Geoffrey Gordon Composer

Geoffrey Gordon Composer

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Geoffrey Gordon Composer episodes

  • GORDON: Interiors V. Postlude
    This is a live performance of the Postlude from composer Geoffrey Gordon's Interiors of a Courtyard, for mandolin and guitar, featuring the Rosetta Contemporary Ensemble, one of Japan's premiere new music groups. Takaaki Shibata, mandolin and Kosuke Hashizume, guitar, are featured in a performance from 25 August, 2018, at the Gohki Endo Museum of Art, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan.
    Listen to the entire Interiors of a Courtyard, from a recording in Naples with Fabio Gallucci, mandolin & Antonio Pilato, guitar, here:
    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFB7AD9DEFDE41169
    5 min
  • GORDON: Harmonie - an Jenny after Karl Marx
    Birmingham Contemporary Music Group gives the world premiere performance of Geoffrey Gordon's Harmonie - an Jenny, a setting of a text by Karl Marx, as part of the Wilde Lieder Marx.Music Project. Scored for soprano and solo cello, Harmonie is a setting of an early romantic text by the political thinker and theorist, dedicated to his love, Jenny, from Buch der Lieder 1836, featuring soprano Elizabeth Atherton and cellist Ulrich Heinen, given on 1st September 2018, in Marx's hometown of Trier, Germany. Recording courtesy of German Radio SWR2. A studio recording of this work is available on the Coviello label. http://covielloclassics.de/en/Katalog/cov-91914-wilde-lieder-marx-music/
    TEXT:
    Harmonie (an Jenny)
    Kennst Du das süsse Zauberbild,
    Wo Seelen in einander fliessen,
    In einem Hauche sich ergiessen,
    Melodisch voll und freundlich mild?
    Sie glühen auf in einer Purpurrose,
    Und bergen sich verschämt im weichen Moose.
    Und walle weit durch Flur und Land,
    Das Zauberbild wirst Du nicht finden,
    Kein Talisman vermag's zu binden,
    Und keine Sonne je es fand.
    Es ist in ihrem Scheine nicht entsprossen,
    Hat keine Erdennahrung je genossen.
    Drum bleibt es ewig prangend stehn,
    Ob schwingt die Zeit den raschen Flügel,
    Apollo fast der Rosse Zügel,
    Und Welten stumm im Nichts vergehn.
    In sich hat's eine Kraft sich selbst erzeuget,
    Die keine Welt, die selbst kein Gott ihm beuget.
    Es ähnelt wohl dem Zytherklang,
    Gespielt auf einer ew'gen Leier,
    In stetem Glühen, steter Feier,
    In hohem, sehnsuchtsvollem Drang.
    O! horch den Saiten, die in Dir erschallen,
    Zu suchen wird Dein Fuß nicht weiterwallen.
    Karl Marx (1836)
    8 min
  • Sonnets From Neruda VI. Ya eres mía
    This is the sixth song from Geoffrey Gordon's song cycle, Sonnets from Neruda, setting six sonnets from Cien sonetos de amor (100 Love Sonnets) for mezzo soprano, baritone and piano, in a performance at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, featuring mezzo soprano Natalia Kawalek, baritone Tobias Greenhalgh and pianist Marcin Koziel, 16 March 2018.
    Soneto 81
    Ya eres mía. Reposa con tu sueño en mi sueño.
    Amor, dolor, trabajos, deben dormir ahora.
    Gira la noche sobre sus invisibles ruedas
    y junto a mí eres pura como el ámbar dormido.
    Ninguna más, amor, dormirá con mis sueños.
    Irás, iremos juntos por las aguas del tiempo.
    Ninguna viajará por la sombra conmigo,
    sólo tú, siempreviva, siempre sol, siempre luna.
    Ya tus manos abrieron los puños delicados
    y dejaron caer suaves signos sin rumbo,
    tus ojos se cerraron como dos alas grises,
    mientras yo sigo el agua que llevas y me lleva:
    la noche, el mundo, el viento devanan su destino,
    y ya no soy sin ti sino sólo tu sueño.
    And now you’re mine. Rest with your dream in my dream.
    Love and pain and work must sleep now.
    The night turns on its invisible wheels,
    and beside me you are pure as sleeping amber.
    No one else, Love, will sleep in my dreams.
    You will go, we will go together, through the waters of time.
    No one else will travel through the shadows with me,
    only you, evergreen, ever sun, ever moon.
    Your hands have already opened their delicate fists
    and let their soft drifting signs fall away,
    your eyes have closed like two gray wings,
    while I follow the water that you carry and that carries me away:
    the night, the world, the wind spin out their destiny,
    and already without you I am only your dream.
    *************
    7 min
  • Sonnets From Neruda IV. No te quiero sino porque te quiero
    This is the fourth song from Geoffrey Gordon's song cycle, Sonnets from Neruda, setting six sonnets from Cien sonetos de amor (100 Love Sonnets) for mezzo soprano, baritone and piano, in a performance at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, featuring mezzo soprano Natalia Kawalek and pianist Marcin Koziel, 16 March 2018.
    Soneto 66
    No te quiero sino porque te quiero
    y de quererte a no quererte llego
    y de esperarte cuando no te espero
    pasa mi corazón del frío al fuego.
    Te quiero sólo porque a ti te quiero,
    te odio sin fin, y odiándote te ruego,
    y la medida de mi amor viajero
    es no verte y amarte como un ciego.
    Tal vez consumirá la luz de Enero,
    su rayo cruel, mi corazón entero,
    robándome la llave del sosiego.
    En esta historia sólo yo me muero
    y moriré de amor porque te quiero,
    porque te quiero, amor, a sangre y fuego.
    I do not love you except because I love you
    and I go from loving to not loving you,
    from waiting to not waiting for you
    so my heart moves from cold to fire.
    I love you only because it is you the one I love,
    I hate you endlessly, and hating you I beg you,
    and the measure of my changing love for you
    that I do not see you but love you blindly.
    Maybe the January light will consume
    with its cruel ray, my whole heart,
    stealing from my the key to true calm.
    In this tale, only I die
    and I will die of love because I love you,
    because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.
    4 min
  • Sonnets From Neruda V. De noche, amada, amarra tu corazón al mío
    This is the fifth song from Geoffrey Gordon's song cycle, Sonnets from Neruda, setting six sonnets from Cien sonetos de amor (100 Love Sonnets) for mezzo soprano, baritone and piano, in a performance at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, featuring baritone Tobias Greenhalgh and pianist Marcin Koziel, 16 March 2018.
    Soneto 79
    De noche, amada, amarra tu corazón al mío
    y que ellos en el sueño derroten las tinieblas
    como un doble tambor combatiendo en el bosque
    contra el espeso muro de las hojas mojadas.
    Nocturna travesía, brasa negra del sueño
    interceptando el hilo de las uvas terrestres
    con la puntualidad de un tren descabellado
    que sombra y piedras frías sin cesar arrastrara.
    Por eso, amor, amárrame el movimiento puro,
    a la tenacidad que en tu pecho golpea
    con las alas de un cisne sumergido,
    para que a las preguntas estrelladas del cielo
    responda nuestro sueño con una sola llave,
    con una sola puerta cerrada por la sombra.
    Tie your heart at night to mine, love,
    and both will defeat the darkness
    like twin drums beating in the forest
    against the heavy wall of wet leaves.
    Night crossing, black coal of dream
    that cuts the thread of earthly orbs
    with the punctuality of a headlong train
    that pulls cold stone and shadow endlessly.
    Love, because of it, tie me to a purer movement,
    to the grip on life that beats in your breast,
    with the wings of a submerged swan,
    So that our dream might reply
    to the sky's questioning stars
    with one key, one door closed to shadow.
    7 min
  • Sonnets From Neruda I. Amor, cuántos caminos hasta llegar a un beso
    This is the first song from Geoffrey Gordon's song cycle, Sonnets from Neruda, setting six sonnets from Cien sonetos de amor (100 Love Sonnets) for mezzo soprano, baritone and piano, in a performance at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, featuring mezzo soprano Natalia Kawalek and pianist Marcin Koziel, 16 March 2018.
    Soneto 2
    Amor, cuántos caminos hasta llegar a un beso,
    qué soledad errante hasta tu compañía!
    Siguen los trenes solos rodando con la lluvia.
    En Taltal no amanece aún la primavera.
    Pero tú y yo, amor mío, estamos juntos,
    juntos desde la ropa a las raíces,
    juntos de otoño, de agua, de caderas,
    hasta ser sólo tú, sólo yo juntos.
    Pensar que costó tantas piedras que lleva el río,
    la desembocadura del agua de Boroa,
    pensar que separados por trenes y naciones
    tú y yo teníamos que simplemente amarnos,
    con todos confundidos, con hombres y mujeres,
    con la tierra que implanta y educa los claveles.
    Love, how many roads to reach a kiss
    what wandering loneliness until your company!
    Follow the train tracks alone running with the rain.
    In Taltal there is neither daybreak nor spring.
    But you and I, my love, we are together,
    together from our clothes down to our roots
    together in the autumn, in water, in hips,
    until it becomes only you, only me together.
    To think that it took many stones carried by the river,
    the river mouth of Boroa
    To think that trains and nations separate us
    You and I had only to love one another:
    with all the confusions, with men and women,
    with the land that sows and makes bloom the carnations.
    5 min
  • Sonnets From Neruda III. Sabrás que no te amo y que te amo
    This is the third song from Geoffrey Gordon's song cycle, Sonnets from Neruda, setting six sonnets from Cien sonetos de amor (100 Love Sonnets) for mezzo soprano, baritone and piano, in a performance at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, featuring mezzo soprano Natalia Kawalek and pianist Marcin Koziel, 16 March 2018.
    Soneto 44
    Sabrás que no te amo y que te amo
    puesto que de dos modos es la vida,
    la palabra es un ala del silencio,
    el fuego tiene una mitad de frío.
    Yo te amo para comenzar a amarte,
    para recomenzar el infinito
    y para no dejar de amarte nunca:
    por eso no te amo todavía.
    Te amo y no te amo como si tuviera
    en mis manos las llaves de la dicha
    y un incierto destino desdichado.
    Mi amor tiene dos vidas para armarte.
    Por eso te amo cuando no te amo
    y por eso te amo cuando te amo.
    You must know that I do not love and that I love you,
    because everything alive has its two sides;
    a word is one wing of silence,
    fire has its cold half.
    I love you in order to begin to love you,
    to start infinity again
    and never to stop loving you:
    that is why I do not love you yet.
    I love you, and I do not love you, as if I held
    keys in my hand to a future of joy
    and a wretched, muddled fate.
    My love has two lives, in order to love you.
    That is why I love you when I do not love you,
    and also why I love you when I do.
    5 min
  • Sonnets From Neruda II. Tengo hambre de tu boca
    This is the second song from Geoffrey Gordon's song cycle, Sonnets from Neruda, setting six sonnets from Cien sonetos de amor (100 Love Sonnets) for mezzo soprano, baritone and piano, in a performance at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, featuring baritone Tobias Greenhalgh and pianist Marcin Koziel, 16 March 2018.
    Soneto 11
    Tengo hambre de tu boca, de tu voz, de tu pelo
    y por las calles voy sin nutrirme, callado,
    no me sostiene el pan, el alba me desquicia,
    busco el sonido líquido de tus pies en el día.
    Estoy hambriento de tu risa resbalada,
    de tus manos color de furioso granero,
    tengo hambre de la pálida piedra de tus uñas,
    quiero comer tu piel como una intacta almendra.
    Quiero comer el rayo quemado en tu hermosura,
    la nariz soberana del arrogante rostro,
    quiero comer la sombra fugaz de tus pestañas
    y hambriento vengo y voy olfateando el crepúsculo
    buscándote, buscando tu corazón caliente
    como un puma en la soledad de Quitratúe
    I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
    Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
    Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
    I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.
    I hunger for your sleek laugh,
    your hands the color of a savage harvest,
    I hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
    I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.
    I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
    the sovereign nose of your proud countenance,
    I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,
    and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
    hunting for you, for your warm heart,
    like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.
    5 min
  • Three Summer Sketches: III. Spring Green
    This is the third movement of Geoffrey Gordon's Three Summer Sketches, for solo piano, commissioned for pianist Jeri-Mae Astolfi by the Wisconsin Arts Board, and recorded on the Ravello label. Buy the whole disc here: http://www.ravellorecords.com/wisconsinsoundscapes/
    6 min
  • Three Summer Sketches: II. Mineral Point
    This is the second movement of Geoffrey Gordon's Three Summer Sketches, for solo piano, commissioned for pianist Jeri-Mae Astolfi by the Wisconsin Arts Board, and recorded on the Ravello label. Buy the whole disc here: http://www.ravellorecords.com/wisconsinsoundscapes/
    4 min

About Geoffrey Gordon Composer

From the publisher's feed

US/UK composer Geoffrey Gordon’s contributions to the contemporary music repertoire have been and continue to be exceptional. Intense and luxuriant harmony, passionate melody and superb handling of instrumentation and sonic textures define his music. His works include orchestral, chamber and vocal works, recognised and performed by the world's top musicians and ensembles. His music has been called "darkly seductive" (The New York Times), "complex, richly-satisfying " (BBC Music Magazine), “stunning” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “iridescent and glowing” (Chicago Tribune), “taut and exhilarating” (Classical Ear), “haunting” (Strings Magazine), "gripping" (Bachtrack), "fierce and uncompromising" (MusicWeb International) and “magnificent” (Fanfare). The Philharmonia identifies “his infectious style" and “an ear for melody”; the New York Times his “zest for sonic experimentation”.