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 |  |  | | | | Track Listings | | | 1 Cantata: The House of Christmas | (9:55 | | Symphony 1994 | | | 2 I. Allegro moderato | 5:14 | | 3 II. Andante - III. Scherzo–Vivace | 3:26 | | 4 IV. Allegretto–Presto | 2:11 | | Symphony 1990 | | | 5 I. Andante maestoso | 5:34 | | 6 II. Allegro | 2:36 | | 7 III. Adagio | 7:54 | | Variations in G | | | 8 I. Andante | 1:27 | | 9 II. | 1:16 | | 10 III. Leggiero | 1:18 | | 11 IV. Largamente | 3:20 | | 12 V. Adagio affettuoso | 3:51 | | 13 VI. Maestoso | 2:42 | | String Quartet | | | 14 I. Allegro non troppo | 3:21 | | 15 II. Scherzo vivace | 0:45 | | 16 III. Adagio | 4:17 | | 17 IV. Allegro assai | 1:57 | | Total time: | 61:13 |
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| | | | | | Francis Judd Cooke: The Warsaw Recordings | | | Our Price: $9.95  | | | | Item Number: MMC2039 | | Audio Format: DDD | | Genres: Choral\Featured Composer\Orchestral\String Quartet | | | | Description | | Excerpts from the Liner Notes
Cantata: The House of Christmas
Cantata: The House of Christmas for chorus and orchestra with soprano and baritone soli The House of Christmas may be heard as a meditation on the themes of exile and return, homelessness and home. This one-movement cantata, very much in the English tradition of Elgar and Delius, also carries echoes of Debussy (in the delicately scored opening three woodwind chords, which return midway through the piece) and the Gershwin of Porgy and Bess (in the richly chromatic choral harmonies of the first section). The sense of homelessness is palpable in the meandering orchestral figurations of the middle section and in the arc of increasingly dense, dissonant choral writing towards the end, whereas the feeling of home is conveyed by lyrical diatonic melodies for soloists and chorus, often featuring canonic imitation, and by the prevailing A major/minor tonality of the piece …
(Stephen Casale)
Symphony 1994
In this last major work of Cooke’s one can hear an almost constant restlessness. In the bass instruments one hears running feet. The orchestration reveals quick and fresh communication between constantly changing groups of instruments. The whole orchestra is caught up in this spirit of restlessness and stringency, as if hastening toward a great doorway. The composer, in his 84th year, was feeling the sands of time running very quickly through his hourglass; he knew subconsciously there was no time to lose.
(Lindsay Cooke)
Symphony 1990
Symphony 1990 was written between December 1989 and March 1990. Cooke dedicated it to his son Nym “because he urged me to write a symphony.” There is great concentration of feeling in this work; through it, the composer was expressing his inner struggle at having to let go of a close friendship. The Adagio third movement, starting with a bleak cry of loneliness, undergoes a remarkable process of transformation, leading through a gigantic effort of will to acceptance and sacrifice.
(Brian Cooke/Lindsay Cooke)
Variations in G
This whimsical piece began life as a set of variations for piano three hands, following the composer’s 1981 stroke which allowed him the use of his right hand only. In its present orchestral garb it retains the simplicity of its origins as Gebrauchsmusik. Cooke dedicated the piano version (1982) to his friend Susie Phoenix, and the later orchestral version (1986) to the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra.
(Lindsay Cooke)
String Quartet
Cooke composed this String Quartet in 1990 at the urging of his son Brian, who told him, “Don’t make it too easy,” quoting Robert Mann about a piece Cooke had written for Mann and his son Nicholas (the Rhapsody for violin and viola, 1983). The Quartet was written for and dedicated to the Pro Musica Quartet of Oakland, California.
The result is a high-wired, fast-moving, dynamic, chromatic piece, abrupt, precipitous, exciting, and disturbing to listen to. Apart from the slow movement, a strong unrest blows like a wind through the whole piece, driving the music along and culminating in the final movement in an icy blizzard. This finale begins with a cello swoop from the G an octave and a fourth below middle C, up an augmented fourth to C sharp, and the music is then driven by the “blizzard” in convulsive, yanking, jerking figures.
(Lindsay Cooke) |
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