(Free Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz) Jose Maceda - Gongs and Bamboos {Tzadik 7067} - 2001, M4A (tracks), lossless

The first release outside Japan of music by one of the the most original and underappreciated composers in contemporary music. Born 1900 in the Phillipines, Maceda has been creating remarkable compositions, often for large ensembles of the same instrument for fifty years. This CD brings together three very different pieces from his enormous catalog. The hypnotic Suling-Suling is scored for an ensemble of forty bamboo flutes, Colors Without Rhythm is one of his most dynamic orchestral compositions—performed brilliantly by the Manila Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the composer. Pagsamba is one of the strangest masses ever written for gongs, voices and bamboos, recorded live in an open air temple in the Phillipines. An incredibly exciting release of rarely heard music by a rarely heard from composer.

Experimental contemporary music is not very big in the Philippines. Indeed, virtually the entire avant-garde community in that country is centered around one man, Jose Maceda, who, at the time of this release, was 84 years old and still teaching at the University of the Philippines. Maceda was responsible for introducing the music of Varese and Xenakis, among others, to his country and was the father figure to the small community of composers that has flourished there. Gongs and Bamboos is his first U.S. release and presents an interesting range of his compositions. "Pagsamba" (Mass) is scored for an enormous group of some 125 vocalists and hundreds of small percussion instruments and flutes. The whole affair is somewhat murky with Latin scriptures chanted over blurs of rattles and gongs and sounds reminiscent of works like Penderecki's Passion of St. Luke, though not nearly as rigorous or ecstatic. "Suling-Suling," for a mere 10 flutes, 10 bamboo buzzers and 10 gongs is more successful (played here by an ensemble of students and faculty of Mills College including Fred Frith), conjuring up a dreamy, clattering world halfway between Bali and Darmstadt. The final piece, "Colors Without Rhythm" is the one which really hits the mark, an odd melding of aspects of John Adams with Morton Feldman as colorful as the title implies and sounding rather different than anything else in the contemporary oeuvre. The softly surging and subsiding instrumental clusters are like glinting reflections off agitated water. This piece makes the world of this intriguing Filipino composer well worth investigating. ~ Brian Olewnick, All Music Guide
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Customer Review @ Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars - Fundamental, Dec 10 2001
By: latinamericancomposer (Montevideo, Uruguay)
José Maceda (Manila, 1917) is one of the fundamental personalities of the second half of the 20th century. His research work has established a very serious basis for his innovative music in Philippines, and a model of ethics and aesthetics for all Asian art music composers - and, why not, for all Third World composers. Maceda knows very well the Western game, and can create different rules for his proposals, with different syntactic logics and even a different behaviour in the roles of performers and listeners. His music is really fascinating. A second and a third CD should be available soon.

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Filename : 01 Pagsamba - Kyrie.m4a (38.14mb)
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Filename : 02 Pagsamba - Gloria.m4a (36.43mb)
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Date : 11/27/2009 04-03-28
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Filename : 03 Pagsamba - Credo.m4a (52.54mb)
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Date : 11/27/2009 04-04-29
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Filename : 04 Pagsamba - Sanctus.m4a (12.67mb)
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Filename : 05 Pagsamba - Agnus.m4a (19.17mb)
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Date : 11/27/2009 04-05-18
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Filename : 06 Suling-Suling.m4a (112.64mb)
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Date : 11/27/2009 04-06-41
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Filename : 07 Colors Without Rhythm.m4a (98.74mb)
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Date : 11/27/2009 04-07-49
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