CLScapades http://cls.posterous.com City of London Sinfonia blog posterous.com Thu, 13 Sep 2012 06:52:00 -0700 Composer Focus: Piazzolla http://cls.posterous.com/composer-focus-piazzolla http://cls.posterous.com/composer-focus-piazzolla

Astor_piazzolla_-_profilo_autore
Ahead of our American flavoured CLoSer on 19 September, we profile Argentine composer Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla, best known for inventing Tango Nuevo, a unique compositional style distinct from the traditional tango. Piazzolla was a legendary composer and bandoneonista, who died 20 years ago in 1992. Also known as El Tigre del Bandoneón (The tiger of the Bandoneón), he revived the tango genre in the 1970s by blending classical music with jazz.

He was born March 1921 in Mar del Plata, a small village on the coast just South of Buenos Aires in Argentina. He lived in New York City with his family from 1924 to 1937. When he was eight years old, his father bought him the gift of a bandoneón (the Argentine version of the concertina, related to the accordion).

“I got very happy because I thought it was the roller skates I had asked for so many times. It was a letdown because instead of a pair of skates, I found an artifact I had never seen before in my life. Dad sat down, set it on my legs, and told me, 'Astor, this is the instrument of tango. I want you to learn it.'”

At first Piazzolla was not very impressed, but his neighbour Bela Wilda, a student of Rachmaninov, taught him how to play this peculiar instrument. Piazzolla was particularly inspired by the music of Bach.

Aged 17, Piazzolla moved to Buenos Aires where he joined a tango orchestra and began his career as a bandoneónist. He went on to study in Paris with the legendary composition teacher Nadia Boulanger, before returning to Argentina to perform, compose and direct numerous ensembles. Later in life he performed around the world in Greece, Amsterdam, London and New York.

Piazzolla’s life came to a sad end when he suffered a stroke in Paris in 1990, leaving him in a coma. He died in Buenos Aires just two years later, never regaining consciousness.

Piazzolla

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Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:17:00 -0800 Concert Focus: John Adams & Shaker Loops http://cls.posterous.com/concert-focus-john-adams-shaker-loops http://cls.posterous.com/concert-focus-john-adams-shaker-loops

Find out about the music behind the concert, with our quick guide to John Adams' Shaker Loops, to be performed at our first CLoSer concert on Tuesday 22 November. 

Shaker Loops
Written in 1978 by American composer John Adams, hailed as one of the great composers of minimalist music, Shaker Loops is one of his most popular and performed compositions.

Formed of four movements:

I. Shaking and Trembling
II. Hymning Slews
III. Loops and Verses
IV. A Final Shaking

Adams says of the piece "the four sections, although they meld together evenly, are really quite distinct, each being characterized by a particular style of string playing. The outside movements are devoted to ’shaking,’ the fast, tightly rhythmicised motion of the bow across the strings.

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image: Margaretta Mitchell

Part II is deliberately slower and languid followed by the melodic third movement, with "the celli playing long, lyrical lines (which are nevertheless loops themselves) against a background of muted violins, an activity which gradually takes speed and mass until it culminates in the wild push-pull section that is the emotional high of the piece.” 

The piece takes its name from both the distinctive 'shaking' of the strings as they oscillate between notes, and the image Adams’ had of ‘Shakers’ (members of the Millennial Church), dancing and worshipping to repetitive, energetic music.

John Adams occupies a unique position in American music, with his works renowned for their depth of expression, brilliance of sound and the profoundly humanist nature of their themes. His operatic works include Doctor Atomic and The Death of Klinghoffer and his composition On the Transmigration of Souls written for the New York Philharmonic to mark the first anniversary of the World Trade Centre attack, won three Grammys and the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003.

He has said of London audiences "they are my ideal listeners - sophisticated, musically literate, enthusiastic and of course a little bit insane!"

Listen to our Spotify playlist for a preview of Shaker Loops.

CLoSer
Tuesday 22 November, 7.30pm
Village Underground, EC2A

Tickets: £15 (includes a free drink)
Box office: 020 7377 1362/spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk

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