Search - Terry Riley :: Chanting The Light Of Foresight

Atypical but works well

John R. Hodgkinson | 02/08/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm pretty skeptical about the more outrageous claims by the intonational purists - equal temperament will make your brain fall out, and all that. At the same time I envy the sitarist in the old chestnut who didn't get into Beethoven's 5th all that much, but loved that part at the beginning, you know, where the oboe plays that A 440 and the orchestra microtones around it.

That said, though, Terry Riley's collaboration with the world-class saxophone quartet Rova works on an astounding number of levels, not just as a "resonant intonation" showcase. For starters, it's got to be a compositional challenge to present nothing but saxophone timbres for 50 odd minutes, to elicit all possible variety without cloying or blaring. Yet the work also features ensemble playing so well-composed as to sound spontaneous, coupled with improvization so skillful as to sound composed. Then there's that grand, lovely musical arch. And on top of that, the arch serves a programmatic agenda, telling the story of a cattle raid that ends in mystic insight, a contradiction so well embraced by your typical Celtic epic.

All in all, not typical Terry Riley (if there is any such thing), but highly worthwhile listening on its own terms."