Nature Is

• Booklet languages: English
• Time: 60:28
• Release Date: 2007

Review

Cindy Cox (born in 1961) teaches composition at the University of California Berkeley. This collection of three chamber pieces show her to be a composer of strong communicative gifts whose music makes sophisticated use of contemporary techniques, but which has a bright, friendly surface that should make it appealing to broad audiences. Hierosgamos: Studies in Harmony and Resonance is a suite of piano pieces that call to mind the Ligeti etudes in their variety and in the distinctiveness of each movement. They may not have the inventiveness and brilliance of Ligeti's work, but the freshness with which Cox develops the character of each makes them instantly engaging, and Cox plays them with athleticism and grace. Axis Mundi, for chamber ensemble, amplified and with added reverb, is colorful, quirky, and unpredictable. Cox expands the timbral range of Nature Is, for trombone quartet, with the subtle addition of sampled instrumental sounds and the poet John Campion reading his poem of the same name. The piece falters a little when the poet's reading overlays the instruments; there isn't a strong enough connection between the text and music to justify the disjunction the voice creates, but the other movements are evocative and fully effective. Cox's willingness to let her music express uninhibited exuberance, as it does in several movements of Hierosgamos and Nature Is, makes hers a distinctive voice on the new music scene. ~ Stephen Eddins, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Cindy Cox	Heirosgamos: Studies in Harmony & Resonance, for piano	28:38
Cindy Cox	Axis Mundi, for ensemble	13:49
Cindy Cox	Nature Is, for 4 trombones & electronics	18:01

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