at Indiana University School of Music from 1969-1973. This live recording of Cunningham's work comes on the heels of his acclaimed album ECUMENICAL SPIRIT from Navona Live earlier this year. This latest captures a significant moment in time, when Cunningham's work helped channel the talents of 30 burgeoning musicians. In INDIANA COLLECTANEA, Cunningham expands his palette beyond traditional tonality, painting with chromatic, timbral, and rhythmic nuances. The work opens with Prisms, a four-movement piece in which dense tone clusters shift and refract among the strings like a kaleidoscope. This is followed by Polyphonies, a wild-eyed percussion piece that manipulates instrumental timbres to an exhilarating effect. As the album progresses, each piece is a surprise to the listener's ears, with it's unique assortments of instruments and sounds jolting the audience into new appreciation. The frenetic horns at the start of Concertant are further evidence of this. The penultimate track, Scenario, is particularly inventive, opening with a prelude of ethereal bells. Each musician is assigned to multiple instruments, showcasing both their own skills and that of their composer. Lastly, the album ends with the dramatic Noetical Rounds, which concludes with a soft, descending glissando into oblivion. Despite the decades that have passed since the performances on INDIANA COLLECTANEA, each piece is as startlingly fresh as it was the day of it's performance. Listen to hear this collection of talented musicians pushed to their utmost by the challenging and thoughtful compositions of Michael G. Cunningham.

The Organ School of InchNino RotaInch Music Conservatory of Monopoli wanted to realize this project, that arises two objectives First of all, the valorization and documentation of the organ heritage of our land, full of examples and testimonies of a story that tells us the love of our ancestors towards music in the liturgy, in rites and in religious traditions; In the second place we want to present, in addition to the jewels of the past to the registration, and which represent the witnesses to which the teachers provide instruments, executive art and all the knowledge and skills acquired in a life of teaching. The Pugliese organ heritage is enormous and to date only partially classified. The Pugliese organ is commonly derived from the constructive and phonic tradition of the Neapolitan positive, a model to which even the instrument of Saint Francis can be assimilated. That model remains almost unchanged until the middle of the nineteenth century, even if the organ evolution of the Central and Northern-Italy is also felt in Puglia; however, the presence of great instruments with more keyboards and InchconcertInch recordings remains an exception, the prerogative of some great cathedrals and extra ordinary events, which with some exceptions does not take hold in the small but active circle of the southern organ, always loyal to the Neapolitan model, in deference to the seventeenth-century polyphonic tradition. Album Tracks 1. Ricercare Terzo 2. Quinta Ricercata 3. Canzone Detta InchLa SpiritataInch 4. Canzona Franzesa Cromatica Settima 5. Toccata Prima 6. Canzona Quarta 7. Partite Sopra la Monica 8. Toccata Cromaticha Per L'elevatione 9. Ricercare Del IX Tono Con Due Fughe 10. Variazioni Per Il Paggio Todesco 11. Passagagli 12. Introduzione E Pastorale 13. Quattro Versi E Canzona in Do 14. Pastorale