American composer Steven R. Gerber has achieved his greatest success, oddly enough, in Russia, and the venerable St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony plays his very American music as though to the manner born (although the strings are less than silken in the highest notes). Among the hundreds of concert works that engage with the raw material of the African-American spiritual, Gerber's is unique. In his own words, his Spirituals for String Orchestra "are not arrangements, but new works inspired by the original songs." ...
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American composer Steven R. Gerber has achieved his greatest success, oddly enough, in Russia, and the venerable St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony plays his very American music as though to the manner born (although the strings are less than silken in the highest notes). Among the hundreds of concert works that engage with the raw material of the African-American spiritual, Gerber's is unique. In his own words, his Spirituals for String Orchestra "are not arrangements, but new works inspired by the original songs." Further, "[m]y intent was neither to deconstruct the original material nor to treat it ironically, but simply to pay homage to its beauty by creating new compositions out of it." What this means in structural terms is that Gerber neither quotes entire tunes nor reduces them to abstract motivic or intervallic content. Instead he selects a specific detail that carries something of the mood of the whole, and extends it into a compact form -- with the exception of the first one, all the...
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Add this copy of Spirituals to cart. $2.14, good condition, Sold by Books From California rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Simi Valley, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by Arabesque Recordings.