CD: Pickard: Gaia Symphony & Eden
SKU:
NOK 100.00
NOK 100.00
per item
Release Date: 08/12/2014
Label: Bis
Composer: John Pickard
Conductor: Andreas Hanson
Length: 1 Hours 21 Mins.
1. Eden for brass band (2005), John Pickard
Symphony No. 4 - Gaia Symphony, John Pickard
2. I. Tsunami
3. Window 1 (Water-Fire)
4. II. Wildfire
5. Window 2 (Fire-Air)
6. III. Aurora
7. Window 3 (Air-Earth)
8. IV. Men of Stone
Label: Bis
Composer: John Pickard
Conductor: Andreas Hanson
Length: 1 Hours 21 Mins.
1. Eden for brass band (2005), John Pickard
Symphony No. 4 - Gaia Symphony, John Pickard
2. I. Tsunami
3. Window 1 (Water-Fire)
4. II. Wildfire
5. Window 2 (Fire-Air)
6. III. Aurora
7. Window 3 (Air-Earth)
8. IV. Men of Stone
Pickard: Gaia Symphony & Eden
Composed over a period of fourteen years, John Pickard's Gaia Symphony and Eden are scored for the standard British brass band, with expanded percussion in the case of 'Gaia'. Both works in different ways mirror concerns regarding the world and nature, and their relationship with the human species. Gaia was the Greek goddess of the earth, but is also the name of a theory which proposes that the earth itself is a living organism and that its colonisation by humankind merely marks a certain point in its history. Like once the dinosaurs, we humans will ultimately be wiped out and the damage we are inflicting on the earth will eventually be healed. Pickards 65 minute long work started out with the second movement, Wildfire, and the suite Men of Stone which forms the final movement. Several years later two more pieces of the puzzle fell into place, with Tsunami (the opening movement) and Aurora. During the process, it became apparent to the composer that these four deeply related elements formed a single entity. As transitions between them, he wrote three short movements for percussion ensemble, calling them Windows openings in the continuous wall of brass sonority which also give the brass players a few minutes of much-needed recuperation. Only after completing the project did Pickard find that the result was in fact to be regarded as a symphony, to follow on his previous three works in that genre. On the present disc, Gaia is preceded by Eden, which the composer has described as being a summing-up and an extension of some of the principal concerns of the much longer work. Gaia ends with the emergence of Neolithic man (men of stone), and Eden takes its departure from John Miltons epic poem Paradise Lost, interpreting the story of Eden as a metaphor for the havoc mankind has inflicted upon the world, exploiting and abusing its resources. The two demanding scores are here performed by Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag from Norway, one of todays leading brass bands and the first non-British band to claim the European brass band title.
Available digitally at
Amazon
iTunes
Available digitally at
Amazon
iTunes
