Word: quartetting
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Relationships come and go; record collections are always there for emotional consolation. But what do you do when your favorite band breaks up with you? The hip-hop/hard-rock quartet Rage Against the Machine has proved to be one of the most exciting bands around during its eight-year run, melding slashing guitars, rap rhythms and political fervor with unsurpassed skill. Recently, though, front man Zack de la Rocha announced plans to go solo. Rage guitarist Tom Morello says the band will continue, but he's not sure it will do so under the same name. Is there a chance...
...EMERSON QUARTET Shostakovich String Quartets (DGG). Shostakovich turned Stalin's Great Terror into art in his 15 string quartets, a laceratingly vivid document interpreted here by America's greatest quartet...
From the almost inaudible opening whispers of strings with practice mutes attached, I was immediately drawn into this detailed and contrapuntally sophisticated work. Transforming a work for string quartet into string orchestra is no easy task, but Corigliano solved the problems through effective orchestration techniques. This is especially true in the second movement scherzo, which features tutti chords interrupted by outbursts from a string quartet within the orchestra. Corigliano takes advantage of full string sections to provide a more dense and elaborate solution to aleatoric passages. Having double basses with low C-string extensions also adds a richer, fuller sound...
...movement nocturne, in which Corigliano attempted to recreate the sound he heard during a stay in Morocco, when the calls of muezzins from different mosques collided and "created a glorious counterpoint." In the symphony, beautiful dovetailing lines shimmer and seem to echo off each other, something unattainable in the quartet version. A wild fugue using different tempos for each statement of the subject (but notated in the same meter for all instruments) leads into the postlude, where repetitions of the minor third interval perhaps intentionally recall the last movement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. The work ends...
...features the great chorus "And I've begun to hate the ceiling like I never loved the sky." The second track, "Taunt," a high-speed tune with only a few words, is more of a playful number. The epic "Daughter of the American Revolution" rounds off the album's quartet of songs. Throughout the album, Ensimismada remain listenable, without the off-the-wall sounds or unintelligible lyrics that affect too many student bands. B+ -Erik A. Beach