– General Description: All the pieces are explorations of sad emotion. You will have to monitor your audio levels closely as many times the playing (and talking) is barely audible (with the exception of 5). All are worth playing on a program devoted to audio descriptions of stories, paintings, poems and journeys.
– FCC Compliant: YES
– Recommended Tracks: 5, 6
– Track Reviews:
(Warning: The songs display on computer in a different order than what's printed on the CD case.
Below is the computer order.)
1. (10:46) Going Home (Vysoke, My Jerusalem) - slow; sustained pitches interleave, minor key, oboe w/strings; (based on Bresnick's journey to the Russian-Polish town where his mother was born)
2. (10:52) A Message From The Emperor - bell sounds; a faraway voice gives a spoken message, very hard to hear unless sound is turned way up (piano, violin); (based on Kafka story of a long dead emperor's undeliverable message)
3. (8:55) Ishi's Song - medium; bell-like piano, soft then gets louder then soft again, very repetitive motive (based on a Yahi Native American song)
4. (6:23) Strange Devotion - quiet; airy piano, as though thinking about what to play, then heavy descending lines; (based on a Goya painting of people kneeling before a a cart w/a corpse as it passes)
5. **** (9:18) Josephine The Singer - experimental; very very quiet violin starts with dissonant long tones, then breathy playing, becoming more full and louder; (based on a Kafka story of a mouse that becomes a legend)
6. **** (14:20) Prayers Remain Forever - piano w/cello; long sustained tone and then fast rolling ones w/piano accenting beneath; (based on a poem by Yehuda Amichai)