Search - Christopher Roberts :: Last Cicada Singing

RAPT

Kerry Leimer | Makawao, Hawaii United States | 12/25/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Forced to look for some not overly disorienting comparison, you might consider some of Leo Kottke's slower, more profoundly timbral pieces, or some of Chris Whitley's late and daunting solo stretches as just a sort of point of reference - each example wrong for different reasons but for the exception of the often stunning presence of the string, its drag, its bow, its ring, its sudden and grainy stop. In the performance of a Qin, a Chinese instrument that slightly resembles the koto and sounds - here at least - somewhat like a dobro, the union of heaven (harmonics), earth (an open sound), and humankind (a stopped sound) is meant to be symbolized. Roberts' study has taken its notational system, and timbral significance, further to convey movements of the animate and the inanimate through a language of refined musical gesture. There are four solo Qin pieces here, each offering a mostly reflective state without sacrificing underlying complexity, moments of conflict or a latent now-and-again glimpse of unrest. The tactile quality of the performances are well-conceived and admirably captured, giving the music an unusually heightened sense of presence. But unlike many examples of reflective and representational music, these original works display remarkably unpredictable and often unexpected harmonic and rhythmic turns. Combined with the non-linear structures, the music of Last Cicada Singing remains solidly in the foreground, and insistent of what will finally be your often rapt attention."