Three Tales (CD & DVD)
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Free Music Notes for Three Tales (CD & DVD)
Free Music Review: Still though
Hit: 5 Stars
Perhaps alot of how you judge something is based on how you understand the world and the culture you are raised in and live in. Our own Western culture practices the cult of beauty, ad nauseum. In our visual and audio works we not only expect it but we demand this beauty, this dazzling effect. There is an unbending and unrelenting need for divisions of things, periocity, time, and contrast. You have spent your entire life with certain ideas of how things ought to be. This is really quite a shame because one's expectations can really ruin things, if one is not careful. I cannot and do not believe that Reich and Korot intended this to be taken as ART. It most certainly is not art - and not just in the sense that something like Koyaanisqatsi IS art. This work does not fit into the category of "Western Art-Music".
"cloning is only one of the many new biological tricks, its not something we should really be worried about"
"it's a terrible mistake to think of the spiritual impulse as arising from cognitive weakness"
"once upon a time, there was carbon based life that gave over to silicon based life - I don't view the process with much equanimity...maybe I'm just semtimental.."
This is not about appreciating something - maybe this is about learning from something. Then again, you might be too smart to learn anything - there's always that possibility.
Free Music Review: Seeing Live is a Treat
Hit: 5 Stars
I saw Three Tales in a "live" screening (without the optional live performers) at a festival this past June in Buffalo (in fact, the festival was named, "June in Buffalo"). Reich was one of five resident composers; others included Philip Glass, David Felder, John Corigliano, and Charles Wuorinen. Reich was given an evening of performances by the Buffalo resident performers which included his classic Piano Phase, the more recent Triple Quartet (this version for 12 strings), and of course Three Tales. In fact, Reich's wife, Beryl Korot, the artist responsible for the unforgetable visuals in Three Tales, was also at the festival and was interviewed along with Reich.
Although I have not yet purchased this particular CD/DVD set, I intend to do so immediately on account of its brilliant combination of music, visual art, and intellectual "storyline." Covering a range in topics from the nuclear testing at Bikini, the Hindenburg (excuse my spelling if it is incorrect) Disaster, and cloning, this politically charged work leaves most audience members touched in an excitingly new way.
Reich's music is captivating and a significant bit "newer" than is typical in his evolution from piece to piece.
I highly recommend this possible future masterpiece to anyone interested in good art.
Free Music Review: An Opinion - What is Three Tales about?
Hit: 5 Stars
Many people will view this DVD and get nothing out of it. Which is really rather a shame. This piece is actually about SOMETHING. It is not about music and visuals. Reich and Korot are trying to express something (I'm quite sure of it). There are many references to the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Knowledge. Personally, I believe that this Garden of Eden story is an allegory on the theme of "will man destroy himself by way of his own curiosity or drive for 'knowledge'?" I feel that Three Tales is one of these such allegories. What will we do with ourselves and our newly gotten, and perhaps, ill-gotten knowledge?
"The sin of Adam - in eating - was that he was too hasty." - Adin Steinsaltz
In the last tale, right at the end of the work, Cynthia Breazeal asks her robot baby, Kismet, "how is your day going? - you got it all planned out? maybe you'll play with your yellow toy?" This sums up the work quite well.
One last thing, I have never understood is all of the comparison of Reich to Glass and Glass to Reich. They are two completely different birds. They ride on seperate tracks of thought. Honestly, there are extreme worlds of difference between Glass and Reich.
Free Music Review: Revolutionary experimental music + video by Steve Reich & Beryl Korot
Hit: 5 Stars
Love it or not, Reich's music is STILL revolutionary. The sort of art that's going to draw public scorn and praise -- choose your side. The piece called DOLLY ... wow, one of the most amazing music videos ... brilliant, I thought. Included in DOLLY's cast of characters: Freya von Moltke, 'Kismet', Ruth Deech, Richard Dawkins, James D. Watson, Gina Kolata, Steven Jay Gould, Jaron Lanier, Sherry Turkle, Rodney Brooks, Steven Pinker, Robert Pollack, Adin Steinsaltz, Kevin Warwick, Joshua Getzler, Ray Kurzweil, Cynthia Breazeal, Bill Joy, Marvin Minsky, Henri Atlan. If you're bothered by strange editing, visual treatments and sonic processing as "something must be wrong with my CD/DVD player!" then perhaps this music + video is not for you. I'm giving this five stars just for DOLLY! I also enjoyed the other pieces: HINDENBURG, and BIKINI, though a little less. If you're a serious Steve Reich fan, this recent music + video work by Reich and Korot should certainly NOT disappoint -- however, be warned -- this is NOT '18 Musicians' or 'Desert Music' ... more like 'Different Trains' ... experimental and revolutionary.Free Music Review: Listen again (don't listen to the frisbee)
Hit: 5 Stars
Three Tales is astounding and beautiful. The way in which it covers the material is incredible.
The tragic sound of "Captain Ernst Lehman gasped".
The mechanic and maniacal music of "is designed to measure the effects on metal, flesh.." Man, it's eerie - the sound of the music is perfect.
The interviews of "Dolly" - man oh man, the music is extreme, reverent in places, dancing in others, introspective and yet so outward and foward looking.
I feel the Hindenberg crashing down. I feel the nervous anxiousness, the lies and deception in the Bikini Atoll. The microprocessor, the brains, the computer synaptic somatic chatter, a cloud of stars washing me as I listen to the interviews in "Dolly".
In short, this music is so wonderfully evocative of the subject matter. Don't listen too hard to those who would tell you rubbish of "Three Tales". Listen with an open mind - you just might hear the music that Steve Reich wrote.