Three Tales (CD & DVD)
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Free Music Notes for Three Tales (CD & DVD)
Free Music Review: This is more of a question
Hit: 4 Stars
Steve Reich's greatest work has widely been considered to be "Music for 18 Musicians" and I agree with that assessment. I've listened to my copy many times.I would love to buy a copy of Three Tales, of which I've heard exciting excerpts, but I need a question or two answered first. The last time I bought a Steve Reich recording without doing any research, it was Tehillim, which I've only been able to listen to once. His work runs the gammit of wonderful to awful, so now I'm more hesitant to jump right in.
First of all, how does this rank in terms of Steve Reich's other works? Is it a new and wonderful achievement? Can it stand without the DVD visuals? What, if anything, ultimately sets it apart?
Secondly, how does the combination of music and visuals relate to previous politically-charged efforts of the same kind, such as Reggio's qatsi trilogy? Is this Koyaanisqatsi all over again or is it something new? Is this shameless artistic theft, or is there something that really sets it apart?
I guess both questions essentially ask the same thing. I would appreciate any information reviewers can give me. Thanks.
(Oh, yeah, if you're new to Steve Reich, go buy the new recording of Music for 18 Musicians. 68 continuous minutes of the strangest and most oddly enchanting music that people have ever called "minimalism.")
Free Music Review: Challenging - yes, Entertaining - hmmm
Hit: 4 Stars
The visuals are remarkable and the composition is stirring but this is not "easy" listening. I am not sure how often I will dig up the DVD, although I will show Richard Dawkins saying "machine, chine, chine..." to my "bright" buddies, but the CD does work on it's own.I really envy the people who saw this live.
Free Music Review: Okay, so now I've finally seen it and...
Hit: 3 Stars
If you're expecting another Koyaanisqatsi, you will be disappointed. That's not to say that this is bad, but I kind of prefer listening to the music without the video better. The music is an elaborated Reich, a more complex Reich, a Reich who took what he learned from his earlier tape-looping days of "Come Out" and "It's Gonna Rain," combined it with the genius and brilliance of "Music for 18 Musicians," tossed in some singing that reminds me of the better passages of "Tehillim," but can still be a-rhythmic and annoying, and came up with this. It moves faster, he samples more voices for less time, and gives his singers a larger libretto. The music is good; Reich certainly has enough experience to do his own style of music well, and here he does it well.But for Beryl Korot's contribution, well, it looks too much like PowerPoint. The video that goes with the music, barely over an hour in length and on the included DVD, has a boxy style, one that splits the screen into little segments and confines action to them. Often, the rest is white space, which makes it look very un-sinister, though the music carries a different message. Korot uses cut-outs and outlines of characters in action shots, and often the cuts are, well, poorly done. The best part of this all is easily the "Dolly" part, especially "machines" and "every creature has a song," but often the video detracts.
So if they offered this as a CD alone, I would have bought that. The DVD is only mildly intriguing, and the visuals just aren't there. Koyaanisqatsi is being preserved by the Library of Congress, it gained a cult following, and you can show it to your non-arty friends and not feel all that weird. They might even like it. Unfortunately, none of that can be said for Three Tales.
Free Music Review: Beyond Reproach
Hit: 1 Stars
I came across this cinematic abomination while watching IFC, a channel which usually does a pretty good job of keeping pretentious quasi-art slop like this off it`s program roster. As I watched, I thought that what I was looking at was an introductory segment to one of the events this movie supposedly comments on, but soon I realized that no, the whole movie was in fact like this.This "video opera", as it`s been called, does not go over my head as suggested by a previous reviewer; I`m well aware of the half-baked paralells this project attempts to draw between biblical themes and technological ventures of modern man. In fact, I agree with a lot of the statements made about the way technology dehumanizes us. My problem with this film is that it attempts to frame all of this within a completely unbearable assault on the eyes and ears.
One thing I`ll say for Beryl Korot, she sure knows how to get every dime`s worth out of her editing software. No scroll, panelling effect or embossing filter goes unused in "Three Tales", and you`ll become well aqcuainted with them as they`re used almost constantly for the entire film. Korot`s way of flashing words onto the screen in time with the score is interesting at first, but it soon wears out it`s welcome just like every other visual effect that gets rehashed ad nauseum over
the film`s 75 minutes (give or take). Speaking of the score, for such an acclaimed composer you`d think Steve Reich capable of doing more than tediously hammering away on one piano note while an atonal chorus nasally drones over it. His music tries to invoke tension, but tension stretched out over an hour fifteen winds up losing all impact and getting bent out of shape like an overtaxed slinky, as it does here.
The most potent images this film has to offer come from unmodified film stock of trees being vaporized by a nuclear blast, and the musical accompaniment by Reich serves more as an annoying backdrop than the unsettling counterpoint he was going for.
I suppose this piece might be good for film students to have in their collection on the chance that a teacher/colleague will see it and be impressed that they are able to appreciate something so "avant-garde". Other than that, you probably won`t be stimulated by this (at least not in a positive way).
Free Music Review: On Steve Reich's "Three Tales"
Hit: 1 Stars
Weeks before seeing Three Tales I heard its score. The music Reich composed for this opera is slightly less interesting than anything he has published previously. It features incessantly repeating syncopated phrases comprised of annoying melodies tossed upon stagnant, droning tones. This is the best that can be noted of the work. Mr. Reich uses Three Tales to expand his compositional methods into the modern age of the early 1990's. Time-stretched vocals are in every piece. A computerized voice (as that available standard on every Macintosh computer) sings several solos in the Dolly act. Uncomplicated, novice drum programming also hammers into numerous pieces - this is particularly disappointing as Mr. Reich is a competent percussionist himself. From onset to finish the score falls victim to a toybox of mundane digital audio gimmicks - perhaps impressive to the ignorant elite of la musique nouveau but thoroughly boring to anyone willing to acknowledge the radio music of the last two decades [see N'Sync's BT produced "Pop", Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle", Britney Spears' Neptunes produced "Slave", or anything produced for Madonna by William Orbit for far more progressive and successful attempts at integrating DSP (Digital Signal Processing) techniques into music]. Reich and his engineers should understand that these audio effects are not an end in and of themselves, and it shows little respect for the listener to try to pass these off as such.
The greater failing of Three Tales is the video component produced by Beryl Korot. I want to write only a few words on this piece as I have already spent more time on this review than a first grader with iMovie would require to reproduce Ms. Korot's cut and paste disaster. In my life I have watched my father slowly succumb to bone cancer, I see daily attrocities broadcast on the television news and the uncut footage on HBO or the internet. Yet, not for its content but for its design Ms. Korot's video for Three Tales is perhaps the worst thing ever to have struck mine eyes.