Dawn Upshaw, Gilbert Carisch, Sōpākasshon - Caroline Shaw: Narrow Sea - Import CD

Credits:

Dawn Upshaw, Gilbert Carisch, Sōpākasshon

Description:

The Attacca Quartet's album "Orange" won the award for Best Chamber Music or Small Ensemble Performance at the 62nd Grammy Awards, the highest honor in the U.S. music industry, for a new work by Caroline Shaw, composer of the 2020 Grammy Award-winning "Orange. The album's composer, Caroline Shaw's "Narrow Sea," was performed by four-time Grammy Award-winning soprano Dawn Upshaw, pianist Gilbert Kalish, who also specializes in contemporary works, and Brooklyn's spirited Percussion Quartet's The groundbreaking album, performed by So Percussion, is now available. Caroline Shaw discusses "Narrow Sea. "Thor Percussion, Dawn Upshaw, and Gilbert Kalish have been huge fans of mine for a long time, and we have known each other for several years. It has been a dream of mine to work with them on a project together. Another hope was to create a new chapter for them as a sequel to the American Songbook with lyrics from old American hymns and folk songs, just as composer George Crumb has done with his American Songbook with lyrics from old American hymns and folk songs.I do not consider the combination of soprano, piano, and percussion to be a standard combination; the world of percussion is vast in many parts and can create a very unique and certain kind of world. My previous piece with folk music was a string quartet, but this is a completely different world. The presence of the piano here was really interesting: ceramic bowls, flowerpots, humming, a piano played like a dulcimer by five people at once.... The ability to reproduce in the many textures played by the saw percussion was a reach in my opinion. Of course, Dawn Upshaw is a wonderful voice in her own right and I tried to create a vocal line that allowed for her warmth and directness. The texts in this piece are all lyrics to songs found in Sacred Harp, a collection of hymns first published in the 19th century. Some of these lyrics exist as several variations when incorporated into different songs. The fusion of completely new melodies with very different ensembles adds a small tick to the history.All of the lyrics I have dealt with share two characteristics. Each refers to water in some way (the Jordan River, the flood, the narrow sea, the image of what lies between this world and the next), and each feels the joy of reaching heaven. Of course, part of the joy is great sadness, and for me, music is a way to begin to understand that mystery and feeling. This piece is also meant to be about one's longing for "home". Many of these hymns are about "coming home"; they are about the river, the river of the world, the river of the world, the river of the world. And the imagery of the river, the strait sea that separates this world from the next, is powerful. These words may be hundreds of years old, but the essential longing for home, a safe resting place, is very important today, all over the world. (1/2) Warner Music Japan

Tracklisting:

1.Narrow Sea~Narrow Sea: Part 1
2.Narrow Sea~Narrow Sea: Part 2
3.Narrow Sea~Narrow Sea: Part 3
4.Narrow Sea~Narrow Sea: Part 4
5.Narrow Sea~Narrow Sea: Part 5
6.Taxidermy