A Story Within a Story: The Madding Crowd (2016)
Video by Carrie Mae Weems; Music by Gregory Wanamaker
Soundtrack available from innova:
https://www.innova.mu/albums/society-...
Gregory Wanamaker (b. 1968) Music from A Story Within A Story, 2011, rev. 2013
Kelly Covert, flute/piccolo; John Friedrichs, clarinet/bass clarinet; Ann McIntyre, violin; Gregory Wood, cello; Rob Bridge, percussion; Rob Auler, piano; Cynthia Johnston Turner, conductor
Combining athletic virtuosity and lyrical expressionism, GREGORY WANAMAKER’s music has been called “achingly beautiful” (Palm Beach Daily News), “compelling” (Audiophile Audition) “outstanding” (American Record Guide) “cutting-edge” (Tallahassee Democrat) and “a technical tour de force” (Fanfare). His music has been commissioned and performed all over the world by soloists, ensembles, and consortiums of musicians ranging from top professionals to university students to youth ensembles.
Fluent in all musical media, Wanamaker’s best-known works are his chamber works that exploit unique timbral characteristics and technical extensions of wind instruments. To date, his virtuosic Duo Sonata for clarinet and saxophone has received over 350 performances world-wide and is featured on five commercial recordings. His Sonata deus sax machina is one of the required pieces for finalists of the 2014 Adolphe Sax International Competition in Dinant, Belgium.
Gregory Wanamaker has collaborated with American photographer and visual artist Carrie Mae Weems and the British award-winning director and writer, Garth Bardsley, with whom he has composed several substantial works for chorus and orchestra. His commissions and collaborations have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and several other public and private organizations.
Gregory Wanamaker has several recorded works on Innova, Albany, Centaur, Blue Griffin, Mark Custom, White Pine, and Summit. He publishes his own music, which is available exclusively through his website at www.gregorywanamaker.com. Wanamaker currently serves as Professor of Composition at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam where he has taught since 1997. He studied composition with William Averitt, Thomas Albert, Anthony Branker and Ladislav Kubík.
“In its complete form, A Story Within A Story is a work for video, sound design, dancer (or dancers) and live musicians that reflects upon the persistent struggle for civil rights in the United States. Carrie Mae Weems’ powerful video takes us through the passing of history from one generation of women to the next, narrated by Weems, followed by a collage of found footage of civil rights gatherings and protests from 1963-1974. Carrie’s self-shot film of her solo impromptu performance at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin ends the video portion of the work as a live dancer (or a group of live dancers) continue her performance.”
“As a stand-alone work, the music from A Story Within A Story takes its inspiration from my conversations and collaboration with Carrie, and are reflections of her provocative and moving videos about the past and current socio-political climate concerning overt and passive discrimination on the basis of gender, race, and religion in the United States.” The music with video by Carrie Mae Weems, A Madding Crowd, is on Youtube.
“A Story Within A Story was commissioned by the Society for New Music for their 2011--2012 season with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. It was premiered by the Society for New Music on October 23, 2011 in Hendricks Chapel, Syracuse, NY. The version heard on this recording is of the 2013 revision presented at the opening of the CRAVE Festival of the Arts by the Society for New Music and dancer Aisha Mitchell on September 20, 2013 at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY.” --G.W.