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Julia Wolfe - Arsenal of Democracy (1996)

Posted By: Piterets
Julia Wolfe - Arsenal of Democracy (1996)

Julia Wolfe - Arsenal of Democracy (1996)
Contemporary Classical | Point Music | 1996 | 46:43 | EAC (FLAC, cue, no log) | Booklet | 266 MB
SPIT Orchestra, Lark String Quartet, Orkest de Volharding, Cassatt String Quartet, Newband

Arsenal of Democracy is the first solo recording by deconstructionist composer Julia Wolfe. Wolfe (b. 1958), who is the co-founder of New York's annual Bang On a Can festival, takes the orchestra from its traditional methods of emotional coaxing and replaces them with a ballistic immediacy that challenges the entire impression of what modern orchestration can achieve.
With influences as varied as Beethoven, Motown, and Led Zeppelin, Wolfe's compositions often contain bold, direct attacks, the body energy of pop music; the unreigned expressiveness of rock and roll; and, above all, a sheer delight in sound.

Drawing inspiration from folk, classical, and rock genres, Julia Wolfe's music brings a modern sensibility to each while simultaneously tearing down the walls between them. Wolfe's music is distinguished by an intense physicality and a relentless power that pushes performers to extremes and demands attention from the audience. In the words of the Wall Street Journal, Wolfe has "long inhabited a terrain of [her] own, a place where classical forms are recharged by the repetitive patterns of minimalism and the driving energy of rock."

- performed by the SPIT Orchestra opens this listening experience with an aggressive, pulsating large ensemble with lots of detailed parts sliding in between the crevices of an overriding rhythmic push. The orchestration builds, decays and shifts a consistent body of materials through different parts to great effect. This work maintains a great physical quality while keeping the mind engaged with the formal and harmonic construction. - performed by the Lark String Quartet. This string quartet shimmers through abrupt changes in volume while sustaining a rapid pulse. These four instruments seem to melt into a single entity with short and spare independence extended to any single part. The result is a large sound as if these four instruments were some kind of large bowed guitar. On the occasions when an instrument part does briefly break away from the group it sounds like a hot spark cast away from the heat of the ensemble that quickly burns out. The coda cuts off the pulse and draws out a long harmonic release. It's really an extraordinary sound and a beautifully crafted composition. - performed by the Orkest de Volharding ensemble. This group is a political street band from Amsterdam. Here Wolfe paints her aggressive, pounding sound with lots of color and variation. These ideas are particularly well suited for brass, piano and electric bass (though I love how the flute holds its own in this texture). Plenty of exquisite dissonance in this music. All the parts of this ensemble mold into a singular whole without any focal instrumental part or melodic line. - performed by the Cassatt String Quartet. Here the Wolfe sound takes on a different shade and tempo. This string quartet features sustained tones that drift in pitch with surging dynamic centers that fill out a harmonic landscape. The level of variation found in the details of this piece keep it animated and engaging. - performed by Newband. Newband performs and commissions new works for the instruments created and built by Harry Partch. It's fascinating to hear what composers do when confronted with Partch's 43-notes-per-octave just intonation system. "Steam" sounds nothing at all like Partch. It sounds like Wolfe's characteristic sonic texture with the timbre of Partch's instruments woven in. As such it sounds less fluent than "Tell Me Everything" or "Arsenal of Democracy" to my ears. As engaging as this work is compositionally I'm not completely convinced that it does justice to the peculiarities of these particular instruments.
– hurdaudio.blogspot.com


If you like Louis Andriessen, Orkest de Volharding, or Bang on a Can don't miss this disc!

Track List:

1 Tell Me Everything 7:47
2 Early That Summer 12:00
3 Arsenal of Democracy 8:16
4 Four Marys 10:46
5 Steam 7:54

Read more about Julia Wolfe here.

Download Links:
Part 1
Part 2

0336jwad

3% recovery record included

More contemporary American and European music is available at my blog.