Summer is here
Ok, so it is only 95 right now and the humidity is only 35% but it is hotter than it has been lately. And my dog smells because of it.

Ack, I forgot to get the Roundup for the yard... Oh well. I was out getting shorts because I have not worn shorts in years but since I'm outside doing yardwork in this heat I need them. My legs could blind a man, though. :D I hadn't even thought about there being Father's Day sales going on this week, it was a good time to buy men's clothes.

Got my copy of Tan Dun's Water Passion after St. Matthew today (CD), one of the works I am doing a report on at the end of the month. I really, really am enjoying it so far. Really. Really.

It is scored for mixed chorus, Soprano and Bass soloists who both do overtone singing and play the Xun, solo violin and cello, electronic sampler and 3 percussionists. The percussionists each have a large, lit bowl of water (there are 17 of these on stage in a cross formation and the percussionists are at either side of the cross and at the top of the cross each playing one), a soda bottle, "water drums" which he describes as wooden salad bowls floating upside down in the basin, sieve, water tube drums, water gong, water tube with foam paddle, water shaker (described as a long tube with water and many plastic balls), water gong, large tibetan double cymbals, smooth contoured stones from the sea or river, water phone, bass drum, tubular chimes, and timpani. I'm not sure what all of the water instruments are, if they are actual instruments or things that were created by Tan Dun for playing in the bowls of water. Also marked in the score are towels for hand drying.

Anyway, it all leads to some nifty sounding stuff. Oh, and the chorus also gets to play with Tibetan finger bells, thunder sheets, river stones, and water.

I seem to remember river stones being used in The First Emperor but I don't remember for sure.

This piece was composed in 2001 and premiered in 2002 so it is very new.
- posted by Nick @ 6/09/2007 05:34:00 PM | 0 comments