The Louisville Orchestra 103rd Release

The Louisville Orchestra - 103rd Release

ECHOES OF TIME AND THE RIVER (ECHOES II)

Composed by George Crumb.

Performance recorded on December 15, 1970.

This composition is another Pulitzer Prize winner. It won Crumb the award in 1968.

It is a follow up to Crumb's earlier piece, "Eleven Echoes of Autumn" composed in 1965.

There are four movements in this order: "Frozen Time", "Remembrance of Time", "Collapse of Time", and "Last Echoes of Time".

From the liner notes: The preoccupation with time dates from the earlier "Autumn" Echoes but in the new work, this central unifying theme includes a treatment of psychological and philosophical time as well. The spatial projection of the time continuum takes the form of various "processionals"; the four movements of the suite may be realized with the players actually marching about the stage in steps of various length synchronized with the music they are performing. Many of the players are given extra instruments in addition; the strings, for example, are outfitted with antique cymbals and glockenspiel plates.

"KALEIDOSCOPE," FOR ORCHESTRA, SYNTHESIZER, AND SOPRANO

Composed by Merrill Ellis

Featured Mezzo-soprano: Joan Wall

Recorded on December 15, 1970

An E-II Electronic Synthesizer built by Robert Moog is used in the performance of this piece. It is capable of handling numerous programmed inputs and a fast control section among other features.

From the liner notes: With the addition of the electronic dimensions of sound synthesizing devices and tape echo and reverberation, the modern concert hall ensemble comes into the electronic age. At the same time that the sound resources of the orchestra are enriching themselves beyond the dreams of even such an illustrious predecessor as Ravel, the forms of modern music are freeing themselves from the monumental rigidity of the classic tradition. All sorts of techniques have been developed to facilitate the process - the extended improvisations of jazz, the abstract scoring in boxes and timelines or other geometrical graphics that serve to delineate large-scale structures while allowing at the same time the player a limited freedom of action, even the incorporation of random events and sequences that allow for no predictability of continuity whatsoever. In Merrill Ellis' Kaleidoscope - a composition for orchestra, Moog electronic sound synthesizer, and soprano - a slightly different method is used to create much the same general effect. A series of strong instrumental colorings is presented in a long introductory section. The listener becomes familiar with the close array of trills in the strings and winds, the wide leaps of the melodic line in the brass, the glissandos and intermodulation effects of the Moog keyboard, the humorous and slightly sinister rhythmic patternings in the strings and percussion, and the expressive writing for the solo violin.

...

Acting as a unifying agent, the soprano voice sings, intones, and otherwise assaults a bit of pyramidal (the syllables double in each successive line) poetry by Robert Lockwood quite in keeping with the loosely formed aggregates that surround it. Titled Wonderdome, the text describes a city in the future where everything is perfect.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Echoes of Time and the River (Echoes II): Frozen Time [composed by George Crumb] {4:39}

2. Echoes of Time and the River (Echoes II): Remembrance of Time [composed by George Crumb] {5:53}

3. Echoes of Time and the River (Echoes II): Collapse of Time/Last Echoes of Time [composed by Geroge Crumb] {9:15}

Side 2

1. "Kaleidoscope" for Orchestra, Synthesizer, and Soprano [composed by Merrill Ellis] {14:48}

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