Healing Modes (2020)

The guiding principle of this release from the contemporary music-oriented string quartet Brooklyn Rider is a very old one: that music has the power to heal illness. At its center is Beethoven's String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132, of which the large central slow movement is explicitly marked "Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der Lydischen Tonart" (Song of Thanksgiving of a Convalescent to the Godhead, in Lydian Mode). The Lydian mode, reproducible by playing the white keys on a piano from F to ... Read More

The guiding principle of this release from the contemporary music-oriented string quartet Brooklyn Rider is a very old one: that music has the power to heal illness. At its center is Beethoven's String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132, of which the large central slow movement is explicitly marked "Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der Lydischen Tonart" (Song of Thanksgiving of a Convalescent to the Godhead, in Lydian Mode). The Lydian mode, reproducible by playing the white keys on a piano from F to E, was thought by the Greeks to have healing powers. One might object that it's only the middle movement that relates to the theme, but the last two movements seem to flow from it even if there is no specific textual indication. Brooklyn Rider breaks up the movements of the quartet in the manner of a Renaissance mass, interspersing between them contemporary compositions on the healing theme. These are a varied group, taking the idea of healing in spiritual (Caroline Shaw's Schisma),... Read Less