Composing America (2014)

The intent of this release, it seems, is to provide an updated version of the American chamber music survey that started with Ives and ran up to perhaps Samuel Barber, keeping the focus on vernacular/popular content and even deepening it by showing how it has woven itself into many types of compositions. The Lark Quartet rejects the division of American music into vernacular-influenced and European-oriented, showing that vernacular instincts have penetrated the works of composers not generally associated with that tradition ... Read More

The intent of this release, it seems, is to provide an updated version of the American chamber music survey that started with Ives and ran up to perhaps Samuel Barber, keeping the focus on vernacular/popular content and even deepening it by showing how it has woven itself into many types of compositions. The Lark Quartet rejects the division of American music into vernacular-influenced and European-oriented, showing that vernacular instincts have penetrated the works of composers not generally associated with that tradition, and it offers a clever demonstration of the group's idea. Each of the first three works on the program somehow involves that most American of musical devices, the blue note. In the first of the five "pages" from John Adams' John's Book of Alleged Dances, the blue note appears in a form very close to that in Gershwin's Three Preludes for piano, creating an interesting absent touchstone. William Bolcom's wonderful song for baritone and quartet Billy in the Darbies, a forerunner of... Read Less