Musical Reminiscing: "O Sleep for me, Sleep..."
The first in my paid articles discussing previous works
Learning when and how to turn on paid articles on substack is a tricky business, I am told. And yet with my second CD release just days away, I thought that I would start writing for my paying readers about my previously released pieces, ultimately working my way up through the works on my most recent recording. In 2017 I released a culturally-charged and rather autobiographical CD, “Blood, Forgotten” through NAXOS.
(Amazon/Naxos/Apple Music/Spotify).
Musically it represents some of the more challenging works I’ve written, as string quartets and their musical counterparts naturally lend themselves to a composer’s most ambitious visions. I suppose that this is because while string quartets can plumb the richness of a choir or the sprightliness of a classical chamber work, they can also by their nature handle complex and highly chromatic music: this car drives any way we want it to, so as composers, we sometimes drive it rather bravely.
For fans of music more associated with contemporary music, I tell them: “just listen straight through.” But for those less familiar with the landscape of new classical music (where, it must be said, my “spikey” works are generally considered quite tame by comparison with the challenges presented by so many modernist composers), I tell folks to “start with the last piece first.” This last work is A Uśnijże mi, uśnij, which translates to “O sleep for me, sleep.”
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