Songs of the Mouse People
A few years back, in the final days of CRI, I wrote the booklet notes for Martin Bresnick’s Opere della Musica Povera. The more I listened to his music, the more excited I became about the whole process of music and composing. It actually got me out of a major creative slump. Part of why Bresnick is such a successful teacher—Michael Torke, the whole Bang on a Can triumvirate, the members of the Common Sense Composers Collective—is because his own music is simultaneously so open minded and so intoxicating. The pieces on this latest disc equally fascinate, and grow more and more interesting the more you hear them. I admit that the first time I heard Songs of the Mouse People, in a live concert performance, I was somewhat disappointed. But I was blown away when I heard it again on this CD and like it more each time I hear it, especially how the cello and vibraphone seamlessly switch roles in a chain of modulations in the penultimate movement, “A Thousand Shoulders Tremble (under a burden actually meant for one).” This time, I don’t have to listen to the disc again and again for any particular reason…I just want to. But what’s more even exciting is how much inspirational fuel is in here as well. Put it on for an hour, and then go write your own next masterpiece!
—FJO