Musical Overtones Reviewed

Those of you who read yesterday's entry will know about the concert I went to. The programme consisted of three pieces of minimalist music (by no means meaning that the programme itself was minimal), by Steve Reich, Philip Glass and a lesser-known Polish composer, Tomasz Sikorski.

Each piece was introduced on a large screen (which also served as a multimedia backdrop for the oeuvres) by Polish musicologist Andrzej Chłopecki. Each introduction was in the form of a mini lecture, and because of the musical niche that the programme comprised, I am sure that most of the concert-goers were students at the Music Academy (Akademia Muzyczna) in Kraków.

But on to the music. Tomasz Sikorski's  piece was what the programme declared "a trial for Slavonic minimalism". A trial it was, although the music was sublime, if not subliminal. Much of the audience dozed off for the duration (including myself), not out of boredom, but due to the tonality (and a fair share of minimal atonality that is fairly common in music of this type) and harmony of the piece: Struny w ziemi (Strings in the earth).

Steve Reich's  "Triple Quartet" was played by 12 string players (who would have guessed), although the piece has also been written so that two quartets can be played back from a pre-recorded tape. Luckily we were given a fully live performance. The piece had Jewish overtones in it (although there wasn't the kind of 'wailing' you get in Klezmer music), and was lively enough to get the audience back on track after the dreamy chords of Sikorski's opus. Funnily enough, the piece was especially written for the Kronos Quartet, which played in Kraków not so long ago.

The third and final piece of the concert was Philip Glass' Symphony no.3. It was one of the most beutiful pieces of music I have heard this year. Very typical Glass, with waves of chords and juicy modulations that swung back and forth whilst keeping the audience on their toes. The two outer movements were very calm (one reminded me of a movement Glass had already written for Koyaanisqatsi or a film of similar ilk) with a very crowded inner two movements. I am not a music critic, but anyone who likes Glass would have loved to listen to this piece of music. So rounded and full of extatic sonority... (That's as far as my music criticness extends to: Chłopecki did a much better job of it...)

As far as minimal music goes in Poland, well, it isn't that popular. Yet the concert was a sell-out affair, and it proved how this kind of music can have such a profound effect on the human psyche. But then again, Wagner's music did too, and his music wasn't minimal at all...