Kryzysztof Penderecki: Magnifcat (Angel)
Purchased at Jerry's Records from the Duquesne University collection
It's about 9:30pm as I begin writing this, and my wife is watching Great Performances upstairs. They're doing a salute to Broadway. Cue exit for Ben.
Oh, I don't mean to be a crank (even if I can't help myself sometimes), maybe there's something in it I might like, but it would mean sitting through a bunch I know won't appeal to me.
So I'm back in my studio (mancave), and while I should still be cleaning the place up and spending more time on some compositions and audio projects I have started, I thought I'd spin this and note it here. If you read my previous post, you'd see that I'm continuing to question exactly why I'm doing this. Yes, there's the discipline and routine of it, and maybe there's an element of leaving a larger digital footprint. I've apparently committed to this tonight, we'll see what my attitude is tomorrow.
As I also wrote earlier today, my listening choices have skewed heavily on the "classical" side, though little of it is from the Baroque/Classical/Romantic eras. I hate the labels anyway; how do you have a section that encompasses George Crumb and Mozart? On the other hand, it is an interesting challenge to try to figure out what those composers might have in common. But then, I also feel every serious jazz composer (and many players) should spend time listening and reading Messiaen.
Penderecki's an interesting case. Even before really digging into the Duquesne collection at Jerry's, I had started to buy some of his recordings. His most famous work is surely Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, a sound piece for string orchestra. It would easy to look at that work and wonder if he was capable of doing anything else, as it (seemingly) lacks any traditional form or construction. I do find it to be an effective piece.
On the other hand, I've listening to some of his chamber music, and found him to be a perfectly average, boring, academic composer.
I haven't read up much on him. I seem to have collected a number of Catholic-inspired works: Dies Irae (Auschwitz Oratorio), Utrenja, The Entombment of Christ, The Psalms of David, Stabat Mater, Canticum Canticorum Salomonis, among others. A lot of choral/vocal music.
I'm finding that Magnificat would be enough to convince me he's a good, interesting composer. I think the writing is very clear, even if the harmonies are dense. Listening to someone like Hans Werner Henze recently, I find her work interesting moment-to-moment, but don't always get a sense of the overall picture. Magnificat leads from one idea clearly. I hate to say simplicity, because there's nothing simple about the work. It's heavy on instrumental and vocal glissandi, and takes on an air similar to Ligeti's Requiem. A critical comparison of the two works could be interesting. (I don't know that I have it in me.)
Also similar to Ligeti, it's very dramatic. It doesn't sound like serialist processes set in motion. I admire the composers who explored that territory with dedication, but it also seems like something of a dead end. Sometimes I question how different those serialist works sound from one another.
It's another recording in my growing collection of vinyl that merits a return listen. So much time, so little to do! (Strike that, reverse it.)
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