The Key to Songs/Return

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
"The Key to Songs" is music for an imaginary ballet inspired by A Week of Kindness, or The Seven Deadly Elements, the 1933 novel in the form of a collage by the surrealist painter, Max Ernst. The 'novel' is wordless, being composed of dramatic and often erotic collages, using, principally, illustrations from French popular fiction. Each of the novel's seven chapters represents a day of the week and each day has a "deadly element" associated with it. Beginning with Sunday, the elements are: Mud, Water, Fire, Blood, Blackness, Sight and Unknown. A motto and a Dadaist or Surrealist epigraph prefaces each chapter, and the motto becomes an enigmatic visual motif. Subotnick's score - which calls for two pianos, three mallet instruments (marimba, xylophone and vibraphone) shared by two players, viola, cello and the Yamaha Computer Assisted Music System (YCAMS) - provides a musical counterpart to Ernst's enigmatic collage in several ways. The phantasmagorical ambiguity between reality and fantasy found in Ernst collages, and in the surreal groupings of images, has its equivalent in Subotnick's application of electronics.

The Key to Songs/Return, Music, Morton Subotnick, Rand Steiger, California EAR Unit, Classical, Classical Composers, Electronic/Computer/Tape Music, Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous Music

Average customer rating:

Rockin' Subotnick?

Just buy it now!

The Key to Songs/Return
Morton Subotnick
Manufacturer: New Albion Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000000R2A
Release Date: 1986-01-01

Tracks:

The Key to Songs
Return - a triumph of reason I
Return - a triumph of reason II

Album Description

"The Key to Songs" is music for an imaginary ballet inspired by A Week of Kindness, or The Seven Deadly Elements, the 1933 novel in the form of a collage by the surrealist painter, Max Ernst. The 'novel' is wordless, being composed of dramatic and often erotic collages, using, principally, illustrations from French popular fiction. Each of the novel's seven chapters represents a day of the week and each day has a "deadly element" associated with it. Beginning with Sunday, the elements are: Mud, Water, Fire, Blood, Blackness, Sight and Unknown. A motto and a Dadaist or Surrealist epigraph prefaces each chapter, and the motto becomes an enigmatic visual motif. Subotnick's score - which calls for two pianos, three mallet instruments (marimba, xylophone and vibraphone) shared by two players, viola, cello and the Yamaha Computer Assisted Music System (YCAMS) - provides a musical counterpart to Ernst's enigmatic collage in several ways. The phantasmagorical ambiguity between reality and fantasy found in Ernst collages, and in the surreal groupings of images, has its equivalent in Subotnick's application of electronics.

Customer Reviews:

Rockin' Subotnick?.......2001-03-01

This is exciting (and yes, even fun!) stuff from pioneering electronic composer Morton Subotnick. If you know him mainly from "Silver Apples of the Moon" days, you'll find his music has taken quite a new direction.

The "Key to Songs" is for synthesizers and live players on strings, pianos, and mallet instruments. The electronic parts and the "live" parts intermingle very convincingly, creating interesting layers of sound. The music itself tends toward traditional tonality, with vigorous pulsing rhythms throughout, interspersed with more dreamy "poems". The repetetive structures and tonal harmonies may bring to mind "minimalism", yet the degree of complexity and musical substance is certainly "maximal". It turns out that much of the melodic material is derived from a Schubert Song, which is quoted directly near the conclusion of the piece. Overall, very dynamic, appealing, and yes, nearly "rockin'" stuff from Morton. (Also check out the Max Ernst surrealistic collage book, "Une Semaine de Bonte", which Amazon carries... amazing!)

"Return" uses similar harmonic and rhythmic techniques, but is entirely electronic (and about twice the length: 40 minutes or so). It was written to commemorate the return of Halley's comet, and takes you on a time-travelling journey across the eons, from primordial sounds, to "dances of destruction", to medieval times, through Boroque, Classical, Romantic, and even Ragtime styles. Overall: engaging, exciting, and impressive. Check it out!

Just buy it now!.......1999-01-19

The incomparable, uniquely overwhleming experience of Morton Subotnick's music never fails to stun the imagination.

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Subotnick: The Key To Songs; Return
California E.A.R. Unit
Manufacturer: Koch Entertainment
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000N0M0XM
Release Date: 1995-01-01

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

Flash and the Pan [Original recording remastered] [Import]

Italian Bassoon Concertos

Lipstick & Bruises [CD-single]

Chet Is Back! [Original recording remastered]

Burn Piano Island Burn [Import]

Lunch Or Dinner [Import]

Lerner in Love: The Lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner

Leonhard Lechner:Newe Teutsche Lieder

Hourglass of Time

Hindemith: Music for Cello and Piano

Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker

Eu Canto Samba

Es Banda, Vol. 2

The Live

Masters Of Jazz, Vol. 2: Bebop's Greatest Hits