Glassworks at The Minack
June 26, 27 & 28 at 8pm, June 27 at 4pm
The music of Philip Glass & Bryce Dessner performed by imaginative dance company Cheap Date with Kevos.
Glassworks
by Philip Glass
performed by Cheap Date and Kevos
Philip Glass’s propulsive, extrovert minimalism has made him one of the most popular living composers, a reputation reinforced by his hit film music (Koyaanisqatsi, The Hours), his collaborations with rock icons (The Low Symphony after David Bowie), and his critically acclaimed theatre works (Einstein on the Beach).
Glassworks, for an eclectic ensemble of saxophones, flutes, horns, strings and piano, is a suite of six shorter pieces. It is music that dances and pulses with a special life all of its own. At times ecstatic and at times wistful, its motoric rhythms and gorgeous harmonies are ideal partners to dance and movement and as at home high above the Cornish sea as they are in a New York loft.
The live physical interpretation of the music is performed by a Dance ensemble bought together specifically for the project. Devised by choreographer/director of Cheap Date, Grace Murdoch and the Dancers, the movement embodies the unique sounds and energy of Glassworks in this iconic venue.
Murder Ballades
by Bryce Dessner
performed by Propeller and Kevos
While Philip Glass is a classical composer who burst through into the popular imagination, Bryce Dessner, his compatriot, is most famous as a rock musician – guitarist and songwriter for The National – who branched out into composing for classical ensembles.
Murder Ballades, one of his most widely performed and recorded works, was inspired by American folk songs of the 1930s and ‘40s, specifically murder ballades. Dessner has synthesized melodies and concepts from these ballades into a brilliant chamber piece with complex rhythms and wild instrumental colours. Athletic, playful, and slightly sinister, Murder Ballades is at once a celebration of life and a cautionary tale.
Oh, listen to my story, I’ll tell you no lies,
How John Lewis did murder poor little Omie Wise