| Description:
Prism/Rebirth
is Joseph Natoli's largest work including accordion
and is dedicated to two of his teachers that had a very profound impact
on his musical understanding (Mickey Bisilia
and Edward Laufer). There are many references throughout the JANPress
Publications site about Joe's relationship with Mickey Bisilia.
Edward Laufer however deserves mention as one of Joe's composition teachers
at the University of Toronto. Professor Laufer had studied composition
with Milton Babbitt at Princeton University, as well as having taught Schenker
Analysis at Princeton and at the University of Toronto. It was under Prof.
Laufer's tutelage that Joe developed a deeper understanding of the compositional
process and structural analysis.
Scored for flute, clarinet, free bass accordion, piano,
violin, viola, and a large battery of percussion, Prism/Rebirth
has the following movements:
-
Awakening [Music Of Strife]
-
Barren Landscape
-
Ylem
-
Vestages and Covenant
-
Rebirth
At the highest level Prism/Rebirth was influenced
by the surrealistic painting of Salvador Dali "Rebirth of Man".
Of course the term "prism" itself references the rebirth of plain
white light hitting a prism and reappearing at the opposite angle as a
beautiful myriad of colors, so for the purposes of this composition, the
composer sees these terms as being interchangeable. Likewise there were
a host of other musical and-extra musical influences on the composer's
life at this time that created a whole "stirred soup" of images and changes
in his life. This is best represented in the climactic movement "Ylem"
which is a term coined from a Karlheinz Stockhausen piece of the same name.
"Ylem" emerges from the notion of the"Theory of the Oscillating
Universe". According to the liner notes of a Deutsche Grammophon recording
of Stockhausen's "Ylem", this theory states that
Every 80 billion years, the universe explodes,
unfolds, and draws together again. Accordingly, all the material that is
formed durning the evolution is fused once again in the involution, the
cosmos is purified by fire and the universe is reborn, pure (hydrogen)
and fresh.
Joe Natoli depicts this "spinning and rebirth of his own
universe" through a musical quote of a Mendelssohn piece of which he was
very fond "Spinning Song" from "Songs Without Words". The
tune emerges and re-emerges from the intense cloud of musical material,
being picked apart and reassembled, only to lead way to the more positive
last movement "Rebirth" where all of the rhythmic and harmonic
material of the previous movements is now presented in a more serene, softened,
and positive light.
Prism/Rebirth is approximately 20 minutes in length
and has never been performed or premiered in public anywhere. However,
it was composed and recorded with the assistance of two substantial Ohio
Arts Council grants that were awarded to the composer in 1978 and 1979.
The recorded performance included some of the best performers from Ohio
State University in 1979 and was conducted by Dr. William Conable (noted
cellist and conductor at Ohio State University). Also included on the recording
is Dr. Cathy Callis from Capital University (who studied with the famed
David Burge, avant garde pianist and frequent performer of some the most
difficult contemporary works available by George Crumb, Mario Davidovsky,
Charles Ives, Luciano Berio, and many others). Dr. Callis herself a strong
proponent and performer of the works of George Crumb is dazzling on the
recording of Prism/Rebirth.
The score is in the composer's own manuscript, printed
on 12 pages 17"x 22", and all performers read from the score. |
Catalog
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