Customer Reviews

John Zorn: Rituals

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I had high hopes for this one, particularly after Zorn's previous composition, "Magick", but overall, I found "Rituals" to be a bit of a letdown.

Five movements totalling about 26.5 minutes, for solo voice (expertly handled by Heather Gardner) and 10 piece ensemble, featuring several of the standard Zorn pool, including Stephen Drury on any number of keyboards, the incomparable Jennifer Choi on violin, and Fred Sherry on cello.

Generally, the ensemble plays in smaller groups-- two to three at a time, sometimes with vocal. More often than not. The voice seems to be often in opposition with the strings whilst being in union with the various reeds on the piece. Most interesting are moments of duet between the voice and wind machine (particularly the first two movements) and those of organ and percussion (the fourth movement).

Actually, the fourth movement as a whole is the one which most grabbed me, mind you, its very dissimilar to most of Zorn's work, almost minimalist, droning and percussion and eventual strings for the first half, then into the most stirring interaction on the piece, with horns, strings, piano, etc. all trading off small parts, accenting and accompanying each other.

But overall, the piece doesn't say much to me, it has its moments, but it lacks the cohesion of theme of something like "Amor Fou" and the pure relentlessness of "Magick". Perhaps more interesting is that it seems nearly wholly focused on the vocalist (except the fourth movement), and unlike most of Zorn's pieces, doesn't seem to cater to the talents and capabilities of the musicians as he usually does.

I question whether, like most of Zorn's work, its going to one day set in and I'm going to end up having to throw out this review and write a new one, but after a couple dozen listens, this is where I am so far.

After familiarizing myself with Magick and this CD, I find them nice companion pieces. The reviewer above did a great job of describing the work in detail, and I agree with the review for the most part, although Rituals struck me as slightly more effective than Magick. Rituals is more minimalist and turns the chaotic structure to eleven with the female vocalist given the lead role. It could easily be the soundtrack to the 1920's swedish film, (Haxan Witchcraft Throught the Ages.) When Zorn's knowlege of Ritual Magick (he studied with Kenneth Anger) is taken into account, this makes this a good one to turn the lights out and let the music soak into the soul. For some, it may not be a comfortable place to go, but for others it is uncomfortable bliss.

As Steve Lacy once said, "if a musician you respect does something you don't quite get, stick with it until you DIG."

Rituals is a very different piece from Zorn's other classical pieces. No, it is not NECRONOMICON, it is not CAT O'NINE TAILS, it is not AMOUR FOU, it is not even CHIMERAS, his other piece for voice and ensemble. It has a more open sense of space, and is much more minimalist, but uses a modernist language. The mood is kept very effectively throughout and there is an extraordinary amount of detail here. Again all the players (the cream of the New York chamber freelancers) shine and work together excellently as a group. The sound effects included are used beautifully, wind machines, bird calls, bull roarers, etc. The grave digging near the end of the piece is haunting and hilarious! As a monodrama (it was composed for the opera festival in Bayreuth) it would make a wonderful piece staged. It's not for everyone, but it is a brilliant piece of writing, and features an amazing virtuosic performance by a young Heather Gardner. Totally unique.