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LONESOME ROAD (THE CRAWFORD VARIATIONS) (198889)
Martin Christ, Larry Polansky
LONESOME ROAD (THE CRAWFORD VARIATIONS) (198889)
Genres: Jazz, Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (51) - Disc #1

Lonesome Road (The Crawford Variations) is a set of variations on Ruth Crawford?s harmonization of the folk song of the same name. Her arrangement was published in Carl Sandburg?s The American Songbag (1927). The piece is ...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Martin Christ, Larry Polansky
Title: LONESOME ROAD (THE CRAWFORD VARIATIONS) (198889)
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: New World Records
Original Release Date: 4/1/2001
Release Date: 4/1/2001
Genres: Jazz, Classical
Styles: Chamber Music, Historical Periods, Classical (c.1770-1830)
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 093228056621

Synopsis

Album Description
Lonesome Road (The Crawford Variations) is a set of variations on Ruth Crawford?s harmonization of the folk song of the same name. Her arrangement was published in Carl Sandburg?s The American Songbag (1927). The piece is in three sections, seventeen variations each. Those in the middle section (XVIII?XXXIV) are generally longer and more developed than those in the outer sections. Often, corresponding variations in the three sections have similar structures (for example, Variations I, XVIII, and XXXV are closely related). Lonesome Road (The Crawford Variations) was composed over the course of one year spent in Indonesia (June 1988?June 1989). Like Ives?s Concord Sonata (and Polansky?s fluid piano writing will bring Ives to mind so many times!), Lonesome Road begins with some of its more difficult material. The second variation?s perpetual motion, with furious cross-rhythms of five against six and seven between the hands, may make you despair of finding clarity, but hold on. Variation III is the first of a series of chorales and waltzes that actually make the first of the three overall sections easier listening than the other two. Variation V is a thorny waltz, followed by a fun and not-too-complex variation that rips through parallel octaves. At Variation VII, the piece takes a turn toward more accessible territory. Variation VIII is the first in which the influence of Indonesian gamelan?the metallic percussion orchestra Polansky and his wife studied in Surakarta?is audible, this infusion of gamelan technique into piano playing being one of Lonesome Road?s most original features. The patterns aren?t strictly repetitive, but they keep hitting the same notes over and over in a quirky kind of counterpoint. Larry Polansky was born on October 16, 1954, in New York City, and grew up on the border of Queens and Nassau counties. His early ambitions as a jazz guitarist were eventually shed when he decided that he was more cut out to be a composer than a performer (though he still plays guitar publicly as well). Like so many in the 1970s he fled to the West Coast for a more liberal academic environment, where at the University of California at Santa Cruz he studied with James Tenney and Gordon Mumma, and became friends with Lou Harrison.
 

CD Reviews

Polansky speaks with directedness and conviction
scarecrow | Chicago, Illinois United States | 09/07/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)

"The obvious similar reference to Frederic Rzewski's 36 Variations on Segio Ortega's now international solidarity song, The People United Will Never Be Defeated,is unavoidable. I guess The World Bank and the IMF have things under control now,not to to be threatened by that point of power in Central and South America.
Greatly enough Polansky puts a gulf of meaning,expression,gesture,and content between his fascinating variation edifice here. With Rzewski you always had sensed the Beethoven Diabelli Variations hovering above the proceedings in terms of dramatic unfolding, where variations cumulatively accrete conspire and foment in dramatic force. Rzewski in fact makes a miniature recapitulation at each juncture of the sixth variation,after it.
Here Polansky seems contented with nests,dramatic confluences of piano albums,with simple descriptions and musical forms.We have a 'waltz','dedications' to friends,'Melody',and references to his studies of Indonesian music,although not musical. In terms of large architecture,although there is reference to Three sections here I found it doesn't help the listening experience. You simply have to go it alone, and Polansky admirably rewards your patience. There are quite beautiful moments here as the XX(20) Song, I found evocative.Also much power and fors=ce is here as well, as the Hensley Deviations,after a friend. The First Section has a bunch of 'Chorales',and at first blush I thought that was to function as a structuring device. But I think the work functions much more interestingly enough without such structural templates superimposed on the various unfolding of the variations.And again these variations are beautifully rendered from a miniaturists perspective. I'd almost summon the voice of British tonal miniaturist Howard Skempton as an influence, yet Polansky's music is always much more developed,function bound in a directional way, not contented with itself. And it,the music, must take care of the business of rendering the 'Lonesome Road' Tune.That seems to be the primary intent.I think the vagaries of postmodernity has taught us never to trust whatever the genre is suppose to be,do or say. Polansky is quit honest here,and his music speaks with great conviction and purpose. I would go as far as saying that Polansky resolves the long durational enigma,and paradox,that has leveled many a creative thinkers as Sorabji and the late Morton Feldman. The extended lengths of their music still remain problematical for the listening experience.
Ruth Crawford Seeger had arranged I beleive over 600 American tunes working in the Library of Congress.
Not enough can be said of the playing of Martin Christ who simply brings a refined clarity to the work,mining the gestural problematics of each variation.Great sensitivity, and a beautiful lyrical quality."