New Albion Records, Inc.
  • Home
  • About
  • Catalog
  • Licensing
  • Performance
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
  • Catalog
  • Licensing
  • Performance
  • Contact
Search

Peter Garland        Walk in Beauty

4/2/1997

 
Picture
Walk in Beauty
Aki Takahashi, piano; Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, violin, piano, vibraphone & tom-toms
 
Often simple in design, his consonant or modal melodies, frequently inspired by southwestern Native American or Mexican folk music, grow rich in resonances through repetition or subtle variation, suggesting the stark beauty and vast open space of the New Mexican desert.
--Fanfare

 
The conceptual basis of "Walk in Beauty" is found in the all-night peyote ceremonies of the Native American Church and the curing ceremonies of the Navajo. There is also a simple musical correlation: In the fast, nervous repetition of single notes, and their high pitch registration (as in the first section) can be heard the influence of peyote drumming and musical style. And perhaps there is a certian similarity in the emotional function of the music too.
The movements follow a hypothetical sunset to sunrise time cycle, and are dedicated to close friends. Movement One is in three parts: (1) "Walk in Beauty" (opening song) for Aki Takahashi; (2)"Turquoise Trail: In memoriam Louise Varese" (sunset song); and (3) "A Peyote Fan" (night song) for Lou Harrison and William Colvig. Movement Two is subtitled "A Pine-Pitch Basket" (midnight song), after the baskets covered with pitch used as water vessels in the Southwest, and is dedicated to Susan Ohori. Movement Three is in two sections: (1) "Lightning Flash" (rumba-not really) for Conlon "El Rey" Nancarrow (night song); and (2) "Walk in Beauty (Calling Home My Shadow)" for Peter Garland -- myself (sunrise song). The piece was written from August 15 to October 31, 1989.
As mentioned, the second section of the first movement, "Turquoise Trail", is dedicated to the memory of Louise Varese -- translator, author and wife of the composer -- who died July 1, 1989 at the age of 98, and whom I was privileged to know. In the midst of this part a musical "visitor" arrives, and interrupts the texture: the ghost of Erik Satie. This is a dual reference: To Aki Takahashi's fame as an interpreter of Satie and to a comment I made to Louise Varese on my only visit with her, in New York City in 1975, that I was amazed to be spending an afternoon with a person who had entertained Erik Satie on a similar day in 1921.
--Peter Garland


​Available here: iTunes 

Comments are closed.

    New Albion Records, Inc.

    Archives

    October 2010
    January 2009
    July 2008
    April 2008
    February 2008
    April 2007
    February 2007
    July 2006
    March 2006
    October 2005
    October 2004
    October 2003
    September 2003
    May 2003
    November 2002
    October 2002
    May 2002
    March 2002
    February 2002
    October 2001
    June 2001
    March 2001
    February 2001
    September 2000
    March 2000
    January 2000
    December 1999
    November 1999
    August 1999
    May 1999
    April 1999
    March 1999
    February 1999
    January 1999
    October 1998
    September 1998
    May 1998
    April 1998
    March 1998
    December 1997
    November 1997
    October 1997
    September 1997
    July 1997
    June 1997
    May 1997
    April 1997
    March 1997
    February 1997
    January 1997
    October 1996
    September 1996
    August 1996
    July 1996
    June 1996
    May 1996
    March 1996
    February 1996
    January 1996
    December 1995
    October 1995
    June 1995
    May 1995
    March 1995
    February 1995
    November 1994
    October 1994
    September 1994
    July 1994
    June 1994
    March 1994
    November 1993
    July 1993
    June 1993
    May 1993
    April 1993
    February 1993
    September 1992
    June 1992
    April 1992
    December 1991
    June 1991
    March 1990
    March 1988

Picture
Home
About
Contact

The triangle and the spiral, a compound symbol of strength and motion, of pitch and time, of being here and going there... Once we created an imaginary road  sign that we painted and drove to Rte. 50 in the middle of Nevada.  There it became our postcard, our place, our mooring.
  • Home
  • About
  • Catalog
  • Licensing
  • Performance
  • Contact