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Johanna Beyer: Sticky Melodies

by Astra Chamber Music Society

supported by
Peter Schulz
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Keith Eisenbrey
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Dex Anderson
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Robert Bresnan
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  • Streaming + Download

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    Double album; includes PDF liner notes
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Johanna Beyer: Sticky Melodies via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Suite for Clarinet I: I. Presto 03:08
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2.
Suite for Clarinet I: II. Largo 04:19
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3.
Suite for Clarinet I: III. Moderato 01:12
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4.
Suite for Clarinet I: IV. Rallentando 03:01
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5.
String Quartet No. 1: I. Allegro 02:04
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6.
String Quartet No. 1: II. Lento 11:55
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7.
String Quartet No. 1: III. Moderato 03:27
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8.
String Quartet No. 1: IV. Presto 02:01
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9.
Three Songs for Soprano and Clarinet: I. Total Eclipse 04:30
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10.
Three Songs for Soprano and Clarinet: II. To Be 01:03
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11.
Three Songs for Soprano and Clarinet: III. Universal-Local 02:17
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12.
Bees 00:59
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13.
The Federal Music Project 05:19
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14.
Movement for Two Pianos 03:59
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15.
Suite for Clarinet Ib: Giocoso 01:09
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16.
Suite for Clarinet Ib: Lamentation 03:52
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17.
Suite for Clarinet Ib: Contrast (Sonnet Form) 02:06
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18.
Suite for Clarinet Ib: Accelerando 02:21
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19.
String Quartet No. 2: Allegretto 02:03
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20.
String Quartet No. 2: Largo 04:02
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21.
String Quartet No. 2: Moderato 02:15
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22.
String Quartet No. 2: Allegro quasi Presto 01:01
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23.
Ballad of the Star-Eater 07:31
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24.
Movement for Double Bass and Piano 04:07
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25.
Three Pieces for Choir: I. The Main Deep 02:31
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26.
Three Pieces for Choir: II. The Composers Forum Laboratory 01:58
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27.
Three Pieces for Choir: III. The People, Yes! 04:15
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28.
Sonatina in C: I. Allegro brioso 01:49
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29.
Sonatina in C: II. Scherzo 01:06
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30.
Sonatina in C: III. Andante 01:51
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31.
Sonatina in C: IV. Sciolto 02:17
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about

With this double-album set much of Johanna Magdalena Beyer’s (1888-1944) music can be heard for the first time. Remarkably, all of this music was written between 1930 and 1943 by an important immigrant American artist whose works, until recently, have been little known, rarely heard, and not well understood.

Beyer was part of the New York City modernist group of composers that included Henry Cowell, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Charles Seeger, Carl Ruggles, and others. But only within the last few years has her music begun to be discussed alongside the music of these other composers. During her lifetime she heard only a few of her pieces (which number over forty). Of those works that did receive performances, it seems likely that most were performed a small number of times.

For various reasons, this large body of historically important modernist work from the 1930s has been almost completely overlooked. Perhaps not so parenthetically, it also happens to have been written by a woman, and one who seemed to have little skill in promoting her own work. Regardless, this music needs no added “hook” to interest us: It is richly scored, unusual in its voice and its craft, and forward-looking. I continue to discover new beauty in this music even after twenty years of involvement with it.

Beyer is part of the history of twentieth-century American experimental music, and deserves to be received as such. The nature of her role is, perhaps, yet to be fully understood: Our knowledge of her work is still sketchy at best. We owe a debt of gratitude to John McCaughey and the Astra Chamber Music Society for undertaking this fascinating project with such a deep sense of commitment, love for the work, and extraordinary skill. Sixty-four years after her death, we can finally hear a great deal of her work for the first time in these excellent recordings.
—Larry Polansky

As featured in ISOLARE, "a dark and melancholic short film of confinement, directed by Angel Fonseca, with Maëly Fonseca."

credits

released January 1, 2008

Astra Chamber Music Society, John McCaughey, director

license

all rights reserved

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New World Records Brooklyn, New York

Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc., which records under the label New World Records, was founded in 1975.

We are dedicated to the documentation of American music that is largely ignored by the commercial recording companies.

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