Defective Recollection is Canadian Composer Christopher Ludwig's 9th cd release and consists of his latest Art Songs for Baritone voice. This album features Baritone Cliff Ridley, Christopher Ludwig on Flute, Alina Khvatova on Violin, and Tatiana Khvatova and Danielle Marcinek on Piano.
This newly recorded cd contains settings of the composer's own poetry, as well as two settings of the Adages of Erasmus. The album is an artistic journey through the composer's childhood memories; a voyage attempting to make sense of the imperfect and confusing nature of the echos of past memory, image and emotions, as they ripple into the present and future.
Click Here to view the illustrated pdf booklet
Baritone - Cliff Ridley
Christopher Ludwig - Music, Flute
Alina Khvatova - Violin
Tatiana Khvatova, Danielle Marcinek - Piano
Full Length Audio Files
Track List and Credits - (Back of Booklet)
Baritone:
Cliff Ridley (1 - 19)
Violin:
Alina Khvatova (1 - 3)
Flute:
Christopher Ludwig (18 - 19)
Piano:
Tatiana Khvatova (1 - 4) Danielle Marcinek (5 - 17)
Lyrics:
Desiderius Erasmus (1 - 2) Traditional Anglican (3) Christopher Ludwig (4 - 19)
Medicine Man is the 5th collaborative Art Song recording between composer Christopher Ludwig and baritone Cliff Ridley. The texts come from poets whose backgrounds and themes spread across time, geography, texture and style. Such an approach may on the surface appear to be whimsical and haphazard, yet in Medicine Man, the threads of poetic and compositional colour, mood and imagery are remarkably tight and interwoven. The composer is able to realize this unified tapestry by utilizing consistent stylistic elements and an intuitive process nurtured over years of development and exploration in the Art Song Genre. The long-standing partnership between musicians and composer allowed for the fullest realization of the literary and musical subtleties of Medicine Man. The literary and artistic awareness of both musician and composer needed to be equally as keen, imagist and intuitive. Medicine Man was created on top of a foundation of prose and is left to dwell in a world outside of regular discourse; in a world of music and prose that is both reality and escapism sculpted into a photograph "...grained with light". This is the "face in sepia", where the listener is not merely a guest at the table but must create their own photograph with each listening. The questions to be asked are, who is the Medicine Man and can we trust the treatment?
Click Here to view the illustrated pdf booklet
Christopher Ludwig - Music
Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Tatiana Khvatova - Piano
Alina Khvatova - Violin
Full Length Audio Files
Track List and Credits - (Back of Booklet)
Tracks No. 1-20
Alina Khvatova (violin)
Tracks No. 4-7
Outward Voyage Audio Description
Outward Voyage is a near complete setting of Ken Cather's book of poetry put to music by Christopher Ludwig and performed by Cliff Ridley, baritone, and Danielle Marcinek, piano. This third release was recorded in 2008.
Click Here to view the 12 page illustrated pdf booklet
Christopher Ludwig - Music
Ken Cathers - Words
Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Danielle Marcinek - Piano
Full Length Audio FilesTrack Listing (Back of Booklet)
Pictures from Brueghel is the last of a monumental three album series dedicated to Christopher Ludwig's large scale setting of the works of Pulitzer Prize winning poet William Carlos Williams. It was recorded at Quantum Sound Recording Studio and released in 2013 under the Ludwig Recordings Label.
Christopher Ludwig - Music
William Carlos Williams - Words
Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Tatiana Khvatova - Piano
Anna Vavilova - Piano
No Physical Product (Digital Downloads Only)
Full Length Audio Files
Track List and Credits
Clif Ridley (Baritone), Anna Vavilova (Piano)
Tracks No. 1 - 14
Cliff Ridley (Baritone), Tatiana Khvatova (Piano)
Tracks No. 15 - 18
Program Notes
It is perhaps surprising that so few composers have set the poems of William Carlos Williams, one of the most influential and well-known poets of the 20th Century, to music. The reason may lie within Williams’ poems themselves; the particular and remarkable mixture of subject, imagery, and metre that marks a poem by William Carlos Williams is immediately identifiable, presenting several specific challenges to any composer who approaches them.
A typical method of verse-setting will not meet the challenge of Williams’ unique patterns based on American speech mannerisms. This new collection of songs composed by Christopher Ludwig meets the challenge presented by William Carlos Williams with sensitivity and skill. Begun as a project to set the twelve poems that make up Williams’ Pulitzer Prize winning posthumous Pictures from Brueghel, the completed endeavor is both far-reaching and expansive, comprising 56 poems. In the words of the composer, there were “numerous other William Carlos Williams poems that cried out to be set.”
Setting such writing to music is a significant challenge to a composer. Williams’ poems often contain potent imagery that is strongly suggestive of a musical context. However, the irregular patterns, unusual syllabic rhythms, and uneven line lengths make an approach based on “verse writing” to be almost unworkable. The usual musical techniques of repetition and structure do not readily apply to most of Williams’ poems. Composer Christopher Ludwig surmounts these problems by creating a mood for each song through the piano writing, while the vocal melody is more often reminiscent of speech than singing. Structure and musical coherence is maintained by repetitive elements and short, almost ornamental motifs. The result is an effective blend of musical expression with vocal phrasing that is, to quote Pound’s dictum, “swift, uncluttered and functional.”
Considering the sheer volume of Williams’ life work (48 published books of poetry and prose), the challenge offered by such a collection is often one of discretion – what should be included, and what left out. This new offering of songs set to William Carlos Williams’ poetry presents a broad and representative survey of the breadth of Williams’ art. It is an ambitious project, to be sure, but also a welcome addition to modern song-setting that will no doubt bring a new audience to William Carlos Williams’ remarkable poetic legacy.
©2013 by Brian Mix
William Carlos Williams Song Cycle Audio Interview
The following audio interview is an interview between SFU Professor Harvey De Roo, Composer Christopher Ludwig and Baritone Cliff Ridley on the three William Carlos Williams Albums. It provides insight into this immense 56 song cycle, as well as art song in general.
Winter Trees is the second of a monumental three album series dedicated to Christopher Ludwig's large scale setting of the works of Pulitzer Prize winning poet William Carlos Williams. It was recorded at Quantum Sound Recording Studio and released in 2013 under the Ludwig Recordings Label.
Christopher Ludwig - Music
William Carlos Williams - Words
Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Tatiana Khvatova - Piano
Anna Vavilova - Piano
No Physical Product (Digital Downloads Only)
Full Length Audio Files
Track List and Credits
Track No. 1, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18, 21, 22, 23
Track No. 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20
Program Notes
It is perhaps surprising that so few composers have set the poems of William Carlos Williams, one of the most influential and well-known poets of the 20th Century, to music. The reason may lie within Williams’ poems themselves; the particular and remarkable mixture of subject, imagery, and metre that marks a poem by William Carlos Williams is immediately identifiable, presenting several specific challenges to any composer who approaches them.
A typical method of verse-setting will not meet the challenge of Williams’ unique patterns based on American speech mannerisms. This new collection of songs composed by Christopher Ludwig meets the challenge presented by William Carlos Williams with sensitivity and skill. Begun as a project to set the twelve poems that make up Williams’ Pulitzer Prize winning posthumous Pictures from Brueghel, the completed endeavor is both far-reaching and expansive, comprising 56 poems. In the words of the composer, there were “numerous other William Carlos Williams poems that cried out to be set.”
Setting such writing to music is a significant challenge to a composer. Williams’ poems often contain potent imagery that is strongly suggestive of a musical context. However, the irregular patterns, unusual syllabic rhythms, and uneven line lengths make an approach based on “verse writing” to be almost unworkable. The usual musical techniques of repetition and structure do not readily apply to most of Williams’ poems. Composer Christopher Ludwig surmounts these problems by creating a mood for each song through the piano writing, while the vocal melody is more often reminiscent of speech than singing. Structure and musical coherence is maintained by repetitive elements and short, almost ornamental motifs. The result is an effective blend of musical expression with vocal phrasing that is, to quote Pound’s dictum, “swift, uncluttered and functional.”
Considering the sheer volume of Williams’ life work (48 published books of poetry and prose), the challenge offered by such a collection is often one of discretion – what should be included, and what left out. This new offering of songs set to William Carlos Williams’ poetry presents a broad and representative survey of the breadth of Williams’ art. It is an ambitious project, to be sure, but also a welcome addition to modern song-setting that will no doubt bring a new audience to William Carlos Williams’ remarkable poetic legacy.
©2013 by Brian Mix
William Carlos Williams Song Cycle Audio Interview
The following audio interview is an interview between SFU Professor Harvey De Roo, Composer Christopher Ludwig and Baritone Cliff Ridley on the three William Carlos Williams Albums. It provides insight into this immense 56 song cycle, as well as art song in general.
Figure 5 is the first of a monumental three album series dedicated to Christopher Ludwig's large scale setting of the works of Pulitzer Prize winning poet William Carlos Williams. It was recorded at Quantum Sound Recording Studio and released in 2013 under the Ludwig Recordings Label.
Christopher Ludwig - Music
William Carlos Williams - Words
Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Tatiana Khvatova - Piano
Anna Vavilova - Piano
No Physical Product (Digital Downloads Only)
Full Length Audio Files
Track List and Credits
Track No. 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14
Cliff Ridley (Baritone), Tatiana Khvatova (Piano)
Track No. 1, 3, 6, 12, 15
Program Notes
It is perhaps surprising that so few composers have set the poems of William Carlos Williams, one of the most influential and well-known poets of the 20th Century, to music. The reason may lie within Williams’ poems themselves; the particular and remarkable mixture of subject, imagery, and metre that marks a poem by William Carlos Williams is immediately identifiable, presenting several specific challenges to any composer who approaches them.
A typical method of verse-setting will not meet the challenge of Williams’ unique patterns based on American speech mannerisms. This new collection of songs composed by Christopher Ludwig meets the challenge presented by William Carlos Williams with sensitivity and skill. Begun as a project to set the twelve poems that make up Williams’ Pulitzer Prize winning posthumous Pictures from Brueghel, the completed endeavor is both far-reaching and expansive, comprising 56 poems. In the words of the composer, there were “numerous other William Carlos Williams poems that cried out to be set.”
Setting such writing to music is a significant challenge to a composer. Williams’ poems often contain potent imagery that is strongly suggestive of a musical context. However, the irregular patterns, unusual syllabic rhythms, and uneven line lengths make an approach based on “verse writing” to be almost unworkable. The usual musical techniques of repetition and structure do not readily apply to most of Williams’ poems. Composer Christopher Ludwig surmounts these problems by creating a mood for each song through the piano writing, while the vocal melody is more often reminiscent of speech than singing. Structure and musical coherence is maintained by repetitive elements and short, almost ornamental motifs. The result is an effective blend of musical expression with vocal phrasing that is, to quote Pound’s dictum, “swift, uncluttered and functional.”
Considering the sheer volume of Williams’ life work (48 published books of poetry and prose), the challenge offered by such a collection is often one of discretion – what should be included, and what left out. This new offering of songs set to William Carlos Williams’ poetry presents a broad and representative survey of the breadth of Williams’ art. It is an ambitious project, to be sure, but also a welcome addition to modern song-setting that will no doubt bring a new audience to William Carlos Williams’ remarkable poetic legacy.
©2013 by Brian Mix
William Carlos Williams Song Cycle Audio Interview
The following audio interview is an interview between SFU Professor Harvey De Roo, Composer Christopher Ludwig and Baritone Cliff Ridley on the three William Carlos Williams Albums. It provides insight into this immense 56 song cycle, as well as art song in general.