Notes + Text

Singing in the Dark

composed by David Schiff

Singing in the Dark, the center-piece of the concert, is an "enthralling work" whose "music moves from a soulful incantation to a rhythmic dance, back to an even slower meditation based on fragments from the Jewish Day of Atonement services, to a song obliquely inspired by Duke Ellington" (David Stabler, The Oregonian). Schiff's music "suggests a Fourth Stream approach, in which jazz crosses the line into postmodern, non-jazz compositional processes." (Downbeat) In collaboration with Artistic Director Andrew Cyr for this performance by the Metropolis Ensemble, Schiff has re-scored the work for string orchestra, upright bass, and rhythm section. The bass and percussion parts, like solo alto saxophone, combine composed and improvised passages woven into more traditional writing for strings.

1. Meditation on a Shadow
2. Spinning Out of Time
3. Almost Like Praying
4. WWDD (What Would Duke Do)

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