Thirteen Ways

Joan Tower (Artist), George Perle (Artist), David Schober (Artist), Thomas Albert (Artist), Eighth Blackbird (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 22, 2003)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Cedille
• ASIN: B00008ZL55
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #321,535 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

1. Petroushskates

2. Critical Moments 2: 1 = 120

3. Critical Moments 2: 2 = 104

4. Critical Moments 2: 3 = 88

5. Critical Moments 2: 4 = 112

6. Critical Moments 2: 5 = 88

7. Critical Moments 2: 6 = 112

8. Critical Moments 2: 7 = 44

9. Critical Moments 2: 8 = 63

10. Critical Moments 2: 9 = 126

11. Variations

12. Thirteen Ways: Leaden, Bleak

13. Thirteen Ways: Aloof, Persistent

14. Thirteen Ways: Nimble, Capricious

15. Thirteen Ways: Sensuous, Relaxed

16. Thirteen Ways: Freely, Like a Birdsong

17. Thirteen Ways: Subdued, But Urgently

18. Thirteen Ways: Exuberant, But Increasingly Stodgy

19. Thirteen Ways: Steady, Rhythmic

20. Thirteen Ways: Spacious, Detached

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Detroit Free Press

Everyone who cares about contemporary music -- and even those who think they don't -- should hear eighth blackbird.

Product Description

The exciting young contemporary-music sextet eighth blackbird has been snatching up glowing reviews, prestigious engagements and residencies, and competition victories, including the 2000 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. This innovative ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion takes its name from the Wallace Stevens poem, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird."

Thirteen Ways is also the title of the group's commercial recording debut album on Cedille Records, featuring music by four of America's most gifted composers:David Schober (b. 1974), Thomas Albert (b. 1948), Joan Tower (b. 1938), and George Perle (b. 1915). Tower's sparkling Petroushskates is a vibrant homage to Stravinsky; Schober's elegantly crafted Variations, by turns ethereal and insistent, garnered the 1999 Wayne Peterson Prize from San Francisco State University; Perle's Critical Moments II, one of the ensemble's recent commissions, is "remarkably fresh in its spiky crystalline fragments, rapid atonal flurries and muted wisps of sound" (Los Angeles Times); and Albert's kaleidoscopic Thirteen Ways is as evocative and stimulating as the poem that inspired it.

With its "hip, engaging energy and a sterling musicianship" (Chicago Tribune), eighth blackbird "proves that new music can be both fun and serious" (Detroit Free Press). Even if your tastes tend toward the traditional, you'll find yourself beguiled by the new CD from "this wise and vivacious ensemble" (San Francisco Chronicle).

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb New Music, May 15, 2003

By	RComposer "RComposer" (Fla.) - See all my reviews

The ensemble plays exquisitely and the compositions are brilliant, especially Albert's piece, thirteen ways. If you haven't heard his music before this is an excellent introduction. The piece is unpredictable, exotic and exciting. It paints vivid sonic images that mirror the spoken poems.