Christian Wolff - American Contemporary

Christian Wolff - American Contemporary

The first piece, "Lines", is composed for string quartet. It's more or less an academic exercise where a player for any string instrument makes a sound then when the player stops another player creates a sound immediately and so on. This composition is supposed to demonstrate lines of sound between the players. The strings on each instrument (violin, cello, viola) are retuned so that sixteen different pitches are available.

The second piece, "Accompaniments" was written for Frederic Rzewski. Rzewski is not only asked to play the piano, but to sing and play percussion with his feet (drum with pedal and high hat), tasks that are outside the expertise of the performer. On the first part of the piece, Rzewski sings text from the book "China: The Revolution Continued" written by Jan Myrdal and Gun Kessle. Afterwards, Rzewski plays the percussion with his feet while playing the piano. Then it ends with just a performance on the piano.

Tracklisting:

Side A

1. Lines {22:45}

Side B

1. Accompaniments {21:10}

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