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'When one is in one's twenties, one tends to see things in perhaps too simple a way. At the time I was very attracted to the peaceful aspects of Christianity - Dona nobis pacem, "turn the other cheek", and so forth. The United States was mired in the war in Vietnam and many churches were active in rallies and other projects of the Peace Movement. I somehow overlooked the history of the inquisition and crusades, and hardly anticipated the trend of very recent history towards church support of capital punishment and various military endeavours. Thus the "Mass without Singers" was for me an anti-war statement, and I chose George McGovern as my dedicatee, believing that his tremendous loss in the 1972 election, his campaign had given legitimacy to the cause of peace' - writes Arnold Rosner in the notes for the new Naxos CD of his post-romantic Symphony No. 5 'Missa sine Cantoribus super Salve regina' from 1973 played by the National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine conducted by John McLaughlin Williams.
The first ever recording of Rosner's "Mass without singers" is the latest release in Naxos' American Classics series, a project that is making a large amount of previously unrecorded and unfashionable music available. Ignore the condescending views of today's music pontiffs whose attitude has parallels in the Catholic Church's long history of prohibiting translations of the Bible to prevent the masses from making their own religous judgements. Low cost CDs from Naxos and others are disruptive technology in the tradition of the movable-type printing that made translated Bibles widely available and triggered the Reformation.
Forget whether Rosner's Mass is 'cool' or 'uncool' or first or third-rate. It deserves to be heard so listeners can make their own judgement. The coupling on this excellent CD is Nicolas Flagello's 1957 Missa Sinfonica. Flagello was a great artist, both in music and paint. Read more about him here.
Image credit medaloffreedom.com. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Email received - Bob, I found your post about artists who also paint fascinating. As you have pointed out, there are many more than we previously thought. Schoenberg comes to mind. I thought you would be interested in another. Nicolas Flagello was really something, one of the great American composers and an artist besides. I attach these CD covers not to attract publicity for myself, but because these are the only examples of his art in my possession. Though the cover pics are details, I've seen the large originals at Flagello's wife's residence, and they are remarkable.
A day without OAOP wouldn't be a day at all.
Best, JMW
See Arnold Schoenberg's paintings and drawings here, and read about more eye-music here.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
The comment below was posted on a recent article. It deserves to be run as a separate post, and I've added the photo and some links to paths that are well worth following.
Pliable, I would love to see the BBC Proms program Paul Creston's (above) Symphony No.2, which is IMO the greatest American Symphony. Just by a hair though, because there are so many that are great! Peter Mennin's 7th also comes to mind as does Nicolas Flagello's 1st. The above along with Aaron Copland's 3rd would be my leading choices for any symphony based American program. Then maybe Walter Piston no.6, George Frederick McKay's Symphony for Seattle, and a whole bunch more. I'm sure Garth and I could go on all day like this.While they're at it, why not call me to do them? I've wanted to do a Prom since like forever! - John McLaughlin Williams
If you want to hear music by the composers mentioned above John's discography includes several CDs of music by Nicolas Flagello and George Frederick McKay.
Photo credit Paul Creston Collection UKMC. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
