Freed From Words

Freed From Words

Description: 
Living, liquid a cappella sound
Composers: 
Mark Winges
Performers: 
Sandra Coria
Owen Mabson Southard
Li Ho
Chuck Brickley
Mike Peterson
John Wills
Anonymous
Robert Geary
Ancora
San Francisco Chamber Singers
Mark Winges
Piedmont Children's Chorus
Ralph Nieder-Westermann
Marlene Mountain
Denise Newman
Sue Bohlin
Nora Wilcox
Jessica Ashman
Lynn Tousey
Katherine Breeden
Catalog Number: 
#573
Genre: 
new classical
Collection: 
choral
Location: 

San Francisco, CA

Price: 
$15.00
Release Date: 
Sep 17, 2002
Liner Notes: 
View
1 CD
One Sheet: 

San Francisco-based composer Mark Winges writes music that is both familiar and strange; speaking to our oldest human qualities, beyond words…  It embraces the versatility of the human voice: screams, whispers, whistling, muffled garbles, throat singing, speaking, and lyrical singing are all bound together into a tapestry of living, liquid a cappella sound.

Think of the mind-blowing choral works of Penderecki, Messiaen, Takemitsu, or Ligeti’s brooding score to 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Winges’ latest CD, Freed from Words expresses the abstract and the specific: Magic Strings places the listener in the swarthy world of a witch’s sabbath; The Oh of Moon and Piano illustrates the moon and piano caught up in celestial dance; Haiku Settings unfold pithy sonic snapshots; Freed from Words uses phonemes and other pre-lingual vocal sounds.

 

Composer in residence for the virtuosic San Francisco chamber singers, (three- time winners of ASCAP’s “Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music”) Winges seamlessly blends a wide variety of influences into an evocative choral world. Conductor Robert Geary (recently given the “Outstanding Conductorial Achievement”  award at the International Children’s and Youth Choir Festival) insures that all the singers involved, from children to adult, make the vocal gymnastics sound effortless.  

Reviews: 

PRIMARILY A CAPPELLA

This recording will transport anyone with a love of choral music and an open ear.

SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE

Winges' eight works are an extraordinary adventure into the realm of possibilities... Freed from Words is for vocal orchestra producing a singing and speaking continuity dazzling in its variety, rhythmically propulsive(much freer than scat singing), a texture that flashes and sparkles. ...the brilliant performances by Geary and his groups on this CD are at a level that never lets up. - Robert Commanday

LYNX

Clear intonations and a vast variety of vocal expressions make this performance a joy to listen to. Musicians and poets of all genres may have to learn quite a bit from Mark Winges. - Werner Reichhold