Efren del Valle<efrendv@yahoo.es> wrote:
--- Theo Klaase <river_of_dogs@yahoo.com> escribiÛ:
It's the compositions themselves, like I've heard these same tunes on other Zorn releases. Anyone else get this feeling? Like Zorn is essentially creating the same composition over and over. Is he running out of gas?
Could be, but he seems to have approached the Jewish-stuff from a different angle this time and as far as I'm concerned, the compositions are among the strongest of his latest stuff. I don't get that reiterative feeling in comparison to his former albums, but perhaps inside "Filmworks XIV" itself. OK, it's a soundtrack, and it's all about a few themes with variations, but the latter don't seem to "vary" that much here. At least you noticed some actual differences in "Invitation to a Suicide", for example, but the sound is too homogeneous in this case.
I don't think so but I do think this "need" for Klezmer-like compositions is limiting in vision. So it's a Jewish movie (again), why box oneself in?
Maybe we were used to short-life Zorn projects and we perceive this Jewish period as repetitive, I don't know.
Best,
EfrÈn del Valle
Hi, It's my understanding that the Masada compositions were written fairly quickly as a large (200+) collection of melodies that could be performed by bands with a variety of instrumentations. These are not a "short-life" Zorn project in the sense that he has continued to record and tour with these material played by several different ensembles, but, again, as I understand it, he's not writing new Masada material, so compositionally at least, Masada is no more or less short-lived than many other of Zorn's projects. Most of the newer compositions that he's performed and/or recorded (Chimera & the other recent "classical" pieces, for example) seem largely unrelated to the Masada tunes. As a touring package and as recordings, it's probably MUCH easier to sell any of the various Masada projects (those are, for the most part, simple, pretty tunes played in straightforward recognizable styles) than Zorn's composed works, but it seems as if Zorn is currently putting a lot of his compositional energy into writing for "classical" performers and ensembles. And as for the use of Klezmer-style music for movies, many film music jobs are entirely work-for-hire situations; they select a particular composer to write particular kinds of music. While we may know a broad range of what Zorn is capable of, for many film producers it's more likely a matter of "get me that guy with the hipster reputation that writes Jewish-themed music." Bests, Herb -- Herb Levy P O Box 9369 Fort Worth, TX 76147 herb@eskimo.com