Reiko Füting: distantViolinSound

by Futing / Cuckson / Yang

Overview

Quite a few works of contemporary music make use of quotations from the body of traditional classical repertory. These may suggest aspects of the new music that aligns with traditional styles, may carry programmatic meanings, or have other functions. Composer Reiko Füting doesn't reject these ideas; his final von der Stadt, quoting music by Johann Hermann Schein, remembers a grim episode of violence and murder in 17th century Magdeburg during the Thirty Years' War. However, Füting is generally after something new. The notes have something to say about what that is: Füting "aims to explore the psychological nature of memory through the compositional device of musical quotation." This may have various implications, but for the general listener, the effect is straightforward. The quotations take on the flavor of individual memories floating across a present-day mental state shown by firmly anchored continuous sounds. Füting quotes music from various periods; there are several Beethoven works, including, with powerful effect, the slow movement of the String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132, but also works from the mid-Baroque to the post-Romantics. Again, these may have emotional overtones, but not really structural-musical ones. It is an intriguing concept and one that might be useful for university courses bringing together music and psychology. It says much for Füting that the music's qualities persist across various ensembles, from a solo violinist to an ensemble requiring a conductor and a pair of recording locations in suburban New York and Magdeburg. The instruments here are all conventional ones, but the thinking is anything but. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	02/07/2025
Label:	NEW FOCUS
UPC:	0613527444563

Tracks

1. passage: time (copy)  - Miranda Cuckson  - Reiko Futing  - Ryan Streber
2. mo(ve)ment for 2: Choreophonie - Schatten/Spiegeltanz -  - Reiko Futing  - Doori Na  - Ryan Streber  - Jing Yang
3. free:whereof - wherefore  - Reiko Futing  -  Longleash  - Ryan Streber
4. Chorale ("those driven out will come")  - Reiko Futing  -  Quartet121  - Ryan Streber
5. act: ab-stain, from  - Reiko Futing  - Ryan Streber  -  Unheard-of//Ensemble
6. F/fern  - Reiko Futing  -  Noise Catalogue+  - Alison Norris  - Ryan Streber
7. von der Stadt  - Benjamin Dressler  - Reiko Futing  - Jan Michael Horstmann  -  SchallSpektrum

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Quartet121   String Quartet
SchallSpektrum   Ensemble
Unheard-of//Ensemble   Ensemble
Alison Norris   Conductor
Noise Catalogue+   Ensemble
Longleash   Ensemble
Jing Yang   Piano
Jan Michael Horstmann   Conductor
Doori Na   Violin
Miranda Cuckson   Violin

Technical Credits

Hojoon Kim   Portraits
Reiko Fueting   Producer,Composer
Benjamin Dressler   Engineer
Ryan Streber   Mastering,Engineer,Editing,Mixing
Bradley Colten   Booklet Editor
Sean Curran   Cover Image,Images
Marc Wolf   Design
Daniel Lippel   Post Production