PHILIP GLASS Nico Muhly

PHILIP GLASS IN THE SUMMER HOUSE / MaD RUSH NICO MUHLY FOUR STUDIES / HONEST MUSIC ANGEla & JENNIFER CHUN violins NicO MUhly keyboards icO MUhly first listened to Philip treats exercises in counterpoint as wistful PHILIP GLASS (b. 1937) Glass’s Music in Twelve Parts on a ruminations. In the first movement, chains of IN THE SUMMER HOUSE / MaD RUsh discman in his freshman year of suspensions are punctuated by puffs of rest, college, while riding the subway in extending into lengthier lines and more outré NNew York. “One of the things I used to always harmonies. For “Fast Canons,” Muhly places (b. 1981) NICO MUHLY struggle with with the masterpieces of classical the violins in jittery interchange; in “Slow FOUR STUDIES / HONEST MUSIC minimal composition is the resistance, on the Canons,” imitation develops more carefully, part of the composers, to suggest narratives,” and perhaps menacingly. “Open Notes” is ANGELA & JENNIFER CHUN violins the young composer wrote on his blog in marked by sweetness but also anxiety—perhaps NICO MUhly piano* & keyboard 2008, describing the experience. Shirking the unifying affect in Muhly’s music—as Glass’s abstraction, Muhly instead imbued decadent dissonances puncture conventional the landmark minimalist work with his own counterpoint. NicO MUhly – FOUR STUDIES (2014) (15’08) personal narrative; Music in Twelve Parts Throughout Four Studies, humming Dedicated to Angela & Jennifer Chun would forever evoke an early metropolitan keyboard drones waft in and out of the violin 1 I. Suspensions 4’25 journey. That Muhly encountered Glass’s music parts (Muhly writes that “the drone should 2 II. Fast Canons 3’52 while riding the N train down Broadway is remain loosely indifferent…avoiding any overly 3 III. Slow Canons 3’52 particularly appropriate. Glass has maintained dramatic commentary”). The organ has long 4 IV. Open Notes 2’59 a lifelong relationship to downtown New represented a fount of inspiration for Muhly, York, and Muhly himself has remained a and its source is twofold: the stark, amplified 5 NicO MUhly – HONEST MUSIC (2003) 7’09 steadfast Manhattanite even as many of his Farfisa of Glass’s early music, which Muhly contemporaries have decamped to Brooklyn. first heard on one of his parents’ albums at age 6 Philip Glass – MAD RUSH (1979) 14’40 Within a year of that subway encounter, twelve; and the sacred splendor of the Anglican (transcribed for 2 violins by Alexandra du Bois, 2014) Muhly found himself working at Glass’s church, which he encountered when he joined Philip Glass – IN THE SUMMER HOUSE (1993) (19’30) studio as a copyist, editor, and sequencer a choir in his youth. The organ in these studies (transcribed for 2 violins by Alexandra du Bois, 2014) for film scores. The relationship between assumes a function that reflects both of these 7 I. In the Summer House – II. My One and Only Hope – 3’29 the two composers is personal, professional, settings; “Suspensions” concludes with a hymn- III. Gertrude’s Pradise and musical. Muhly is a longtime admirer of like cadence, while “Slow Canons” opens with a Glass’s work—something that critics all too ubiquitous, electric sheen. 8 2’47 IV. Mr. Solares’ Picnic Lunch – V. [-] unfortunately often seize upon, viewing the Muhly and Glass are fastidious composers. 9 VI. Molly Is a Dreamer – VII. Enter Vivian – 2’36 former exclusively as a derivative of the latter. For Glass, that attention to detail comes VIII. The Beach / Lionel & Molly But in presenting the works of both figures, from his study with famed pedagogue Nadia [NB: IX and X not included in this arrangement] this album of music for violins sheds important Boulanger, while for Muhly it derives from light on the connections between Muhly and a love of the fussy music of Igor Stravinsky. 10 2’41 XI. Vivian’s Death [conclusion] – XII. Gertrude Leaves Glass. Here Glass is presented not as the author Originally composed as incidental music for a Summer House of mammoth pieces like Music in Twelve Parts, 1993 production of a play by Jane Bowles, and 11 XIII. Left Alone 1’01 but as a miniaturist; it is a role shared with arranged for the Chuns in 2014, the vignettes Muhly, who rarely composes in the epic mode. of IN THE SUMMER HOUSE represent 12 XIV. The Lobster Bowl – XV. Back to Sad Things – 3’13 And despite his notoriety for works of massive Glass at his most focused. The work opens with XVI. I Knew You Would Come Back [excerpt] – length, Glass has always been a craft-focused corkscrew melodies atop chains of arpeggios—a XI. Vivian’s Death [beginning] artisan whose music breaks down into small, trademark Glass gesture—but soon turns 13 XVII. When I was a Little Girl 3’43 tightly designed modules. towards stranger sounds such as the quivering Written specifically for Angela and Jennifer sul ponticello effects of “Gertrude’s Paradise.” Chun—accompanied here by the composer on Glass employs a minimum amount of material *Baldwin Piano SD10 piano and organ—Muhly’s FOUR STUDIES to suggest a maximum number of sentiments, 2 PHILIP GLASS / NICO MUHLY / Angela & Jennifer Chun HMU 907599 © harmonia mundi FRANÇAIS whether the descending, Schubert-esque line organ, and another remembers a childhood ICO MUhly était en première année mouvement, des séquences de retards ponctuées of “Mr. Solares’ Picnic Lunch,” the Bartókian spent playing underneath high-tension electric à l’université quand il découvrit Music de bouffées de silence s’épanouissent en lignes agitation of “Vivian’s Death,” or the baroquely wires.” In bringing together the music of Glass in Twelve Parts de Philip Glass en fleuves et en harmonies débridées. « Fast elegiac final movement, “When I Was a Little and Muhly, this album presents essential l’écoutant sur un baladeur dans le Canons » est un jeu d’échange nerveux entre les Girl.” connections between both composers, ones that Nmétro de New York. «La réticence narrative des violons. « Slow Canons » développe l’imitation That concentration also extends to the imbue each work with meanings both specific grandes œuvres du minimalisme classique me avec un soin pointilleux presque alarmant. more-sprawling MAD RUSH, one of Glass’s and personal. posait toujours un problème, » notait le jeune « Open Notes » est marqué par la douceur most widely performed keyboard works, here - WilliaM RObiN compositeur sur son blog en 2008, à propos mais aussi l’inquiétude (qui pourrait bien être arranged for violin duo. Glass first wrote de son expérience. Cherchant à se soustraire à l’affect unificateur de l’œuvre de Muhly) au fur and played Mad Rush for the entrance of the HE MAKING of this recording of l’abstraction de Glass, Muhly dota cette œuvre et à mesure que des dissonances crépusculaires Dalai Lama into the Cathedral of St. John works by Philip Glass and Nico Muhly phare du minimalisme de son propre récit lacèrent le contrepoint traditionnel. the Divine, upon the eminence’s first public has been an inspiring journey for the personnel : Music in Twelve Parts serait à jamais Tout au long des Four Studies, des address in New York City in 1981. Though Duo. A 2009 meeting with the Dalai associé à un déplacement en métro aux petites bourdons apparaissent et disparaissent en initially open-ended, Mad Rush now unfolds as TLama affected the sisters deeply and led them to heures. Le lieu même de sa découverte – la filigrane dans la partie de clavier : Muhly a ternary structure divided into seven shorter the music of Philip Glass, whose MAD RUSH ligne N qui traverse Broadway – est un heureux stipule que « le bourdon doit rester vaguement sections. Here Glass’s polyrhythmic arpeggios (here transcribed by Alexandra du Bois for two hasard mais tout à fait de circonstance car Glass a indifférent » et « s’abstenir de commentaire feel particularly solemn, echoing the sanctified violins) had been composed for His Holiness’ toujours eu un attachement pour le centre ville de spectaculaire ». L’orgue, dont il découvre très tôt language of the composer’s contemporaneous first visit to North America in 1981. New York, et Muhly est resté fidèle à Manhattan deux facettes différentes (d’une part, l’austère Satyagraha (he indicates that the opening of alors que nombre de ses contemporains Farfisa amplifié des premières compositions Mad Rush should be performed “with weight, émigraient à Brooklyn. de Glass, entendu à douze ans sur un disque gravity.”). Each section creates its own sense of L’année suivante, Muhly se retrouva intégré de ses parents ; d’autre part, la splendeur de motion, through subtle shifts that accompany au studio de Glass en qualité de copiste, éditeur la musique sacrée anglicane dont il eut la the omnipresent arpeggios; jagged double-stops, et séquenceur de partitions de musiques de films. révélation en tant que jeune choriste) l’inspire replications of the fast passagework, and aching Les deux compositeurs entretenaient des rapports depuis longtemps. L’instrument assume dans melodies drastically shift the sound world. personnels, professionnels et musicaux. Muhly ces études une fonction qui reflète ces deux The grandness of Mad Rush resonates with est un admirateur de longue date du travail de contextes : « Suspensions » se clôt sur une Muhly’s 2003 HONEST MUSIC, one of the Glass. La critique, malheureusement, se raccroche cadence quasi hymnique, et « Slow Canons » composer’s earliest works. Overlapping lines trop souvent à cette particularité et considère s’ouvre dans la brillance du son électrique. produce with a single, overdubbed violin what le premier comme un « dérivé » du second. Ce Muhly et Glass sont des compositeurs Muhly performs with the duo in Four Studies; programme éclaire d’un nouveau jour leurs liens minutieux. Le second doit cette attention richly rhapsodic melodies, marked by slippery musicaux.

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