Word: counterpoint
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Echoing too, through Memorial Day, sounds the Civil War's fearful counterpoint of hurt and disease: "When I was carried into the butchering room," a wounded Union colonel is saying, "I could not help comparing the surgeons to fiends. It was dark and the building lighted partially with candles . . . Some ten or twelve tables were covered with blood; near and around stood the surgeons, with blood all over them, [beside] a heap of feet, legs and arms. On one of these tables I was laid...
Skulking, Swirling, Staggering. Carter's works, old and new, are written uncompromisingly in the counterpoint of dissonance and paced by skulking, staggering, swirling rhythms. The Minotaur (1946) throws listeners into an unnerving, outworldish mood with its first heavy notes, seems to approach every sound with a fresh attitude as the music tumbles along. The Quartet (1951), though far less accommodating, manages to achieve a satisfying interplay of tension and repose while carrying a quadrilogue at four different tempos simultaneously. High point is the slow movement, with a serene duo that floats calmly past the violent thrusts of the other...
...modern composers were featured on the program. John Austin '56 contributed Two Airs that showed his skill in keeping counterpoint under harmonic control. The Airs were short and rather lightweight but they had a lovely lyrical modal style. The other, the String Quartet Op. 50 by Prokofieff, is a somewhat inconsistant piece. There were moments of inspired writing, particularly when the 'cello had the melody up high against bitter chords in the upper strings. The slow last movement, however, seemed out of place and style of the other movements. The work received a fine passionate reading from the Quartet, with...
King Calypso. The best band of the mid-40s was The Invaders, who are credited with introducing bouncing massed "riffs" in harmony, and thus paralleling the transition of U.S. jazz from Dixieland counterpoint to the massed effects of swing. Today the steelband has swept the Caribbean islands-there is a severe short age of oil drums and automobile brake drums. The music is also penetrating the U.S. through recordings and tours by stray bands. Last week Record-Maker Emory Cook carried his microphones and tape recorders right into the parade to capture steelbands...
...Farrell's voice has grown in range, flexibility and control-as she demonstrated last week when she sang with the famed Bach Aria Group in Manhattan's Town Hall. She steered the opulent sounds of her voice gracefully along the sometimes tortured paths of Bach's counterpoint. Its gamut was smooth and even from the light, flutey high notes, where sopranos often lose character, to rich, viola-like lows. When she finished her arias, she accepted her heavy applause and sat down serenely, secure in the knowledge that she could remain at the top of the concert...