Coates, Gloria: Symphony No. 15

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Symphony No. 15, "Homage to Mozart" (more info)
Performed by: Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Gloria Coates
Conducted by: Michael Boder
Recording date: 16 June 2006
Produced by: ORF, Austria


1.   I. Iridescences - 7:55
2.   II. Puzzle Canon - 8:28
3.   III. What Are Stars? - 5:40


Cantata da Requiem, "WW II Poems for Peace" (more info)
Composed by: Gloria Coates
Teri Dunn, soprano
Recording date: 9 November 2005
Produced by: Talisker Players


4.   Aria: Junge Witwe (Young Widow) - 5:15
5.   Recitative: BBC Weather Report 1942 - - 0:28
6.   Aria: The Flying Bombers - 2:08
7.   Recitative: Brief der Lehrerin Elfriede Birndorfer (Notes from a teacher Elfriede Birndorfer) - - 1:19
8.   Aria: Rinne Regen, Rinne (Run Rain, Run) - 2:29
9.   Aria: All These Dyings - 4:01


Transitions (more info)
Composed by: Gloria Coates
Conducted by: Werner Heider
Recording date: 23 June 1985
Produced by: Bavarian Radio


10.   I. Illumination - 7:55
11.   II. Mystical Plosives - 4:48
12.   III. Dream Sequence - 7:51

Reviews

I never heard anything like it... (Feb 17, 2008)
Reviewer:Jim Shine
Here's an experiment we should all try occasionally: get a CD of music by a composer whose work you've never heard before, and listen without reading up on the music beforehand. OK, I cheated a little and read the back of the CD, which promised that Gloria Coates is "startlingly individual" - well, that could be good or bad, couldn't it? Either way, I came to this without preconceived notions... Here's an experiment we should all try occasionally: get a CD of music by a composer whose work you've never heard before, and listen without reading up on the music beforehand. OK, I cheated a little and read the back of the CD, which promised that Gloria Coates is "startlingly individual" - well, that could be good or bad, couldn't it? Either way, I came to this without preconceived notions of what I was supposed to hear. I was rewarded handsomely. The Symphony no.15 was commissioned for Mozart's anniversary in 2006, but one could not by any stretch call it Mozartean (although it does use his Ave verum corpus in the second movement). Startlingly individual is about right - I haven't heard anything quite like this before. The first movement is full of tension and in its "bigness" reminds me of Bruckner (albeit a Bruckner for the space age). If I had read Kyle Gann's useful booklet note first, I would have been well prepared for Coates' "trademarks" - string glissandos, chorales, and quite a bit of martial percussion; as it was, these all came as fascinating novelties. The other movements are also full of drama and flow. This is very accessible music and could make an ideal starting point for listeners who "don't like all that modern stuff".
The Cantata da Requiem is from 1972 and sets the words of German and English women from World War 2. It's recognisably by the same composer although less "weird"; the settings are very evocative, even pictorial at times, and even what seems like a very ordinary piece of writing ("A note from Elfriede Birndorder, a schoolteacher") is invested with quite a bit of weight. The whole piece is very moving, especially with the surprisingly (but effectively) conventional peroration with piano.
Transitions didn't impress me much the first time I heard it, but subsequently reading about the piece clarified things; it's really just that it's generally not as immediate in impact as the symphony, although they share many traits. But a second listen paid off.
All in all, a great introduction to a fascinating composer.
(read more)


a composer of skill and imagination (Jan 8, 2008)
Reviewer:Fred Harrington
Any mention of Gloria Coates’ music cannot avoid mentioning her use of glissandi, the gradual sliding between two notes on a string or wind instruments. Often moving glacially across large intervals, sometimes quickly and chaotic sounding, sometimes as the main focus, or sometimes in the background, she employs glissandi not as a matter of phrasing or color but as a basic building block... Any mention of Gloria Coates’ music cannot avoid mentioning her use of glissandi, the gradual sliding between two notes on a string or wind instruments. Often moving glacially across large intervals, sometimes quickly and chaotic sounding, sometimes as the main focus, or sometimes in the background, she employs glissandi not as a matter of phrasing or color but as a basic building block of sound, not using them as one note to another but more or less as notes themselves.

Something like this runs the risk of coming across as a gimmick, and your skepticism is understandable, but like Messiaen’s birdsongs, Coates’ glissandi are at the service of a larger compositional goal. I first encountered the music of Gloria Coates when Naxos first issued its volume one of her string quartets and found these sounds to be the heart of some quite interesting music. Hearing them on a larger scale in her Symphony No. 8 was another revelation.

So with this sound world in mind, Symphony No. 15’s subtitle “Homage to Mozart” may seem incongruous. Obviously expectations of Mozart’s elegant lyricism will go unfulfilled. Thick string sounds and a disjointed march rhythms do however bring to mind some of the grim pathos of Don Giovanni’s overture. The second movement features a retrograde setting of Ave Verum Corpus set against long glissandi giving you a feeling something like you’re in the spot in a cathedral where all the notes go to reverberate. The third feature is built around a similar idea but at a faster pace with a more Brucknerian chorale propelling the action. Led by Michael Border, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra plays excellently.

Cantata de Requiem (which also exists in a slightly longer version with chamber orchestra called the Force for Peace in War) is a diverse collection poems (and one weather report) depicting war’s horrors. The glissandi easily (and obviously) suggest air raid sirens and propeller engines, but they are sparingly and subtlety deployed, underlining the outrage and chaos in the texts. The piece also demonstrates Coates’ gift for colorful and expressive percussion writing.

Transistions begins with a passicaglia in which string and wind glissandi along with percussion create an ever evolving cloud of sound over a quotation from Purcell’s Dido and Avenues, sounding something like Charles Ives’ Central Park After Dark. The work continues with swirling sounds slowly moving steadily forward, something like watching satellite photos of a storm move across the country.

To paraphrase Glenn Gould’s line about Arnold Schoenberg, Gloria Coates is not a great composer because she uses glissandi; they are fortunate to be championed by a composer of such skill and imagination. Coates proves her skill as a composer mot just as a creator of novel sounds but also as a creator of gripping drama. And she paints her own album covers too (actually she seems to have considered an art career as well) in which bold smears of oils function like the colors of her music.

(read more)


Brave New Sound World (Jan 5, 2008)
Reviewer:Emma Choi
Gloria Coates is easily one of the most exciting and adventurous composers of the past several decades. A fierce modernist with a musical language all her own, she is as prolific as she is profound, having written no less than 15 symphonies in addition to numerous chamber and vocal works. It’s a travesty that she isn’t better known, but Naxos is looking to raise her profile with a... Gloria Coates is easily one of the most exciting and adventurous composers of the past several decades. A fierce modernist with a musical language all her own, she is as prolific as she is profound, having written no less than 15 symphonies in addition to numerous chamber and vocal works. It’s a travesty that she isn’t better known, but Naxos is looking to raise her profile with a new disc that presents a nice cross-section of Coates’ work from both a chronological and stylistic perspective. Her 15th symphony, written in 2004-5, is the centerpiece of this recording. It’s relatively short, clocking in at 22 minutes, but chock full of her signature string glissandos and unique tension between tonal and atonal forms. The opening movement is built upon repetitive, slowly unfolding string patterns occasionally interrupted by dissonant punctuation marks. The eerie sonorities contribute to a hypnotic, unsettling mood that builds to an almost unnerving intensity. Coates maintains the unearthly atmosphere throughout movement two. The constantly ascending strings evoke a feeling of deep space—airless, black and empty, yet full of unseen mystery. The music seems to be reaching for a resolution that is seemingly just out of reach. The final movement opens with a Herrmannesque brass fanfare before transitioning into dense abstraction that at times resembles electronic music. Tonality and atonality battle for supremacy until Coates eventually brings the two into an uneasy alliance at the symphony’s conclusion. It’s an astonishing piece of music given a brilliant interpretation by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Also included is Coates’ 1972 “Cantata da Requiem.” It’s comprised of six short movements based on World War II-era songs and texts that are sung by soprano Teri Dunn with plaintive urgency. The music’s emotive power is enhanced by the sparse instrumentation, and Coates’ writing is by turns angular, discordant, haunting and profound. “Transitions,” from 1984, is a deeply personal musical response to the death of Coates’ father. Utilizing strings and woodwinds, Coates creates stark, descending musical patterns that seem to plumb unfathomable depths. The music is dark, at times despairing, and yet ultimately and strangely cathartic. (read more)