Cart 0
Discography Recordings Interviews Gallery
Cart 0
 

In Eleanor’s Words: Music of Stacy Garrop

Lincoln trio, kuang-hao huang, buffy baggott, biava quartet

In Eleanor’s Words: Music of Stacy Garrop offers world-premiere recordings of three works by “a rising composer who . . . excites the enthusiasm of performers and audiences alike” (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). A Chicago-based composer with a blossoming career, Garrop (b. 1969) has “a sharp ear for instrumental color and narrative form: She can tell a story” (Detroit Free Press). Writings by the revered American stateswoman and humanitarian Eleanor Roosevelt are the inspiration for Garrop’s In Eleanor’s Words (2006). Scored for mezzo-soprano and piano, the piece illuminates excerpts from six of the former first lady’s syndicated newspaper columns addressing world peace, human rights, and personal experiences. Artists are mezzo-soprano Buffy Baggott and pianist Kuang-Hao Huang. Silver Dagger (2009) for violin, cello, and piano springs from an Appalachian folk song about star-crossed lovers. Garrop skillfully incorporates melodies from three traditional versions of the song in this new work, performed by the Lincoln Trio. Garrop’s much-anticipated String Quartet No. 3, “Gaia” (2008), named for the Greek goddess of the Earth and performed by the Biava Quartet, takes listeners on an engrossing journey from chaos, creation, and abundance to cataclysm and renewal. Garrop’s String Quartet No. 2, “Demons and Angels,” drew praise from, among others, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Few composers . . . can develop musical ideas as convincingly as Garrop does here.”

 

Album works

Silver Dagger for violin, cello, and piano (Lincoln Trio)
In Eleanor’s Words for mezzo-soprano and piano (Buffy Baggott, Kuang Hao Huang)
I. The Newspaper Column
II. Are You Free
III. An Anonymous Letter
IV. The Supreme Power
V. The Dove of Peace
VI. What Can One Woman Do?
String Quartet No. 3, “Gaia” (Biava Quartet)
I. Gaia
II. Creation of Mother Earth
III. Dance of the Earth
IV. Lamentation
V. …et in terra pax

Label: Cedille Records
Release date: 2010

 

Album Reviews

“What impresses [about Silver Dagger] is the way Stacy Garrop sets [the folk tune] against a bleak modernist tolling…. There is an intensity to the writing that is most involving…. [In Eleanor’s Words] is a touching cycle of songs that bravely tackles vital questions of responsibility, both personal and governmental, that still have vital resonance today…. The final movement [of “Gaia’], “Et in terra pax,” speaks of a desire for peace in the tenderest of terms. There is a Górecki-like sadness here as well, though, reminding the listener that this remains, as yet, a dream.”

colin clarke, fanfare mag

 

“Contemporary composer Garrop has a distinct American style of composition, and melody always stands in the forefront of contemporary dissonances. The title work, In Eleanor’s Words, amasses Eleanor Roosevelt newspaper columns into a work for mezzo-soprano and piano. While mid-century politics can sound rather dry, Garrop adds plenty of drama with her music. But more engaging are Garrop’s other two works on the disc, Silver Dagger, which highlights her decidedly American style, and her String Quartet No. 3, “Gaia,” which is an intense and messy, yet brilliant composition of a Greek creation myth.”

Anna reguero, rochester democrat and chronicle

 

“Garrop’s writing is undeniably imaginative, even innovative…. The disc is beautifully recorded.”

musicweb-international