Search - Daniel Goode, Crosstown Ensemble, Grunin :: Tunnel-Funnel

See? This Is What I Mean...

jive rhapsodist | NYC, NY United States | 12/20/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD's been out for 10 years and no one's reviewed it. With all of the interest in Post - Minimalism, how is this possible? This is such an unassuming yet strong piece - lots of hints of Stravinsky (period Persephone, and like that) in the harmony and the orchestration. Rhythmically, it's almost unbelievably stiff and literal. Maybe that's why...but it has a very clear, direct sense of flow. As I get older, I think much more about Musical Rhetoric and its function in terms of reception. Why does a piece by John Adams get so much attention and a piece like this next to none? An Adams piece is much more colorful and displays more obvious technical mastery. But Tunnel Funnel has a place at the table - or it should...



The middle section - around 20 minutes or so - what does that harmonic movement evoke? Like Sibelius as seen through a Bernard Hermann prism? Something like that. It's very special. Well, I guess Adams could be a reference again. Something like Shaker Loops. But without as much charisma. Oh, charisma...



Sometimes I think of Schubert's Ninth. Not that I'm putting this piece up there with that. But some of the methodology - the cumulative nature of the unfolding. But given that, the ending is disappointing. So there's that too.



Where was it recorded? All the information is in the booklet. Except this. It matters.



The other piece on the CD, Fiddle Studies, is minor by comparison."