Virtuosic performances
Steve Benner | Lancaster, UK | 08/29/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
""Over the Edge" is a collection of short works by American composer, Eric Chasalow, mostly for virtuoso soloists and tape, but also includes a recording of his First String Quartet for good measure. In some works, Chasalow's tape part acs as an accompaniment to the live performer; in others the various live and processed voices mix to produce a seemingly new, single, hybrid instrument. The resulting sonic ambiguity imbues Chasalow's music with a mysterious quality: making it hard to tell just how many musical voices are present. This 'phantom dimension', as Mike Silverton calls it in the sleeve notes to the CD, is not confined solely to the works for acoustic and electronic combination. It takes very careful listening indeed to accept that 'Winding Up' (1989) really is a piece for 'pure' solo horn. Originally intended as an encore piece, this virtuosic showpiece works every bit as well as an opener to the CD. The work receives a stunning performance here from its dedicatee, Bruno Schneider. On this disc, 'Hanging in the Balance' (1983) for tape and cello, 'Fast Forward' (1988) for tape and percussion, as well as the CD's title work, 'Over the Edge' (1986) for tape and flute, all explore Chasalow's phantom dimension through a tape part that utilises sounds derived from or related to those of the live instrument. But there are also times when the electronic component provides a contrasting element within Chasalow's works. In 'The Furies' - four song settings from Anne Sexton's collection of fairly grim poems, "The Death Notebooks" - the tape part sometimes brings a light-hearted or whimsical commentary to the soprano's sardonic and angst-ridden words. The effect points up the poet's rather bleak imagery in a very unsettling manner. Chasalow revisited Anne Sexton's poetry for 'The Fury of Rainstorms' (1992). Here the voice of soprano Christine Schadeberg is subjected to digital manipulation to produce a tape-only piece in which intelligible words emerge only briefly from the electronic textures. The work remains every bit as discomforting as the earlier "Fury" settings. The final work, the 'First String Quartet', concerns itself with much larger forms than the rest of the CD and, to my mind at least, makes an uncomfortable bed-fellow to the other works. Nevertheless, this disc remains an important document for those wishing to explore the less frequented by-ways of late 20th century American art music."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1
