category: Scores

Violet

• Recording James Newton – As The Sound of Many Waters (2000)
  New World Records Cat. No. 80579
  Performers:
  San Francisco Contemporary Music Players:

  David Milnes, Conductor

  Tod Brody, flute;
  William Wohlmacher, clarinet;
  Rufus Olivier, bassoon;
  Roy Malan, violin;
  Stephen Harrison, cello;
  Thomas Schultz, piano;
  Karen Gottlieb, harp;
  Daniel Kennedy, William Winant, percussion.

  “A similar integration of sources was to be heard in ‘Violet,’ a septet by the West Coast musician James Newton. Mr. Newton is more widely known as a jazz flutist, and in this piece he takes something, too, from African Pygmy music, but the play of cultures seems to be created by his composition in its own terms. Central to its interior dialogue is a duo of xylophone and marimba, whose fluid, intricate patterning has been almost completely abstracted from any African origin.

  From time to time, an idea played by the duo is picked up by a quartet of violin, cello, flute and clarinet and developed by them in a more European style, while a piano plays sometimes with them and sometimes on its own track. The braids of music are beautifully composed and beautifully coupled, and the piece has a very appealing gentle flow.”
  Paul Griffiths – New York Times

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