SURSUM

Michael K. Slayton

 

OVERVIEW

 

With his new album SURSUM, composer Michael Slayton presents six compelling compositions, each performed by a different ensemble or solo performer. Despite the album’s varied & esteemed assemblage of performers, there lies a common thread throughout in both the form of Slayton’s distinguished composing style – dreamy but focused, and equal parts smooth and dissonant – as well as the imagery that the music conjures.

 

Slayton, a talented chamber music composer and Associate Professor of Composition and Theory at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, has amassed a wide spectrum of players for his most recent endeavor. Yarn/Wire, an imaginative quartet made up of two pianos and two percussionists, performs the opening track of Fantasy and Fugue for Two Pianos & Percussion: Hommage Á Bartok. The operatic Le Soir Tombe is performed by soprano Amy Jarman with Melissa Rose and Jerome Reed on piano four-hand and is the album’s only vocal performance. The title track Sursum, commissioned by the Kreutzer Quartet, rises ever upward, twisting and whirling toward a consciousness of “the things that make a difference.” Evan Mack’s solo piano on Sonate ‘Droyßig’ is the album’s centerpiece - a 22-minute sprawling & angular work that evokes a somewhat heart-wrenching mood before taking flight. Sechs Miniaturen Für Das Meer (Six Miniatures for the Sea) is a fanciful rhythmic journey punctuated by Joshua & Jennifer McGuire on guitar and piano, respectively, its six parts representing scenes from a day in the life of sitting and watching the sea. The album concludes with the stirring staccato climax of Dreamers’ Meadows, performed by The Atlantic Ensemble.

 

The diverse performers and instrumentation only add to the character of Slayton’s distinct writing approach. Each piece is particularly rich with vivid imagery – another key element that defines the album. Slayton makes a point of highlighting this, as the album’s liner notes are sprinkled with tidbits about particular places each piece was composed – for example, Sonate ‘Droyßig’ bears the name of the small village in which the composition was born, while Dreamers’ Meadows invokes the spirit of a series of bucolic hiking trails in the mountains of West Virginia. Each listener is sure to create his or her own individual array of imagery when immersing one’s self into the quixotic world of Michael Slayton’s SURSUM.

 

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HIGHLIGHTS

 

Currently Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition and Chair of the Composition/Theory Department at the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University in Nashville TN, Michael K. Slayton has composed works in a cross-section of musical genres, with specific emphasis on chamber music

 

“Sursum” the Latin prefix for “upward,” is an expression which manifests itself in the title track, as a feeling of longing for or pursuance of something higher than oneself

 

Yarn/Wire is admired for the energy and precision they bring to performances of today's most adventurous music. Founded in 2005, the ensemble currently consists of Laura Barger and Ning Yu, piano; Ian Antonio and Russell Greenburg, percussion

 

The Kreutzer Quartet are the dedicatees of hundreds of new works for string quartet, having recorded critically acclaimed cycles of works by Reicha, Gerhard, Finnissy, Tippett, Matthews and Gloria Coates

 

The Atlantic Ensemble, dedicated to commissioning and performing new works by American composers and teaching the next generation of young musicians, is currently a fixture on the St.-Merri concert series in Paris, France

 

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ALSO ON NAVONA RECORDS

 

FRED BROER

music for string quartet

and piano solo (NV6042)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Release Date: November 18, 2016

Catalog #: NV6062

 

 

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TRACK INFO

 

FANTASY AND FUGUE FOR TWO PIANOS AND PERCUSSION:

HOMMAGE Á BARTÓK

Yarn/Wire   |   Laura Barger piano   Jacob Rhodebeck piano

Ian Antonio percussion   Russell Greenberg percussion

1 I. Fantasy

2 II. Fugue

 

3 LE SOIR TOMBE

Amy Jarman soprano   Melissa Rose & Jerome Reed piano four-hands

 

4 SURSUM

The Kreutzer Quartet  |  Peter Sheppard Skærved violin

Mihailo Trandafilovski violin   Clifton Harrison viola   Neil Heyde cello

 

SONATE ‘DROYßIG’

Evan Mack piano

5 I. Droyßiger Wald [The Droyßig Forest]

6 II. Das Schloß [The Castle]

7 III. Der Sommer in Droyßig [Summer in Droyßig]

 

SECHS MINIATUREN FÜR DAS MEER

[SIX MINIATURES FOR THE SEA]

Joshua McGuire guitar   Jennifer McGuire piano

8 I. Aufsteigender Nebel [Fog, Lifting]

9 II. Morgentanz [Morningdance]

10 III. Meerestroeme [Seadrift]

11 IV. Windgezeiten [Windtides]

12 V. Die Fährbrücken [The Ferry Docks]

13 VI. Mondtanz [Moondance] 

 

DREAMERS’ MEADOWS

The Atlantic Ensemble  |  Wei Tsun Chang violin   Seanad Dunigan Chang viola   Kirsten Cassel Greer cello   Jennifer McGuire piano

14 I. Reverie

15 II. Wilderness

16 III. Tramontane

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CREDITS

 

FANTASY AND FUGUE FOR TWO PIANOS

AND PERCUSSION: HOMMAGE Á BARTÓK

Recorded October 6, 2010 at Turner Hall,

Blair School of Music in Nashville TN

Recorded and Mixed by Kevin Edlin

 

LE SOIR TOMBE

Recorded April 26, 2009 at Turner Hall,

Blair School of Music in Nashville TN

Recorded and Mixed by Kevin Edlin

 

SURSUM

Recorded May 23, 2016 at St. John the Baptist

in Aldbury, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

Session Engineer Jonathan Haskell (Astounding Sounds)

Producer/Sound Editing Engineer Peter Sheppard Skærved

 

SONATE ‘DROYßIG’

Recorded May 24, 2010 at Turner Hall,

Blair School of Music in Nashville TN

Recorded and Mixed by Kevin Edlin

 

SECHS MINIATUREN FÜR DAS MEER

[SIX MINIATURES FOR THE SEA]

Recorded May 24, 2010 at Turner Hall,

Blair School of Music in Nashville TN

Recorded and Mixed by Kevin Edlin

 

DREAMERS’ MEADOWS

Recorded May 10, 2016 at Turner Hall,

Blair School of Music in Nashville TN

Recorded and Mixed by Kevin Edlin

 

Executive Producer Bob Lord

Executive A&R Sam Renshaw

A&R Brandon MacNeil

Audio Director Jeff LeRoy

Mastering Shaun Michaud, Lucas Paquette

Production Engineer Lucas Paquette

Art & Production Director Brett Picknell

Graphic Design Emily Roulo, Ryan Harrison

Marketing Mike Mahn