A Passion With Connections
Penguin | Pittsburgh, USA | 10/22/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I bought the Little Match Girl Passion out of curiosity because I've been + - about some of David Lang's music in the past. I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been OK, but not good enough to keep. But it was great. It sounds like "minimalists meet the middle ages" but that doesn't really allow a full description of the original sounds and vocal usage in the piece. It has formal reminders of the Bach passions. It includes a direct correlation of the Little Match Girl's death with Jesus' suffering and death. But it also has obvious acquaintance with Schutz, Lassus and the Play of Daniel. And it still sounds modern with a nod to John Tavener. The percussion players are perfect and voices are really skilled in managing their music. Who would ever think of using one of the most emotionally manipulating cheesy stories of all time as an oratorio text? Then, who could present it in a way that uses elevated classical presentation while slowly working its way to a very emotionally effective end. And it's great to listen to, even if you don't know the text or the story. It's a very effective piece of music on its own terms. It should catch on with smaller new music groups and I think it might work very well in church performances. (It would be a lot more inspiring than most of the junk that gets played in churches.) Buy it, even if you never listen to new music."
Outstanding, original, breathtaking, subtle, powerful
Samuel D. Burns | Charleston, SC United States | 01/06/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This CD is one of my most prized in my collection of over a 1000. No wonder it won the Pulitzer. Take the ringing overtones of Arvo Part's tintinnabulism and blend with Robert Ashley's unique and beautiful contemporary opera works such as Improvement and you begin to understand what might have influenced Lang to compose this masterpiece. Indeed this is a modern day masterpiece.
"Tintinnabuli (singular. tintinnabulum) (from the Latin tinnabulae, of bells) is a compositional style created by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Pärt first introduced this new style in two works: Für Alina (1976) and Spiegel Im Spiegel (1978). This simple style was influenced by the composer's mystical experiences with chant music. Musically, Pärt's tintinnabular music is characterized by two types of voices, the first of which (dubbed the "tintinnabular voice") arpeggiates the tonic triad, and the second of which moves diatonically in stepwise motion. The works often have a slow and meditative tempo, and a minimalist approach to both notation and performance." This characterization is excerpted from Wikipedia. I remember the jacket notes from Tabula Rasa of tintinnabulum emphasizing the ringing overtones of bells implied (but not explicit) in the music. Listen to Little Match Girl and see if you can glimpse this notion here as well, but of course in Lang's work the overtones are explicit, but nevertheless elevating.Tabula Rasa
Listen to Mr. George Payne on Robert Ashley's Improvement Opera CD to see what I mean for parallels with this modern opera. Of course the entire opera by Ashley has ideas that might have influenced Lang.Robert Ashley: Improvement
These are two streams of music that run through my mind when I first listened to Little Match Girl. Whether they actually influenced Lang or not is not the point. The point is to have a quiet listen to this remarkable work and if possible share it. Oh, and be SURE to finish the entire work--some of the most powerful and surprising movements are toward the end.
In any case, don't think "Bang on a Can."! And if you like this work, be sure to enter the world of Part and Ashley as well.
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