Frederick Rzewski/Hanns Eisler

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"Which side are you on? Lisa Moore plays Frederick Rzewski"(cantaloupe music CA21014) http://www.cantaloupemusic.com/CA21014.html
De profundis/North American Ballads http://www.bangonacan.org/store/item.html?sku=CA21014

About De Profundis
Rzewski's 'De Profundis' (1992) for speaking pianist could be described as a melodramatic oratorio in which eight sections are preceded by eight instrumental preludes. It is a 30 minute composition for piano solo in which the pianist recites text excerpted from Oscar Wilde's letter (De Profundis) to Lord Alfred Douglas ('Bosie'), written during the author's imprisonment in Reading Gaol. The original text is an 80-page 'love letter'. It was never sent to Bosie for fear that he would destroy it, but was eventually read out in court to him in a later trial.
On November 13th 1895 Wilde was taken to prison under charges relating to his homosexual conduct. He was called a sodomist by Bosie's father, and in retaliation Wilde attempted to sue for defamation. This attempt 'backfired' on Wilde and he was sentenced to hard labour for two years. Even though Wilde ultimately blamed his lover Bosie for his downfall, 'De Profundis' was in some aspects a therapeutic attempt to forgive Bosie and end the bitterness in Wilde's heart. The letter was written with no corrections (having apparently been allowed only one piece of paper in his cell at any time) and is Wilde's last work of prose. The climax of De Profundis comes as Wilde discovers God, not a morally judgmental figure but an accepting, loving spirit, independant of any religious affiliation. This revelation begins to heal Wilde's misery. In 1897 Wilde left prison a changed man. He was ecstatic and determined to resume his once great artistic career. However, banished to Europe (where he reunited for a short while with Bosie in Italy), he became increasingly ostracised and was unable to complete any works other than the large poem 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol', and an article on child imprisonment. - Lisa Moore

ensemble Inte'grales aus "History's Endless Chain" http://www.ensemble-integrales.com/htmlsdeutsch/ensembleintegralesaktuell/audiogalerie.html

rzewski.mp3 http://www.ensemble-integrales.com/medien/sounds/rzewski.mp3

Tenor - Henning Kaiser
Chor/Violine - Barbara Lu"neburg
Chor/Saxofon - Burkhard Friedrich
Chor/Schlagzeug - Nils Grammerstorf
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Charlie Williams is a classical and rock pianist and composer, as well as a teacher, electronics artist, and chamber musician. His music can be heard in concerts around the US, in recent Chicago films Broken Echoes and Through Walls, and in his art-rock group Mira Mira. http://ickydog.com/artists/will.html

The Road is a "novel" for solo piano, which when completed will contain about seven hours of music. I think of this music as a novel because it is meant primarily to be read (played) by a single person alone in a room, at a speed and for a duration determined by that person, independently of the conventions of concert performance. (This same person may also perform portions of the music for an audience.) Many of the best-known works in the classical keyboard literature-- Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are examples-- are similarly intended primarily for home consumption, rather than public performance. I like to think of The Road as a continuation of this classical tradition.
The entire work consists of eight parts, each of which contains eight "miles", or movements. (The entire road contains sixty-four "miles".) Part I ("Turns," Miles 1-8, 30 minutes) is a set of eight studies, some of which resemble fugues. No. 4 is a piano arrangement of a choral piece protesting the French nuclear tests in the South Pacific, which I wrote on the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, which left a traumatic impression on me as a seven-year-old in 1945. Part I is dedicated to Max Cykiert. The other completed part titles are: II - Tracks; III ? Tramps; IV - Stops; V - A Few Knocks; VI - Traveling with Children; VII - Final Preparations. --Program note by the composer

Piano Piece #4 http://ickydog.com/audio/cw/rzewski.mp3

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The Road, Part I [Chicago Premiere] http://ickydog.com/audio/cw/roadpartone/theroad.html

Democrat and Chronicle 2004/04/01 http://www.democratandchronicle.com/entertainment/arts/classical/ent_1604.shtml
John Pitcher Classical recordings 1: Beyond cacophony They say modern music is dissonant and ugly. We say you should live on the cutting edge.

The People United Will Never Be Defeated (1975). Stephen Drury, piano, New Albion Records. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/audio/040104rzewski.mp3

American composer Frederic Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated is a sprawling piece, lasting 55 minutes, that's based on Sergio Ortega's Chilean protest song. It's composed in the style of contemporary eclecticism, reflecting the diverse influences of Beethoven's classicism, Rachmaninoff's hyper-virtuosic romanticism, modern techniques (at certain points the pianist is required to whistle and slam the piano lid), South American folk song and jazz.
Rzewski, a piano virtuoso himself, wrote the piece in a white heat, finishing it in just two months. Pianist Ursula Oppens premiered the work, playing it along side Beethoven's Diabelli Variations as a kind of companion piece. The People United more than held its own. (Recommended recording: Stephen Drury, piano, New Albion Records.)

Steve Lacy, Irene Aebi, and Frederic Rzewski set
the poetry of Judith Malina and Julian Beck to music with a blend of saxophone, piano
Rzewski_Aebi_Lacy-Joy.mp3
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http://www.epitonic.com/artists/stevelacyireneaebiandfredericrzewski.html

New Plastic Music http://www.newplasticmusic.org/

Attica|Frederic Rzewski http://www.newplasticmusic.org/np2/attica.mp3

New Plastic Weblog put another dime in the jukebox http://www.newplasticmusic.org/blog/index.html
2006/02/21 long time coming... http://www.newplasticmusic.org/blog/2006/02/long-time-coming.html

David Irving's been sentenced to three years in Austrian prison, for holocaust denial.
...
I have no trouble seeing the damage caused by holocaust denial, just as I have no trouble seeing the damage caused by expressions of racial or ethnic prejudice. These actions present a threat to the psychological health of individuals and their communities, as well as a threat to the integrity of current ideas and the historical record. But that's a risk inherent to the preservation of free speech. Without demonstrating a clear and present danger to freedom, health, security, etc. (not manufacturing one, as the Bush administration did with the Patriot Act), the anti-Holocaust denial laws do not seem justified.

Irving's nemesis, Deborah Lipstadt, agrees*1 that the free speech concern should take precedent. But she manages a nice dig at the end of the article, which I think is warranted considering what he put her through.

Nothing is served by having David Irving in a jail cell, except that he has become an international news issue. Let him go home and let him continue talking to six people in a basement. Let him fade into obscurity where he belongs.

Ice cold!!