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| Terry Riley: Salome Dances for Peace | 
enlarge | Creators: Joan Jeanrenaud, Terry Riley, Kronos Quartet, Hank Dutt, David Harrington, John Sherba Label: Nonesuch Category: Music
List Price: $24.98 Buy New: $18.28 You Save: $6.70 (27%)
Buy New/Used from $13.48
Avg. Customer Rating:   (2 reviews) Sales Rank: 167041
Media: Audio CD Discs: 2 Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 075597921724 EAN: 0075597921724 ASIN: B000005IZP
Release Date: October 20, 1989 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| | I. Anthem Of The Great Spirit: The Summons | | | I. Anthem Of The Great Spirit: Peace Dance | | | I. Anthem Of The Great Spirit: Fanfare In The Minimal Kingdom | | | I. Anthem Of The Great Spirit: Ceremonial Night Race | | | I. Anthem Of The Great Spirit: At The Ancient Aztec Corn Races Salome Meets Wild Talker | | | I. Anthem Of The Great Spirit: More Ceremonial Races | | | I. Anthem Of The Great Spirit: Oldtimers At The Races | | | I. Anthem Of The Great Spirit: Half Wolf Dances Mad In Moonlight | | | II. Conquest Of The War Demons: Way Of The Warrior | | | II. Conquest Of The War Demons: Salome And Half Wolf Descend Through The Gates To The Underworld | | | II. Conquest Of The War Demons: Breakthrough To The Realm Of The War Demons | | | II. Conquest Of The War Demons: Combat Dance | | | II. Conquest Of The War Demons: Victory: Salome Re-enacts For Half Wolf Her Deeds Of Valor | | | II. Conquest Of The War Demons: Discovery Of Peace | | | II. Conquest Of The War Demons: The Underworld Arising |
Disc 2
| | III. The Gift: Echoes Of Primordial Time | | | III. The Gift: Mongolian Winds | | | IV. The Ecstasy: Processional | | | IV. The Ecstasy: Seduction Of The Bear Father | | | IV. The Ecstasy: The Gathering | | | IV. The Ecstasy: At the Summit | | | IV. The Ecstasy: Recessional | | | V. Good Medicine: Good Medicine Dance |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com How often are you likely to listen to a 100-minute composition of strongly rhythmic character for string quartet? If the answer is, often enough to buy a recording, you'll want this one. Terry Riley was a proto-minimalist who remained on the fringe of public awareness while others such as Glass and Reich became popular. This piece doesn't sound like anyone else's work, but it's likelier to appeal to people who like Glass and Reich than to those whose taste stops at Beethoven. Riley writes fascinatingly for string quartet, and of course he gets a performance of boundless energy from Kronos. I found this set fascinating. --Leslie Gerber
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| Customer Reviews:
  One of the Most Important Late 20th Century Quartets January 29, 2003 18 out of 19 found this review helpful
More than 10 years after it's composition, Terry Riley's Salome Dances for Piece is looking like it will be his masterwork. Though certainly In C garners more performances and it's elegant concept is immediately attractive, Salome is a more profound work and shows the composer off in his most intersting guise. Salome was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, who perform it here. Like many of Riley's pieces, Salome has an intricate program, involving elements from world mythology. Briefly, Salome is charged with descending to the spirit world to recover peace for humanity. The mythos is typical Riley...everything but the kitchen sink is thrown into his hippy mix. While the program is interesting, the work stands on it's own merits. Initial exposure to the piece was provided on the Kronos disc, Winter Was Hard and comparing that version of Half-Wolf Dances Mad in the Moonlight with the version on Salome is relevatory. Listening to the works side by side helps to demonstrate the amount of improvisation that Riley structures into his piece. Certainly many figures are prewritten, but much of the work leaves room for individual contribution by the members of Kronos. Often a Riley work may just include a few figures and a series of scales to improvise on. The amazing thing is that, while the details of the work are always different, the overall effect is the same. Riley has managed to integrate the improvised and the composed seemlessly in his piece. The language of Salome is varied, from pentatonic minimalism to things that almost sound like Bartok. But it is never austere. Salome is a dance of joy by one of the most joyous composers of the 20th century.
  Complex, Challenging... Overall Charming! July 8, 2000 20 out of 21 found this review helpful
Terry Riley's string quartet is most certainly a remarkable composition, I daresay a gem of contemporary music. And, needless to say, Kronos performs it brilliantly. The first things that come to mind about Salome Dances for Peace are: 1) its extraordinary length: it is nearly two hours long; 2) its intricacy: this piece requires attention, concentration and lots of thinking over, and even then it remains impenetrable at first. I'm no musicologist, I'm afraid, so I won't even try to elucidate the technical aspects of Salome Dances for Peace: someone else - more competent and patient than myself - will do that soon, I hope. What I can say is that this composition is likely to interest contemporary music enthusiasts and/or experts, while it may not do the trick for the average classical music amateur. Kronos Quartet collectors, too, will want to own this CD, as I did, and - listening to it over and over again - will learn to love it, no doubt. But complex it is, and potential buyers might like to know that. I rate Salome Dances for Peace "five stars," because it is a challenging and at the same time charming piece of art, which adds something new and vital to the corpus of classical music. Also, I rate it "five stars" to celebrate its heroine, Salome... After having seduced Wilde, Strauss and us all for her beauty, her passion and her cruelty so naive and unaware of consequence, she comes back to seduce us once again, only this time with her strength.
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