Browse by Artist: SHAPEY, RALPH

Artist:	SHAPEY, RALPH
Title:	Radical Traditionalism
Label:	NEW WORLD RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$30.00
Catalog #:	NW 80681CD

"Radical Traditionalist is what I've been called. My music combines two fundamentally contradictory impulses -- radical language and romantic sensibility. The melodies are disjunct and dissonant; they contain atonal harmonies and extremes in register, dynamics and textural contrast. Yet the musical structures are grandly formed and run the gamut of dramatic gestures. Like the Romantics, I conceive of art in a deeply spiritual way. A great work of art transcends the immediate moment into a world of infinity." --Ralph Shapey "This collection -- drawn from the original CRI LPs -- provides a glimpse into a critical point in Ralph Shapey's (1921-2002) artistic development and comprises several of his most important compositions. It covers a period from 1963 to 1979, when he moved from an astringent, visionary modernism, to a version of the same that was tempered by a more 'classical' character. This is a major restoration to the discography of contemporary American music of the work of one of its most uncompromising and largely misunderstood figures." Featured pieces: "21 Variations for Piano" (1978), "String Quartet No. 6" (1963), "String Quartet No. 7" (1972), "Fromm Variations (31 Variations for Piano)" (1966; 1972-73), "Three for Six" (1979).

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