- The Way of the Birds I 10:28
- The Way of the Birds II 10:04
- The Way of the Birds III 6:43
- FOOTNOTE (…and Isolde/ns Winkfall Lassen…)
15:08
Gheorghi Arnaoudov
The Way of the Birds
Labor Records new release presents Bulgarian composer Gheorghi Arnaoudov’s highly original and hauntingly imaginative musical canvases of sound and text pregnant with movement and stasis.
Bulgarian composer Gheorghi Arnaoudov has forged a profound body of work deeply rooted in minimalism and, at the same time, creating an intensely imaginative, vibrating sound world that constantly defies convention. His vital use of a variety of literary sources, aesthetic ideas, and collaborations with other art forms distinguish his music in today’s European concert culture. Labor Records’ latest release, The Way of the Birds, presents four sound-poems from Bulgaria’s most cosmopolitan compositional voice at the height of his powers, music that captures the freedom of flight and engages in conversations with poets, philosophers, and folk traditions across the ages.
The Way of the Birds I–III (1995-1996) represent three large fragments from Arnaudov's cycle of tone-poems for soprano and various chamber ensembles based on medieval Bulgarian love texts from the 17th and 18th centuries as collected in the 1861 Zagreb edition of the Miladinovi brothers’ Bulgarian Folksongs. Growing organically out of collaborations with Bulgarian choreographer Mila Iskrenova, these sumptuous works weave authentic ritual chants and amorous texts into polymorphous, dream-like dances suggesting the sensation of flight.
Arnaoudov’s FOOTNOTE (…und Isolde/ns Winkfall lassen) was written in 1991 for voice (Sprechstimme), cello, and chamber orchestra; it is based on the poem "A Prayer" (1924) from the Pomes Penyeach collection by James Joyce. Subtitled "An Imaginary Interlude to the Second Act of Tristan and Isolde", FOOTNOTE refers to the scene in which Isolde, after her meeting with Brangäne, waits impatiently for the arrival of Tristan. The German subtitle is also imaginary—a strange combination of an archaic possessive form and a semiotic neologism.
Experiencing these works, performed at an extraordinarily high musical level by some of Bulgaria’s top artists, is to enter into Arnaoudov’s sublime, surrealistic sound world of colors and vibrations, of emotion and meaning. Labor Records continues its tradition of presenting music of exceptional creativity with this release of Gheorghi Arnaoudov’s music of stasis—an intense minimalism full of emotion and silence—music that is both of our time and beyond time.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Music from one of eastern Europe’s most cosmopolitan composers
- Minimalism of an intensely emotional quality that constantly defies convention
- Dream-like works created out of dance collaborations weaving ancient ritual chants, amorous texts, and modern poetry
REVIEWS
Musicweb International
Jeremy Marchant, FANFARE
Barnaby Rayfield, FANFARE
Kultura
© 2011 Labor Records. All rights reserved.