Customer Reviews

Three Tales (CD & DVD)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As I'm sure many have noticed, this seems to be the fruitful time to produce multlimedia works to do with technology and alienation. First, Glass and Reggio's Naqoyquatsi, and now 'Three Tales'. I'm sure many review-readers wonder, and a review below asked the question, so I'll answer it. Is this just a -qatsi rip off? Should one simply buy the Glass and skip the Reich? No. These are completely different works - both with seperate strenghts and weaknesses. While the -qatsi films - particularly Naqoyqatsi is dominated by larger than life visuals with the music providing an instrumental backdrop (albeit an active one), with this film, the impact of the music and the visual is about equal. Short answer: buy both if you want both, but the two are definitely not 'clones' of eachother.

Now for my obligatory disclosure. Out of the two discs in this set - one CD with the music alone, and one DVD with the entire music and visual combo, my four stars is entirely for THE LAST HALF OF THE DVD! That's only the last 'tale'. Yes, it is that good! For the first two 'tales' Reich sounds very much as he did in "The Cave" (and we all politely smiled at that one!). Though, I'll say that the music and visual go well together in all the tales, the music for the first two is not to my taste. Jumpy, bombastic, and jerky - and why does every dang chord have to be diminished?!?

Now to the third tale. "Dolly" pertains to the cloned sheep and the 'tale' has more to do with genomics and the prospect of artificial intellegence than with cloning per se. The music sees Reich returning back to his 'middle days' a la 'Sextet'. Here the music has a steady pulse and is primarily mallet percussion and piano. On top of this, we have short excerpts from interviews of scientists that Reich and Barot did. As one who is quite read on science I enjoyed seeing the likes of Jaron Lanier (pioneer of virtual reality), Richard Dawkins (who recieves brutal treatment, perhaps unjustly), Marvin Minsky, and Steven Pinker. As I am fairly read on science, I do feel that Reich took many of their quotes out of context (remember, we only see short excerpts) but not enough to subtract stars.

So as not to ramble, let's sum up. A.) this film is not a '-quatsi on the cheap'. The visual is completely different and is somewhat similar, albeit more high tech, than "The Cave". B.) I did not find the musical style of the first two 'tales' to my taste as they are a cross between 'The Cave', and 'City Life'. C.) The third movement alone is worth the price of this disc/DVD set, particularly if you are interested in science and its personalities.

Go get it.

Three Tales is a video/music work.
In the first part of the work, (Hindenberg blimp crashing) archive video and audio footage of the Zepplin, newspapers, radio broadcasts, and even a small interview with a German woman, are used in original form and in mass variations. All of these are interpolated musically and visually.

In the second part of the work, archive video and audio again are used - stills and video are combined in many instances. This section deals with the U.S. government's atomic bomb tests in the Bikini Atoll. Interpolation of audio and video.

In the third section of the work (Dolly), many important scientists and computer researchers are interviewed. These interviews not only adress the central moral and ethical issues of our times but also they are spliced and mixed up together. There is a complex texture of idea vs. idea, as various scientists and experts give their opinions. All of this is woven into a very nice video and audio presentation.

The central issue of this work is stated very well in a recurring theme througout - the choice Adam and Eve were given - wether to eat the fruit of knowledge or not to eat it. Here we are again under the tree, at the end of the day. (and so on)

I believe that this work does a very fine job at expressing man's modern dilemma - that is - will our curiosity end up killing the cat? This piece is, above all, a warning - caution. This is not your average piece of art - this goes beyond - watch out - it just might fly, very fast,over head. Be warned.

I saw Three Tales in a "live" screening (without the optional live performers) at a festival this past June in Buffalo (in fact, the festival was named, "June in Buffalo"). Reich was one of five resident composers; others included Philip Glass, David Felder, John Corigliano, and Charles Wuorinen.

Reich was given an evening of performances by the Buffalo resident performers which included his classic Piano Phase, the more recent Triple Quartet (this version for 12 strings), and of course Three Tales. In fact, Reich's wife, Beryl Korot, the artist responsible for the unforgetable visuals in Three Tales, was also at the festival and was interviewed along with Reich.

Although I have not yet purchased this particular CD/DVD set, I intend to do so immediately on account of its brilliant combination of music, visual art, and intellectual "storyline." Covering a range in topics from the nuclear testing at Bikini, the Hindenburg (excuse my spelling if it is incorrect) Disaster, and cloning, this politically charged work leaves most audience members touched in an excitingly new way.

Reich's music is captivating and a significant bit "newer" than is typical in his evolution from piece to piece.

I highly recommend this possible future masterpiece to anyone interested in good art.

Many people will view this DVD and get nothing out of it. Which is really rather a shame. This piece is actually about SOMETHING. It is not about music and visuals. Reich and Korot are trying to express something (I'm quite sure of it). There are many references to the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Knowledge. Personally, I believe that this Garden of Eden story is an allegory on the theme of "will man destroy himself by way of his own curiosity or drive for 'knowledge'?"
I feel that Three Tales is one of these such allegories. What will we do with ourselves and our newly gotten, and perhaps, ill-gotten knowledge?

"The sin of Adam - in eating - was that he was too hasty." - Adin Steinsaltz

In the last tale, right at the end of the work, Cynthia Breazeal asks her robot baby, Kismet, "how is your day going? - you got it all planned out? maybe you'll play with your yellow toy?" This sums up the work quite well.

One last thing, I have never understood is all of the comparison of Reich to Glass and Glass to Reich. They are two completely different birds. They ride on seperate tracks of thought. Honestly, there are extreme worlds of difference between Glass and Reich.

Steve Reich seems to suffer from having been a prodigious and prolific talent in the 70's. Often those who discover his work like to pigeonhole him as a 'minimalist', and cite his groundbreaking earlier ensemble work as his best, and many of the works that followed as inferior.

I love 'Music for 18 Musicians', 'Drumming', 'Mallet Instruments' and all of these other pieces (even the relatively austere and slightly brain-melting 'four organs'), but what people seem to miss is that Reich is a pioneer, and there is no way he can continue to achieve his best if he simply repeats himself endlessly until the end of his time as a composer.

Instead, he has developed, and continues to do so on Three Tales.

Many of his more contemporary works (arguably from around 'Different Trains' onwards) are considerably more ambitious, often more musically complex, and, I imagine, more demanding for many listeners who are more accustomed to the pure zen beauty of '18 musicians', et al. This does not mean that they are not less rewarding.

I too discovered Reich through his earlier work, and I was a little alienated by 'Three Tales' in particular, as well as other more vocal works like 'the Cave' and 'Proverb'. The vocals seemed jarring and unambiguous, and the music was stark: intense in a very different way. However, my respect for Reich drove me to listen further, and I have grown to appreciate and enjoy Reich's modern works as the equal of his earlier successes.

Three Tales, in particular, is a staggering piece of art, which asks some pertinient questions about post-industrial life, faith and science through some of the most wonderful music I've ever heard. By turns Reich delivers bombast, tragedy and irereverent humour blended with serious social commentary. It's fascinating stuff, and much like 'the Cave', has rich levels of meaning.

Reich continues to deliver the goods: 'Daniel Variations' and 'You Are' deserve unprejudiced ears, and offer as much reward to listeners as any of his early work.

The only reason I give a 4 star score for 'Three Tales' is that the video art seems inferior to the music, to me. I'm not certain that it would be possible to create visuals that would be the equal of Reich's score, but the dated computer graphics that dominate the DVD seem weak to me in places, particularly during the first two of the 'tales'. 'Dolly' is much more interesting to me, visually. Nonetheless, I still watch the DVD, and I consider it a worthwhile purchase.

Listen / watch and enjoy this truly original piece!

Weeks before seeing Three Tales I heard its score. The music Reich composed for this opera is slightly less interesting than anything he has published previously. It features incessantly repeating syncopated phrases comprised of annoying melodies tossed upon stagnant, droning tones. This is the best that can be noted of the work. Mr. Reich uses Three Tales to expand his compositional methods into the modern age of the early 1990's. Time-stretched vocals are in every piece. A computerized voice (as that available standard on every Macintosh computer) sings several solos in the Dolly act. Uncomplicated, novice drum programming also hammers into numerous pieces - this is particularly disappointing as Mr. Reich is a competent percussionist himself. From onset to finish the score falls victim to a toybox of mundane digital audio gimmicks - perhaps impressive to the ignorant elite of la musique nouveau but thoroughly boring to anyone willing to acknowledge the radio music of the last two decades [see N'Sync's BT produced "Pop", Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle", Britney Spears' Neptunes produced "Slave", or anything produced for Madonna by William Orbit for far more progressive and successful attempts at integrating DSP (Digital Signal Processing) techniques into music]. Reich and his engineers should understand that these audio effects are not an end in and of themselves, and it shows little respect for the listener to try to pass these off as such.

The greater failing of Three Tales is the video component produced by Beryl Korot. I want to write only a few words on this piece as I have already spent more time on this review than a first grader with iMovie would require to reproduce Ms. Korot's cut and paste disaster. In my life I have watched my father slowly succumb to bone cancer, I see daily attrocities broadcast on the television news and the uncut footage on HBO or the internet. Yet, not for its content but for its design Ms. Korot's video for Three Tales is perhaps the worst thing ever to have struck mine eyes.

Steve Reich's greatest work has widely been considered to be "Music for 18 Musicians" and I agree with that assessment. I've listened to my copy many times.

I would love to buy a copy of Three Tales, of which I've heard exciting excerpts, but I need a question or two answered first. The last time I bought a Steve Reich recording without doing any research, it was Tehillim, which I've only been able to listen to once. His work runs the gammit of wonderful to awful, so now I'm more hesitant to jump right in.

First of all, how does this rank in terms of Steve Reich's other works? Is it a new and wonderful achievement? Can it stand without the DVD visuals? What, if anything, ultimately sets it apart?

Secondly, how does the combination of music and visuals relate to previous politically-charged efforts of the same kind, such as Reggio's qatsi trilogy? Is this Koyaanisqatsi all over again or is it something new? Is this shameless artistic theft, or is there something that really sets it apart?

I guess both questions essentially ask the same thing. I would appreciate any information reviewers can give me. Thanks.

(Oh, yeah, if you're new to Steve Reich, go buy the new recording of Music for 18 Musicians. 68 continuous minutes of the strangest and most oddly enchanting music that people have ever called "minimalism.")

The visuals are remarkable and the composition is stirring but this is not "easy" listening. I am not sure how often I will dig up the DVD, although I will show Richard Dawkins saying "machine, chine, chine..." to my "bright" buddies, but the CD does work on it's own.

I really envy the people who saw this live.

If you're expecting another Koyaanisqatsi, you will be disappointed. That's not to say that this is bad, but I kind of prefer listening to the music without the video better. The music is an elaborated Reich, a more complex Reich, a Reich who took what he learned from his earlier tape-looping days of "Come Out" and "It's Gonna Rain," combined it with the genius and brilliance of "Music for 18 Musicians," tossed in some singing that reminds me of the better passages of "Tehillim," but can still be a-rhythmic and annoying, and came up with this. It moves faster, he samples more voices for less time, and gives his singers a larger libretto. The music is good; Reich certainly has enough experience to do his own style of music well, and here he does it well.

But for Beryl Korot's contribution, well, it looks too much like PowerPoint. The video that goes with the music, barely over an hour in length and on the included DVD, has a boxy style, one that splits the screen into little segments and confines action to them. Often, the rest is white space, which makes it look very un-sinister, though the music carries a different message. Korot uses cut-outs and outlines of characters in action shots, and often the cuts are, well, poorly done. The best part of this all is easily the "Dolly" part, especially "machines" and "every creature has a song," but often the video detracts.

So if they offered this as a CD alone, I would have bought that. The DVD is only mildly intriguing, and the visuals just aren't there. Koyaanisqatsi is being preserved by the Library of Congress, it gained a cult following, and you can show it to your non-arty friends and not feel all that weird. They might even like it. Unfortunately, none of that can be said for Three Tales.

I came across this cinematic abomination while watching IFC, a channel which usually does a pretty good job of keeping pretentious quasi-art slop like this off it`s program roster. As I watched, I thought that what I was looking at was an introductory segment to one of the events this movie supposedly comments on, but soon I realized that no, the whole movie was in fact like this.

This "video opera", as it`s been called, does not go over my head as suggested by a previous reviewer; I`m well aware of the half-baked paralells this project attempts to draw between biblical themes and technological ventures of modern man. In fact, I agree with a lot of the statements made about the way technology dehumanizes us. My problem with this film is that it attempts to frame all of this within a completely unbearable assault on the eyes and ears.

One thing I`ll say for Beryl Korot, she sure knows how to get every dime`s worth out of her editing software. No scroll, panelling effect or embossing filter goes unused in "Three Tales", and you`ll become well aqcuainted with them as they`re used almost constantly for the entire film. Korot`s way of flashing words onto the screen in time with the score is interesting at first, but it soon wears out it`s welcome just like every other visual effect that gets rehashed ad nauseum over
the film`s 75 minutes (give or take). Speaking of the score, for such an acclaimed composer you`d think Steve Reich capable of doing more than tediously hammering away on one piano note while an atonal chorus nasally drones over it. His music tries to invoke tension, but tension stretched out over an hour fifteen winds up losing all impact and getting bent out of shape like an overtaxed slinky, as it does here.

The most potent images this film has to offer come from unmodified film stock of trees being vaporized by a nuclear blast, and the musical accompaniment by Reich serves more as an annoying backdrop than the unsettling counterpoint he was going for.

I suppose this piece might be good for film students to have in their collection on the chance that a teacher/colleague will see it and be impressed that they are able to appreciate something so "avant-garde". Other than that, you probably won`t be stimulated by this (at least not in a positive way).