ALBUM RELEASED ON NEW AMSTERDAM RECORDS AUGUST 25, 2023
Awadagin Pratt, celebrated pianist and conductor, explores the truth and beauty found within T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets through its sibling universe in music. Joined by composers Tyshawn Sorey, Paola Prestini, Peteris Vasks, Jessie Montgomery, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Alvin Singleton and Judd Greenstein, out-of-the-voice-box, super-group Roomful of Teeth and armed with seven newly composed works, Pratt embraces Eliot in a concert-length narrative that expresses an elemental truth…”at the still point of the turning world…there the dance is…and there is only the dance.”
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
from Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
Text © T.S. Eliot, Reproduced by courtesy of Faber and Faber Ltd.
READ: ON MAKING QUILTS AND RECORDS: PART ONE IN A LONG-TERM COLLABORATION
FROM THE COMPOSERS:
“What inspired me about T.S. Eliot's poem was his discussion of time, its elasticity, and that it belongs to no one. I felt strong musical implications: How long should the sound of a musical note last—or the length of a phrase, its tempo. And should it be dynamically loud or quiet? The title of my work Time Past, Time Future paraphrases the Eliot text, and at the same time it raises questions about my own work’s relation to time and timing.
When I first heard Awadagin Pratt perform, I dreamed that one day he would perform something I had composed. Never did I imagine that I would be commissioned by him. What a thrill to have composed Time Past, Time Future for him and the strings of the New World Symphony Orchestra to premiere.”
— ALVIN SINGLETON
“Eliot’s text provides a series of contradictions for those who would attempt to depict it, and yet, like so much that is rich in the spiritual world, one can feel the rightness of the message in its resonance within our own lives. It offers an insistence on presentness, so difficult to truly embrace in our distracted existences. To write in response to such a text is to embrace its contradictions and attempt to let them be engaged through the music, flowing through me, through the page, and thus through to Awadagin and the ensembles, and onward to the ears.”
— JUDD GREENSTEIN
“Most people today no longer possess beliefs, love and ideals. The spiritual dimension has been lost. My intention is to provide food for the soul and this is what I preach in my works.”
— PĒTERIS VASKS
“Inspired by the relationship between T.S and Emily Hale, this pianistic ode is dedicated to an invented love with an 8 letter name. Each section is led by different motives that are built on musical depictions of the letters of the name translated into notes. It is in essence a love poem in 8 takes, that in its culmination, mirrors the relationship between T.S. and Emily, and fails.
However, the work is also inspired by the idea of a frozen moment in time in terms of the feeling of being in love-how love dances in those moments in frenzied freedom- and how in retrospect it allows for great moments of self clarity.
The piece is further enveloped in an arc of ascension, as these frozen moments actually exist in the framework of a life and societal movements. And I believe that our current moment is upward in its trajectory in terms of goodness and clarity.
I have always believed that our art must reflect the life we lead. As a member of a multiracial family, and an immigrant to this country, I feel deep respect and love for the pillars upon which our democracy is built. I also feel responsibility in the progress and active hope we must have in order to keep good and progress afloat. This year has brought great pain and clarity, and yet it has inspired me to be a better and more reflective citizen. I am honored to write for Awadagin, and hope to give him a piece that alights the different and intriguing aspects of his mind, hands, and soul.”