RED MOON (musick & other arts)

BACALOV LUIS ENRIQUE

IL VANGELO SECONDO MATTEO
(THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT MATTHEW)


Original Issue: 1964 Mainstream (S/4000)

Reissue: 1996 RCA (74321-37416-2 OST-132)

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Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

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1. GLORIA from "Missa Luba" (p.d.) (02:40)
2. SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE A MOTHERLESS CHILD (spiritual) (03:08)
Voice: Odetta
3. SIGNORE MIO (from a Hebrew Song) (02:05)
4. TRE FRONDE TRE FIORI / VIENI DA ME (05:54)
(JERUSALEM: DAYTIME)
5. TRE FRONDE TRE FIORI (05:16)
(JERUSALEM: NIGHT TIME)
6. VIENI DA ME / TRE FRONDE TRE FIORI / VIENI DA ME (02:26)
(DANCE OF SALOME)
7. INDEMONIATI 1 (00:51)
8. INDEMONIATI 2 (02:22)
9. INDEMONIATI 3 (01:29)
10. GETSEMANI (01:09)
11. THE 13TH CENTURY (01:29)
Sergei Prokofiev from "Alexander Nevsky" Film Score
12. ADAGIO from the "Concerto in C minor" BWV 1060 Double Concerto for Oboe & Violin (05:09)
Johann Sebastian Bach
13. MAURERISCHE TRAUERMUSIK KV 477 (06:31)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
14. DONA NOBIS PACEM from "Agnus Dei" from "Mass in B minor" BWV 232 (03:00)
Johann Sebastian Bach
15. ADAGIO from the "Concerto in E for Violin" BWV 1042 (07:32)
Johann Sebastian Bach
16. ERBARME DICH, aria from "St. Matthew Passion" BWV 244 (06:41)
Johann Sebastian Bach
17. WIR SETZEN UNS MIT TRANEN NIEDER from "St. Matthew Passion" BWV 244 (06:50)
18. GLORIA from "Missa Luba" (p.d.) (02:40)

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from http://jclarkmedia.com/:

The only aspect of this magnificent film which does not work, at least for me, is the self-consciously eclectic use of music, which extends from Bach to Prokofiev to folk music.

He wants this polyglot score in an attempt to create subtle, and shifting, tensions between the world of ancient Judea and our own. Sometimes it enhances the drama; other times its repetition or incongruity are distracting. For instance, the excerpts from the striking Missa Luba: An African Mass lose their impact with each subsequent repetition (there are many); and although the mood of the haunting spiritual "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," sung by Odetta, matches the nativity scene beautifully, the lyric clashes with the action and ultimately proves distancing. (It's worth noting that Pasolini had once considered filming The Gospel in Africa with an all-African cast, to recreate the feeling of an ancient world still present today; a few years later he contemplated a similar juxtaposition regarding Greek myth, as seen in his fascinating documentary, Notes for African Orestes.) In contrast to the music here, Pasolini's use of only J.S. Bach's music on the soundtrack to Accattone, a contemporary tale of Roman slums, works to astonishing effect.

CRAZY MOON (incredibly strange musick)

ADDLESTON/MEUNIER/FAUSTMANN

17th AND 18th CENTURY WORKS OF FUNERARY VIOLIN

BABCOTTE/SUDBURY/EATON

THE ENGLISH SCHOOL OF FUNERARY VIOLIN

Original Issue: unknown

Reissue: The Guild Of Funerary Violinists (No Number) Buy it here!

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Margot-meter: ? moons / 5

Read here the fascinating history behind the recordings.

If you have even one single drop of mittel-european blood running through your veins, you'll be moved (to death) by these sounds!

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Tracklists here and here

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from Aquarius Records (cut-up of various reviews):

What is more amazing than discovering a whole movement in music that had never been documented, let alone even heard of. EVER! No mention in any books, magazines, not a single trace. What if that music was in fact the music of Funerary violins. A music created and composed to be performed at funerals. The only evidence of these musics, some scratchy old wax cylinder recordings, some faded photos, and brittle sheafs of old sheet music.

Hard to say which would be more amazing, a wholly undiscovered hidden dark corner of musical history, quashed by the church and relegated to be lost forever, or an insanely detailed project, the ultimate conceptual art piece. Either way, we are in love with this stuff.
Simply from a musical standpoint, this is everything we could hope for. The recordings are fuzzy and staticky, bathed in layers of crackle and grit, and years of neglect and decay, but beneath the recording inconsistencies we love so much, are some truly moving and emotionally rich performances, the melodies are so intense and sad, minor key and mournful. truly funereal. It's impossible not to imagine some old funeral procession, a row of black clad mourners, trudging down a dirt road, with their deceased atop an old wooden cart, the sky grey, the music of the Funerary violinist winding around the procession like wreaths of black smoke. So goddamn lovely. We have been listening to this non-stop since we got it.

And then there's the story. The "history". Is it real? Is it possible that a musical movement could disappear so completely. So much so that not a single person anywhere EVER had heard of the Guild Of Funerary Violinists? Or is it all a huge put-on? A massive made up world? The ultimate outsider art project. Either way, we are completely blown away. If this is indeed real, HOLY SHIT! How utterly mysterious and romantic!! We do sort of want to believe it's real. It's so perfectly evocative of some other time, of death and sadness throughout the ages. But if it is in fact made up, it has to be one of the most brilliantly conceived and executed hoaxes of all time.

Wailing, plaintive funereal laments on solo violin, sad and morose, lilting and so completely lovely, bathed in all manner of grit and hiss, fuzz and antique distortion, sounding like the old wax cylinders these recordings purport to be. Imagine some old timey violin music treated by Tim Hecker, and spun in some ultra morose DJ set by Philip Jeck...
The music is so evocative, of dark clouds at dusk, rain swept fields, huge brooding stone houses, lush gardens beneath grey skies, and of course, funerals, and the slow stately trudge of the funeral procession to the grave site. We've gushed about pretty much every volume so far, and by now are probably just repeating ourselves, but we just love these discs, read the other Funerary Violinist reviews for more on the music and the mythology, and you'll realize just why it seems impossible to us to not fall totally in love with such a well executed piece of what ultimately amounts to performance art. The music, dark and delicate, creepy and so beautiful, even removed from the mythology is totally amazing, the story and the text is as well (there's even a book you can track down, detailing the entire recorded history of the Guild) but the two together, are simply magical....

Even without the fantastical back story, the music is worth the price of admission. Each piece is wonderfully crafted and beautifully performed, all solo violin, keening mournfully, minor key melodies drifting dreamily in some, the scrape and sawing of the bow constructing miserablist dirges in others, all except the more recent bathed in a thick cloak of crackle and static, giving it that Jeck / Hecker fuzzy-blurry-dreamy vibe we can never seem to get enough of. The fact that this music is set amidst such a dense and complex, passionate world of intrigue and mystery, love and death, only makes it that much more exciting. And the fact that every single bit of it is made up, well, as far as we're concerned that just seals the deal.