Search - Meredith Monk :: Songs of Ascension

Songs of Ascension is a long-awaited, major new recording from composer Meredith Monk and her vocal ensemble. It is one of Monk's most musically ambitious ventures, with winds, percussion and two vocal groups now added to her already extraordinary singers. Voices and instruments are paired and balanced against each other to an extent rare in her music, and the result is haunting. Songs of Ascension, written in 2008, is conceived as a continuous composition, a departure from Monk's earlier collaged or episodic extended works, and has been played live to audiences internationally and received the very highest acclaim. It is a work that refocuses perceptions of what music theatre can achieve. As Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times noted "Songs of Ascension is a major Monk work. The music is glorious. Monk's most significant growth over the past decade or two has been as a composer. She is a great master of utterance ... a listener feels somehow in communication with another, perhaps wiser, species." Inspirations for the work included the Song of Ascents, a group of psalms said to have been sung during pilgrimages, and a timely invitation to perform at an 8-story tower designed by visual artist Ann Hamilton. Songs of Ascension finds Monk playing with the musical, sonic, metaphysical and literal connotations of upward movement. The album was recorded at New York's Academy of Arts and Letters, and produced by Manfred Eicher. The CD booklet includes detailed liner notes by composer/author Kyle Gann, and beautiful cover photography inside and outside the CD booklet featuring scenes from the piece.