We’ve been asking musicians about their reactions to 9-11 over the course of the last five years. Some of the best responses appear in our 9-11 memorial show, A Requiem Soundscape, Echoes Remembers September 11. Others appear on our website on the Requiem Soundscape page.
I was surprised how few musicians heard music in their heads during these events. I can’t ever get music out of my head. Lately it’s been The Monkees’ “Day Dream Believer.” Don’t ask. But that day it was quite a different score. When I woke in the morning and turned on the TV after hearing the news on Morning Edition, I kept hearing U2’s “Until the End of the World.” As the morning progressed, and the second plane hit the tower, Lisa Gerrard’s “Now We are Free,” Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson’s “Ars Moriendi,” Pink Floyd’s “Pow R. Toch,” Wendy Carlos’ “Title Music From A Clockwork Orange (From Purcell’s Music for The Funeral of Queen Mary)” and of course, Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” kept cycling through my head in a nonstop loop. These were the soundtrack of despair and loss. It was the score for a magnificent disaster as the towers seemed to fall down in a slow motion. If this had been Philip Glass and Godfrey Reggio’s film Koyaanisqatsi, it would’ve been high art signifying humanities’ hubris. But this day, it was only the face of hopelessness, malformed hate, and the loss of innocence, again. Because we do seem to keep getting it back.
Tonight, many of you will get a chance to hear this music and the musicians who make it on A Requiem Soundscape: Echoes Remembers September 11, 2001, a chance to hear the words transformed into something beyond words.
Comment posted by
at 9/16/2006 12:42:27 PM
Yes, Haden-Metheny’s Spiritual is beautiful. We had a lo of new materiel his year some some things had to go. Can’t cram it all into a two hour show,
Thanks for the kind words.
Comment posted by
at 9/15/2006 12:57:44 PM
Themed Echoes shows seem to have dwindled some but the Requiem Souncscape collections have always been among my favorite Echoes listening experiences. Favorite, of course, in the sense of music quieting and provoking feeling. Moving, mournful, evocative of something not so grieving, always reflective, I’ve enjoyed the artists and performances over the past 5 years. I think the first one show done the month after September 11, 2001 stays with the me the most and seems to be good therapy to meet the conflicting feelings I have about that day. I only wish you didn’t drop the Haden/Metheny performance of Spiritual. I think it closed one of the hours and upon first hearing it I got a taste of what sentimental is without sentimentality. Thanks for keeping this going.