Tracklist
1. Clusters 1 (3:18)
2. Strand (Gathering) (1:55)
3. Winter Variation (1:52)
4. Cloud Code (3:32)
5. Shift (1:52)
6. Mapping (2:07)
7. Summer Variation (3:17)
8. Vow (3:12)
9. Clusters 2 (2:28)
10. Falling (2:55)
11. Burn (4:16)
12. Strand (Inner Psalm) (3:13)
13. Autumn Variation (2:48)
14. Ledge Dance (1:51)
15. Traces (1:21)
16. Respite (5:57)
17. Mapping Continued (1:30)
18. Clusters 3 (2:09)
19. Spring Variation (4:04)
20. Fathom (4:37)
21. Ascent (9:27)

a r t i s t : Meredith Monk
t i t l e : Songs Of Ascension
d a t e : 2011
l a b e l : ECM
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : Jun/2011
t r a c k s : 21
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 108,1 MB
_______________________________________________________________________
Songs of Ascension is a major new work from Meredith Monk.
Written in 2008, and recorded in 2009 at New Yorks Academy of
Art and Letters, it is conceived as a continuous composition,
a departure from Monks recent collaged or episodic works.
As Kyle Gann writes in the liner notes: Meredith Monks been
expanding into the worlds of orchestra and string quartet,
which she likes to write for as though the instruments were,
themselves, voices. Songs of Ascension developed partly from
her work with strings, and she teams up here with a string
quartet of New York players who are well versed in new music.
Add in winds, percussion and two vocal groups to her already
extraordinary singers, and this becomes one of Monks most
musically ambitious ventures. It is also one in which voices
and instruments are paired and balanced against each other to
an extent rare in her music. Western and eastern instruments
have a role to play, with Asian drone instrument the shruti
box appearing in juxtaposition with string quartet at key
points in the works development.
Inspiration for the piece included an encounter with poet and
Zen Buddhist priest Norman Fischer, who mentioned to Monk that
Paul Celan had written about the Song of Ascents, a title
given to fifteen of the Psalms sung on pilgrimages going up to
Jerusalem. This idea of worship, walking up something and
singing, even using instruments fascinated me. Monk told the
New Scotsman newspaper. I thought, why is up sacred and down
not sacred?
As Monk was pondering this theme and its musical and sonic
implications she received a serendipitous call from visual
artist Ann Hamilton (early Monk/Hamlton collaboration had
included the mercy project, see ECM 1829), inviting her to
perform in an eight-story tower designed for a site in Sonoma
County, California: The tower was created in the form of a
double helix, two staircases each spiraling up the interior of
the structure opposite each other, only intersecting at the
top. Not only did the performance space ascend, but the double
helix suggested the shape of DNA, the blueprint of life
itself. The staircases placed limits on the type of
instrumentation there could be no keyboards or mallet
percussion, only instruments that could be carried up the
stairs and thus Songs of Ascension had a rather site-
specific origin.
Nonetheless the piece has toured, to exceptional reviews: The
music is glorious, wrote Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times.
Monks most significant growth over the past decade or two
has been as a composer. She is a great master of utterance ()
A listener feels somehow in communication with another,
perhaps wiser, species. In the New Yorker Alex Ross suggested
that If Monk is seeking a place in the classical firmament,
classical music has much to learn from her. She conveys a
fundamental humanity and humility that is rare in new-music
circles. She is a brainy artist but never a cerebral one; she
shapes her ideas to the grain of the voice and the contours of
the body. Donald Hutera, writing for The Times of London,
visited the work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where
Songs of Ascension received a Herald Angel Award: No matter
what category you put it in, or by what criteria you judge it,
this is a special experience. I left it feeling unexpectedly
moved, deeply grateful and with a sense of privilege for
having been there ().
*
Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, director/choreographer
and creator of new opera, music theatre works, films and
installations. A pioneer in what is now called extended vocal
technique and interdisciplinary performance, Monk creates
works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement,
image and object, light and sound in an effort to discover and
weave together new modes of perception. I work in between the
cracks, where the voice starts dancing, where the body starts
singing, where the theatre becomes cinema, she once said.
Monk creates works that transcend the boundaries of the
individual art forms and provoke new modes of perception. Her
music has been heard in numerous films, including Nouvelle
Vague and Histoire(s) du Cinma by Jean-Luc Godard
(soundtracks to both on ECM New Series) and The Big Lebowski
by Joel and Ethan Coen, as well as her own Ellis Island and
Book of Days. Performers of her compositions include the
Chorus of the San Francisco Symphony, The Pacific Mozart
Ensemble, the Bang On A Can All-Stars, Bjrk, DJ Spooky and
many others. Monk has been recording for ECM since 1981
(Dolmen Music won a Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik)
with a label-discography now including ten releases. Detailed
information on Meredith Monk, and the genesis of Songs of
Ascension can be found at the website of the House Foundation:
www.meredithmonk.org
(www.ecmrecords.com/Background/2154.php)
_______________________________________________________________________
01-Clusters 1 [03:18]
02-Strand (Gathering) [01:55]
03-Winter Variation [01:52]
04-Cloud Code [03:32]
05-Shift [01:52]
06-Mapping [02:07]
07-Summer Variation [03:17]
08-Vow [03:12]
09-Clusters 2 [02:28]
10-Falling [02:55]
11-Burn [04:16]
12-Strand (Inner Psalm) [03:13]
13-Autumn Variation [02:48]
14-Ledge Dance [01:51]
15-Traces [01:21]
16-Respite [05:57]
17-Mapping Continued [01:30]
18-Clusters 3 [02:09]
19-Spring Variation [04:04]
20-Fathom [04:37]
21-Ascent [09:27]
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67:41 min