Film Works IX: Trembling Before God

Zorn (Artist), Saft (Artist), Speed (Artist), Baptista (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 5, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Tzadik
• ASIN: B0000507ZE
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,188 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #12 in Music > Folk > Jewish & Yiddish Music
  • #41 in Music > World Music > Europe > Eastern Europe
  • #55 in Music > Jazz > Avant Garde & Free Jazz

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark and beautiful Masada chamber piece, August 15, 2008

By 

Peter Williamson (London) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Filmworks Ix (MP3 Download)

These obsessive and quietly intense pieces often seem to have more in common with Zorn's `Redbird' and `Duras', and Feldman and Courvoisier's Masada Recital approach than other Filmworks releases which draw upon the Masada Book. Chris Speed's clarinet and Jamie Saft's piano and organ intertwine perfectly to create beautiful, impassioned (and in some places - particularly `Notarikon', `Idalah-Abal' - almost ambient due to Saft's dark organ drone and Speed's abstract, spacious phrasing) music that captures with powerful resonance the desolate anxiety of forbidden gay Orthodox Jewish love.
Saft's readings of Mahshav and Kaporeh for piano are - along with his `Kiev' from `In The Mirror Of Maya Deren' - the most beautiful pieces in Zorn's vast catalog. `Sholom Aleichem' is a brief but stunning Jewish melody for clarinet and piano, again interweaving melancholic yearning and transcendent beauty. `Nigun' is almost hopeful in feel as the two instruments dance delicately around each other.
Although lacking the explosive interplay that characterises so much of Zorn's work - particularly where the two Masada Books are concerned - in these subtle, haunting pieces - often reminiscent of Satie and Morton Feldman in their understated precision of expression - Speed and Saft's intensity of focus draws meaning from each and every note and results in a quiet, powerful, yet sadly unsung Radical Jewish masterpiece.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Achingly beautiful, but lacking in variety., September 6, 2005

By 

Michael Stack (North Chelmsford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Film Works IX: Trembling Before God (Audio CD)

The soundtrack for a movie about homosexuals in the orthodox Jewish community, "Trembling Before G-d" finds John Zorn's filmworks series meeting his Masada songbook halfway. The original impetus to use Zorn for the soundtrack was due to the "Idalah-Abal" performance on "Bar Kokhba"-- as such, Zorn constructed a soundtrack for keyboard (organ and piano courtesy of Jamie Saft) and clarinet (Chris Speed) with occasional contributions from percussionist Cyro Baptista on three pieces and the composer singing (!) one song.

The music itself is nice, flirting with the Masada sound on many tracks (indeed, several are drawn from the Masada songbook) and a sort of droning klezmer feel on several others. By and large, it's a pretty dark piece, with the clarinet mournful and the organ dirge-like ("Idalah-Abal", "Maskil") with a few pieces thrown in to shake things up, most notably "Simen Tov/Mazel Tov", feautring a bizarre, ranting and rambling vocal from Zorn doubling the clarinet theme statement and the flighty "Notarikon", with its droning organ and bizarre clarinet leads. But these interludes are few and far between, and in fact the problem is that this record is so cohesive and holds together so tightly that the pieces blend one into another-- its often the stuff of pained beauty, and it sounds as if it would go great with the film (I haven't seen), but all in all, it gets a bit monotonous.

Typical of the Zorn Filmworks series, the liner notes include essays by Zorn about the pieces and the director concerning his selection of Zorn for the soundtrack and the music performed.

Overall, this is not one of the essential entries in the Filmworks catalog-- interested parties in learning of Zorn's soundtrack pieces should check the sublime "Filmworks XIII- Invitation to a Suicide", leave this one for later or for when the craving for more Masada material is too extraordinary and you've bought the rest.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars it's not Bar Kokhba..., January 18, 2001

By 

Artur Nowak - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Film Works IX: Trembling Before God (Audio CD)

I'm big Zorn fan, but I was really disappointed with this record. It could be almost as magical, as dark and passionate as Bar Kokhba, same tunes organ and clarinet, but it's far away from the original. The atmosphere is gone and what's left, is just boring. "Mazel Tov" seems to be a joke, I don't have a problem with Zorn's pastiche and sense of humour, but this version is just stupid. Sorry, my own words hurt me, but this is the firs Zorn record I will get rid of - out of the 50 I already have.