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Blow!

Aurelia Saxophone Quartet

Blow!

Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917200522
Catnr: CC 72005
Release date: 01 January 1997
1 CD
 
Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917200522
Catalogue number
CC 72005
Release date
01 January 1997
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

G. Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue

George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, arguably the most popular work for piano and orchestra written by an American, came about almost by accident. Toward the end of 1923, popular bandleader Paul Whiteman asked Gershwin if he'd consider writing a jazz concerto for his orchestra. Gershwin informally agreed to do so and returned to his regular beat of writing songs for Broadway shows. Imagine Gershwin's surprise on January 4, 1924, when his brother Ira brought along that day's edition of the New York Evening Herald, wherein Whiteman announced that George's jazz concerto was to be premiered at a program at New York's Aeolian Hall entitled "An Experiment in Modern Music" on February 12. This was barely more than a month away.
The four-stave manuscript of Rhapsody in Blue, now in the Library of Congress, records that George began work on the piece on January 7, 1924. It was done by February 4, 1924, when arranger Ferde Grofé ordered the orchestral parts be made up in time for rehearsals. Then as now, it was standard procedure for a Broadway composer to use an orchestrator, and Grofé was then producing most of the Whiteman band's original arrangements and leading the rehearsals. George had other help, too: Ira suggested he use the slow second theme based on a melody already composed, and Victor Herbert advised George on some of the transitional material used to hold the movement together. Whiteman clarinetist Ross Gorman improvised the famous clarinet glissando that opens the work as a gag during rehearsals and George asked him to keep playing it that way.
The title, Rhapsody in Blue, is not so much related to the final form of the piece as it was inspired by a painting of James McNeill Whistler entitled Nocturne in Black and Gold. The premiere of Rhapsody in Blue was a huge success and it was clear at the outset that the work had enormous commercial potential. Grofé created three more orchestrations of it -- the first being a 21-part version for theater orchestra that became the standard text of the work for the next two decades. Grofé didn't create a version for full orchestra until 1942, and this is now the version that is most familiar and most frequently recorded. About this time, Grofé created yet another incarnation of Rhapsody in Blue for symphonic band in which the piano part is optional.

S. Barber - Adagio for strings

On this album you can hear this famaous piece by Barber in an arrangement for saxophone quartet.

The American composer wrote his string Quartet Opus 11, in 1936 – and considered himself happy with the result. But he had one of the twentieth-century’s greatest conductors to thank for what became a new and far more profitable life for this relatively unknown piece. Arturo Toscanini spotted a hit when he heard its second movement, and urged Barber to arrange it for full string orchestra. The composer wisely took the advice on board – and, in 1938, Toscanini premiered the new work with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Millions of Americans were listening as it was broadcast on the radio, and Adagio for Strings quickly became a huge success.

The solemn, heart-wrenching sadness of the music has lent itself to a range of powerful uses beyond the concert hall. Adagio for Strings was played at the funeral of Albert Einstein, can be heard on all sorts of commercials and movie soundtracks, and has become a modern day hit among trance music pioneers, who have taken the hypnotic harmonies composed by Barber and used them to create very different, high octane sounds. The composer also arranged a choral version of the work, the Agnus Dei, in 1967.

J. Cage - Four5

John Cage composed this piece in 1991. As Cage himself instructs, this work is comprised of single tones in flexible time brackets for four saxophones or multiples thereof. The pitches do not sound as written. The intonation should be unique to each player, thus a unison should be “a unison.of differences.” Sounds may be long or short. When they have duration, the loudness should be soft. Very short sounds are free as to loudness, even sfz if wished or ppp.”

E. Carter - Canonic suite, for 4 alto saxophones

As the title suggests, this work by Elliot Carter comprises three movements exploring three different uses of canon. The initial ‘Fanfare’ is an extremely brief unison canon, the second movement a haunting Nocturne and the third a lively and intricate Tarantella. The work was originally scored for clarinet quartet, but was rescored by the composer in 1981 for four alto saxophones. The work represents the earlier, less abrasive period of Carter’s output, but nonetheless a pearl in chamber music repertoire.

M. Torke - July

When I am drawn to a particular rhythmic groove from an overheard pop song, I scratch my head and think: "I like that, how could I use it?" To me, it's not worth trying to write another of the ten million songs out there. But I've found that if I take a small part of the drum track and assign it to the non-percussion instruments I'm writing for, then interesting things happen. You lose the original context (in this case the baritone sax does not sound like a kick drum), but you gain immediacy and a freshness in the instrumental writing. There will also be a cohesion of compositional intent if you have a strategy for those pitch assignments. When writing this piece, keeping in mind the incredible agility of the saxophone, I wrote a series of rapid notes which form a foundation, of a kind of "directory" from which I pull out pitches to assign to those original rhythms (as the notes fly by in real time). What fascinates me is that this act of translation seems to completely remove the original reference from my music; sometimes I can't even remember what the original song was that inspired me and, if I do, it's hard even to hear the connection. But what remains is the energy.
Like December for string orchestra- the piece that preceded July- I'm trying to incorporate contrasting themes and moods together in a single movement work. To me this evokes a wider range of impressions. Instead of single-mindedly exploring one color, as in earlier pieces of mine, the music now corresponds to an experience of time- the energy and heat we find int he month of July, as well as cooling breezes of repose that come, perhaps, in the evening.

Michael Torke

P. Goldstein - Blow!

The premiere was played by the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet in the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Ireland, September 8, 1994.

The saxophone quartet Blow! was composed by Perry Goldstein in 1993 for the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet. It is an odd tapestry, woven of many seemingly refractory threads, but cohering, or so I hope. There is an aggressive and agitated opening music, not in any key, that returns time and again, almost literally and in various developmental attitudes. Then there is the blues, raw and unexpected, popping out of the texture, squelched, and returning later to have its say. There is a chorale, heard and extended three times over the course of the piece: still, reflecting pools, among the piece’s few moments of rhythmic rest. There is other music as well, not so clearly defined: the language of contemporary music conjoined with the bouncy syncopations of jazz, or classically-oriented, rigorous counterpoint comprised of breezy lines that make jazzy harmonies. At some points, Blow!'s various styles are distinct; at others, the edges between styles begin to blur. The different musics are sometimes interruptive, but it is a gentle contention, and the disparate styles help define and give color to each other. Finally, the blues are briefly sounded one last time, a gateway onto the uninhibited, exuberantly swinging music that constitutes the long coda. Blow! is a warm place for all these different styles to be together. Loved things are not so inimical; there is room for them all.

Blow! is affectionately dedicated to Andre, Arno, Johan, and Willem, the distinct personalities of that most together of ensembles, the original Aurelia Saxophone Quartet.

D. Dramm - Come True (1991)

In the nineteen-eighties, a sub-genre of heavy metal developed called 'speed metal.' 'Come True' is based on speed metal's use of aggressive repetition and rapidly alternating meters. Let's call it Bartok meets Black Sabbath. On top of this texture, 'Come True' layers a series of slowly ascending multiphonics which, for me, serve as a reminder of speed metal's other main characteristic, a low, growling vocal style. On a good night, the singer sounds like a Japanese B-film monster.

David Dramm

D. Dramm - Master Bop Blaster (1992)

In 1992, when two evenings of my music were presented in De Unie in Rotterdam and Korzo Theater in Den Haag, I wanted to perform something especially written for the occasion with my friends, the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet. Master Bop Blaster is based on a wrong-note variation of Thelonious Monk's 'Straight No Chaser.'

David Dramm
Amerikaanse muziek van de 20e eeuw
Het Aurelia Saxofoon Kwartet werd in 1982 opgericht in Rome door vier jonge Nederlanders. Sindsdien heeft het kwartet getoerd over de hele wereld, meer dan 10 cd’s opgenomen, ongeveer honderd stukken (aan het kwartet opgedragen) in première gebracht en samengewerkt met kunstenaars uit verschillende vakgebieden. Het Aurelia is een inspiratiebron voor jonge musici over de gehele wereld.

Op dit album speelt het kwartet uiteenlopende werken uit de 20e eeuw in unieke arrangementen voor vier saxofonen, allemaal van Amerikaanse componisten. Zo biedt het kwartet een uniek overzicht van de Amerikaanse klassieke muziekgeschiedenis. Het album opent met George Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue. Dit stuk is oorspronkelijk geschreven voor piano en jazzbegeleiding en behoort tot één van de belangrijkste werken uit de Amerikaanse muziekgeschiedenis. Een ander hoogtepunt is Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, een stuk dat doordrongen is van melancholie en passie. Via John Cage, Elliott Carter en Michael Torky komen we uiteindelijk uit bij hedendaagse componisten Perry Goldstein en David Dramm die speciaal voor het kwartet muziek gecomponeerd hebben aan het eind van de 20e eeuw.

Artist(s)

Aurelia Saxophone Quartet

The hot Italian summer of 1982; four young Dutch saxophonists rehearsing in Via Aurelia in Rome; the beginning of a sensational, pioneering chamber-music ensemble: the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet. Then came: Concerts throughout the world from Suntory Hall in Tokyo to the Gewandhaus in Leipzig – not to mention the little church in Marken-Binnen in the Dutch province of Noord-Holland and a municipal centre in Oristano, Sardinia which smelt of beer. Radio and television performanceswithin the Netherlands and abroad. Multiple CDs to the group’s name, one of which won an Edison and international praise, setting a new standard for saxophone quartets the world over. Collaboration with artists from all disciplines, including dance and theatre, as well as a great many musicians: pianists Ivo Janssen and...
more

The hot Italian summer of 1982; four young Dutch saxophonists rehearsing in Via Aurelia in Rome; the beginning of a sensational, pioneering chamber-music ensemble: the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet.
Then came: Concerts throughout the world from Suntory Hall in Tokyo to the Gewandhaus in Leipzig – not to mention the little church in Marken-Binnen in the Dutch province of Noord-Holland and a municipal centre in Oristano, Sardinia which smelt of beer.

Radio and television performanceswithin the Netherlands and abroad.

Multiple CDs to the group’s name, one of which won an Edison and international praise, setting a new standard for saxophone quartets the world over.

Collaboration with artists from all disciplines, including dance and theatre, as well as a great many musicians: pianists Ivo Janssen and Juan Pablo Dobal, bandoneon players Gustavo Toker and Carel Kraaijenhof, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Georgian women’s choir Mzetamze, the gamelan ensemble Multifoon, Slagwerkgroep Den Haag, the Japanese saxophone quartet Trouvère, the Hague Residentie Orchestra and others.

Over seventy world premieres of works by ter Veldhuis, Goldstein, Keuris, Andriessen and many others. The group gives compositions the chance to grow and plays pieces frequently so that they are heard often.

Astounding and ambitious arrangements. String quartets by Ravel, Debussy and Shostakovich, The Art of Fugue and the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti. Pushing boundaries for our one great love: the saxophone quartet.
In 2017 the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet is ending after 35 beautiful years. The current members have decided to stop playing together because the successful development of their personal projects leaves no room for concerts. The quartet is proud to pass the baton to the promising next generation.


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Composer(s)

Samuel Barber

The American composer Samuel Barber is one of the most celebrated 20th-century composers. He was never a part of the musical avant-garde, and wrote instead pieces in a Romantic idiom, characterized by rich harmonies and complex rhythms. His most beloved work is het lyrical Adagio for Strings, an arrangement of the slow movement of his String Quartet, that can be heard in both concerts and films. His Knoxville: Summer of 1915 for soprano and orchestra is also regularly performed. Barber became interested in music at an early age, and was very talented indeed. At the age of seven he wrote his first composition, a short piece for piano. Two years later he knew that he was meant to be a composer....
more
The American composer Samuel Barber is one of the most celebrated 20th-century composers. He was never a part of the musical avant-garde, and wrote instead pieces in a Romantic idiom, characterized by rich harmonies and complex rhythms. His most beloved work is het lyrical Adagio for Strings, an arrangement of the slow movement of his String Quartet, that can be heard in both concerts and films. His Knoxville: Summer of 1915 for soprano and orchestra is also regularly performed.
Barber became interested in music at an early age, and was very talented indeed. At the age of seven he wrote his first composition, a short piece for piano. Two years later he knew that he was meant to be a composer. During his studies he wrote a number of successful compositions which put him into the spotlight of the American musical life. He made his international breakthrough during his travels through Europe in 1935-1936 with his colleague and partner Gian Carlo Menotti.
Barber’s compositions were performed by leading conductors such as Dimitri Mitropoulos, George Szell and Leopold Stokowski. He also received commissions by famous artists and authorities. Barber was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to compose a new opera for the opening of its new building in 1966. The premiere of this work, Antony and Cleopatra, was plagued with technical problems that overshadowed Barber’s music. The critics rejected the work, which sent the composer into a depression. After his recovery he continued to compose till the end of his life.

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George Gershwin

George Gershwin was an American composer, who is mostly known due to his combinations of classical and popular music genres. George Gershwin grew up in a poor neighbourhood in New York. His parents were Russian immigrants who had trouble making ends meet. They did, however, decide to purchase an old piano so Ira Gershwin could study to become a musician. Yet, it turned out not Ira, but his younger brother George showed remarkable talent. Ira applied himself to writing song lyrics and together the Gershwin brothers became absolute greats in the world of 20th century musicals. Nowadays, George's compositions are still relevant, as is evidenced by the many performances of his Rhapsody in Blue from 1924. But the best example is the ageless Summtertime,...
more

George Gershwin was an American composer, who is mostly known due to his combinations of classical and popular music genres.

George Gershwin grew up in a poor neighbourhood in New York. His parents were Russian immigrants who had trouble making ends meet. They did, however, decide to purchase an old piano so Ira Gershwin could study to become a musician. Yet, it turned out not Ira, but his younger brother George showed remarkable talent. Ira applied himself to writing song lyrics and together the Gershwin brothers became absolute greats in the world of 20th century musicals. Nowadays, George's compositions are still relevant, as is evidenced by the many performances of his Rhapsody in Blue from 1924. But the best example is the ageless Summtertime, which has been covered a countless number of times by a countless number of artists.


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John Cage

John Cage was an American composer and music theorist. He was a pioneer in the implementation of indeterminacy in music, as well as in his use of non-standard musical instruments and electroacoustic ways of generating sound. He was one of the leading composers of the 20th century and propelled the post war avant-garde movement.  His teachers included Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg, both known for their radical innovations in music, but Cage's major influences lay in various East and South Asian cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of aleatoric or chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951. Cage is perhaps best known composition 4′33″ (1952), which is performed in the...
more
John Cage was an American composer and music theorist. He was a pioneer in the implementation of indeterminacy in music, as well as in his use of non-standard musical instruments and electroacoustic ways of generating sound. He was one of the leading composers of the 20th century and propelled the post war avant-garde movement. His teachers included Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg, both known for their radical innovations in music, but Cage's major influences lay in various East and South Asian cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of aleatoric or chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951.
Cage is perhaps best known composition 4′33″ (1952), which is performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who present the work do nothing aside from being present for the duration specified by the title. The content of the composition is not "four minutes and 33 seconds of silence," as is often assumed, but rather the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance. The work's challenge to assumed definitions about musicianship and musical experience made it a popular and controversial topic both in musicology and the broader aesthetics of art and performance. Cage was also a pioneer of the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by objects placed between or on its strings or hammers), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces.
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Elliott Carter

The hundredth birthday of Elliott Carter on December 11th, 2008, led to the a large number of concerts in his honour around the world (such as a three day festival in Amsterdam). Yet, the composer never became truly popular among the wider public. And it doesn't matter: in more than way the orthodoc composer had time on his side. He did non find his own style until the 1940s, in works such as his Sonata for Cello and Piano and his First String Quartet: compositions in which the various instrumenten seem to follow different paths from each other. It was the start of a body of works that paid tribute to both the Europe of Schoenberg, Debussy and Stravinsky, and...
more
The hundredth birthday of Elliott Carter on December 11th, 2008, led to the a large number of concerts in his honour around the world (such as a three day festival in Amsterdam). Yet, the composer never became truly popular among the wider public. And it doesn't matter: in more than way the orthodoc composer had time on his side. He did non find his own style until the 1940s, in works such as his Sonata for Cello and Piano and his First String Quartet: compositions in which the various instrumenten seem to follow different paths from each other. It was the start of a body of works that paid tribute to both the Europe of Schoenberg, Debussy and Stravinsky, and the American Modernism of Ives and Varèse.
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