{"product_id":"christian-wolff-a-complete-anthology-of-solo-and-duo-violin-pieces","title":"Christian Wolff - A Complete Anthology Of Solo And Duo Violin Pieces","description":"\u003cp\u003eFormat: CD\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCatalogue No.: BLACKTRUFFLE099  \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBarcode: 4250101442001  \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRelease Date: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e09 Dec\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e 2022\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGenre: Classical\/Experimental\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBlack Truffle is pleased to announce its second release from New York violin duo String Noise (Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris), following on from their self-titled double-disc collection of compositions by Alvin Lucier (BT061).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Here they present A Complete Anthology of Solo and Duo Violin Pieces by legendary American experimental composer Christian Wolff. The youngest and in some ways most radical of the composers of the New York School (alongside Brown, Cage, and Feldman), Wolff has ceaselessly rethought his approach throughout the seven decades of his composing career, moving from early experiments in radical reduction through indeterminacy, improvisation, and leftist political engagement to reach the limpid lyrical fragments of his most recent music. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeautifully recorded across two days by Ryan Streber with Wolff in attendance, String Duo’s complete anthology of Wolff’s work for violin solo and duo covers the entirety of the composer’s career, from his earliest published work to a major new work written for this recording (presented in a tasteful non-chronological sequence). Written by the teenaged Wolff in 1950 during his brief period studying with Cage, Duo for Violins is a beautifully austere experiment in extreme reduction, using only three chromatically adjacent pitches without octave transpositions. Exploring the possible permutations of the limited material passing slowly between the two violins, the work prefigures the incessant worrying at small intervals of late Feldman works such as For Philip Guston or—fittingly—For Christian Wolff. This recording also presents premiere recordings of two other short duo pieces from the same year, recently rediscovered by Wolff in his papers, which use similarly reduced materials in a livelier, more dynamic manner. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMoving forward to the 1970s, the solo pieces Bread and Roses and The Death of Mother Jones belong to the period in which Wolff was drawing on political music, in this case two early 20th century songs that celebrate women labour activists. In both, arrangements of the traditional melodies are followed by a series of technically demanding free variations in a modernist style. The lyricism of these pieces is carried into the more fragmented, elusive works of the 90s onward. In the beautiful Six Melodies Variation (1993), written in tribute to Cage, fragments of Cage’s Six Melodies dissolve into anthemic snatches of the music of 18th century American composer William Billings (whose music Cage used in Apartment House 1776 and other works). The sixteen Small Duos for Violinists (2021) explore the radically disjunctive style of recent major Wolff works such as Long Piano (Peace March 11), where short ‘patches’ varying in style, density, and notation system are places next to each other without clear concern for conventional compositional principles. Here the individual duos range in length from a few seconds to just under two minutes, in energy from near stillness to churning rhythm, and in harmonic content from crystalline consonance to thorny dissonance. Including pieces inspired by the work of Rameau and Satie, like much of Wolff’s later music, the Small Duos manage to be at once lyrically immediate and subtly challenging: as Philip Thomas has written, ‘Our ears are not used to such a sustained rate of change’. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePublished in a stylish digipack including extensive liner notes and wonderful reproductions of a series of Wolff’s delicate abstract works in pencil, crayon, and water colour, A Complete Anthology of Solo and Duo Violin Pieces is both an important addition to the documentation of Wolff’s oeuvre and an accessible survey of the many facets of his innovative music.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTracklisting \u003cbr\u003e1 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Bread And Roses 00:08:35\u003cbr\u003e2 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Six Melodies 00:03:32\u003cbr\u003e3 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Death Of Mother Jones 00:13:55\u003cbr\u003e4 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Duo For Violins 00:06:07\u003cbr\u003e5 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Short Suite 00:02:16\u003cbr\u003e6 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Four Small Duos 00:02:01\u003cbr\u003e7 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise For Petr 00:06:12\u003cbr\u003e8 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 1 00:01:27\u003cbr\u003e9 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 2 00:00:56\u003cbr\u003e10 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 3 00:00:12\u003cbr\u003e11 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 4 00:00:45\u003cbr\u003e12 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 5 00:00:46\u003cbr\u003e13 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 6 00:00:51\u003cbr\u003e14 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 7 00:00:28\u003cbr\u003e15 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 8 00:00:57\u003cbr\u003e16 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 9 00:01:23\u003cbr\u003e17 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 10 00:00:30\u003cbr\u003e18 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 11 00:01:04\u003cbr\u003e19 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 12 00:01:02\u003cbr\u003e20 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 13 00:00:32\u003cbr\u003e21 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 14 00:01:55\u003cbr\u003e22 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 15 00:00:42\u003cbr\u003e23 Christian Wolff \/ String Noise Small Duos For Violinists 16 00:01:38\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Truffle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42084957552796,"sku":"BLACKTRUFFLE099","price":9.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0130\/8714\/6043\/products\/BLACKTRUFFLE099.jpg?v=1665776685","url":"https:\/\/www.horizonsmusic.co.uk\/products\/christian-wolff-a-complete-anthology-of-solo-and-duo-violin-pieces","provider":"Horizons Music","version":"1.0","type":"link"}