MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

AVAILABILITY


Crotchet  

 

Philip GLASS (b. 1937)
Another Look at Harmony, part 4 [1975/77] (60.29)
Christopher Bowers Broadbent (organ)
The Choir of the 21st Century/Howard Williams
rec. 3-5 June 2007, Gray’s Inn Chapel, London
SOMM SOMMCD 072 [60.29]
Experience Classicsonline



Philip Glass started work on Another Look at Harmony in 1975. He wrote much of it whilst working on his opera Einstein on the Beach. The work represents Glass’s attempts to come to grips with the use of chromatic harmony in the context of his existing style which essentially conformed to the tenets of Californian minimalism. In Another Look at Harmony Glass started to go beyond his existing style, where harmony was the product of the accidental impact of interacting melodic lines.

Glass’s style had evolved as a reaction to the complexity of post-war music. The basic style involves the repetition and reiteration of small units, with a strong emphasis on rhythm and melody. From Another Look at Harmony Glass would also start including cyclic harmonic sequences as well. But, whereas in traditional classical music harmony was at the fundament of any piece, Glass would use his cycles of re-iterated harmony to support and point out the rhythmical structures.

A term which was often associated with early Minimalism was Process Music; this is music which arises from a process or attempts to make a process audible. In early minimal pieces this is reflected in the slow harmonic progressions; Another Look at Harmony is an interesting attempt to take this further and make changing harmonic sequences a part of the Glass style.

Another Look at Harmony parts 1 and 2 found their way directly into Einstein on the Beach. Another Look at Harmony part 3 is for voice, clarinet and piano. Another Look at Harmony part 4 was commissioned by the Holland Festival of 1977.

As with much of the repertoire associated with Californian minimalism, Another Look at Harmony was written for a small ensemble, an electronic organ and an intimate, rather dry acoustic. Much of this repertoire is indelibly associated with amplification and close-miking. The resulting sounds are deliberately non-natural. We are used to hearing works performed by vocal ensembles, usually one to a part, where necessary amplified to suit the piece in mind. The result gives a uniformity of attack and control which create a very specific performance style.

Another Look at Harmony part 3 has been recorded by the Western Wind Ensemble. The ensemble number just eight singers and the recording rather conforms to the style described above.

But if you visit Philip Glass’s web site, the work is described as being for chorus and organ. Howard Williams and the Choir of the 21st century have taken this literally and performed Another Look at Harmony part 3 in a style which can only be described as English Cathedral. The work was recorded in June 2007 following live performances. In order to make the performance viable, the choir was split into two and performed in relays with Christopher Bowers-Broadbent taking the organ part.

This is what we hear on this recording, rather than any sort of recording trickery. In his programme note Williams says that he wanted to re-create the effect of his live performances.

The results are, in many ways, a triumph. The choir and organist have taken a piece which owes its existence to the idea of structured, almost computer-controlled repetition and given it a whole new life in a live acoustic. What we lose is the clarity and control which a small group of closely recorded singers can deliver. With multiple voices on each line we lose the cleanness and clarity of attack and unanimity of purpose. What we gain is a feeling of live acoustic, of a real living performance. The choir give the piece vitality and vividness, but we have to accept that the singers sound as if they were tiring at times and the sopranos’ tone gets a little hard.

I have nothing but praise for Bowers-Broadbent’s reading. It is not virtuoso or bravura in a showy way, but displays a remarkable feat of endurance as he plays the extensive organ part in a neat, controlled and understated way.

This is not necessarily the definitive recording. It is a fascinating and brave attempt to make one of Glass’s early pieces available in a new format. The results give a striking new sound to Glass’s familiar world.

Robert Hugill



 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.