Ars Nova

Ars Nova | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 29, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sundazed Music Inc.
• ASIN: B0002CX1Z2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #151,889 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Pavan For My Lady

2. General Clover Ends A War

3. And How Am I To Know

4. Album In Your Mind

5. Zarathustra

6. Fields Of People

7. Automatic Love

8. I Wrapped Her In Ribbons

9. Song To The City

10. March Of The Mad Duke’s Circus

Editorial Reviews

Pioneering art-rock from this NYC combo, featuring such avant-originals as General Clover Ends a War and Fields of People , famously covered by the Move! Richard Strauss' Zarathustra !

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Group for the Ages, July 15, 2004

By 

Robert H Zayas (Fort Myers, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ars Nova (Audio CD)

The first age of man is childhood. I grew up in the sixties in a household that listened to classical music. I did not like rock and roll music until I heard Ars Nova. They allowed me to make the transition into the mainstream. Their classical approach to music made rock and roll palatable to me.
The first song "Pavane For My Lady" has a pleasant sentiment and melody. It is sung in a high register that made me afraid that I was in for an entire album of that. The next song "General Clover Ends a War" banished those fears with its more powerful vocals and pounding drums. It begins with a fanfare. If you listen to just the right, and then just the left channel of the fanfare, you will hear a good example of harmonics. "Album In Your Mind" sounds like a precursor to Cat Stevens'
"Matthew and Son," and features an amusing prototypical father character. "Fields of People" is the original version of that song despite what is written elsewhere, and is a fine one at that, featuring matchless vocals by Jon Pierson. The rest of the songs on the album live up to their enigmatic titles.
The second age of man is adolescence, a time when young people tend to rush through their lovemaking. Likewise, instead of a gradual progression up to modern music over a long long period of time, Ars Nova put plenty of jazz, bossa nova, and be-bop on their second album, and seems to end up with nowhere to go from there. The first harbinger of this was disconcerting bits of what sounds like dixieland on their first album during the song "Automatic Love". So instead of a long musical journey, Ars Nova arrives at their destination on the second album when half the fun (and half the success) could have been in getting there. Ironic that their successor group called album three "'Terminal' Barbershop," since they had already arrived at their last stop.
The third age of man is adulthood, when people need to make a living. I think with all its talent, perhaps Ars Nova could have become a franchise like the Beach Boys (who spent three months making "Good Vibrations," which was the same amount of time Ars Nova spent making their first album, and the care taken by Ars Nova really shows) or Chicago (which was another horn group like Ars Nova). Sadly, Ars Nova might have been gradually working their way up musically to the present day, instead of shooting the works in 1969. So maybe it wasn't a poor performance after a long layoff that did them in after all.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From My Teen Years...., May 25, 2008

By 

W. Johnson "zzajmusic" (Southern Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ars Nova (Audio CD)

The 60's were such a special time for musical diversity(SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW, RIGHT?). It's so good to see this on CD. And the songs are still beautiful, dated, yet enthralling. Not even a one hit wonder band, still, the album was and is a unique part of 60's hippie dippy love culture at it's best. Check it out!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forgotten Slice of Late 1960's Rock, March 7, 2011

By 

DW (chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ars Nova (Audio CD)

Ars Nova were a unique band. Too musical to be flower-power music. Too comical to be heavy. Not freaky enough to be psychedelic. These are just well-written and expertly-played pop songs with a slightly medieval feel.

[DW]