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On the Transmigration of Souls | 
| Artists: John Adams, Lorin Maazel, New York Philharmonic
Label: Nonesuch
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy New: $9.40
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Avg. Customer Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 4464
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 79816
UPC: 075597981629
EAN: 0075597981629
ASIN: B0002JNLNM
Release Date: August 31, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW!!! Still in factory shrink wrap. Black line drawn through barcode. Ships within 24 hours.
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| Tracks:
| • | On The Transmigration Of Souls |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
This is the first recording of Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls (which won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in music), by the orchestra and conductor that commissioned and premiered it. Adams grips from the start, with a slow buildup of taped mundane city sounds, the obsessively repeated word "missing" superimposed on them. The taped texts are drawn from fragments found on missing person posters, newspaper memorials, and the names of victims of the 9/11 attack. Sometimes the taped voices dominate; at others, the chorus intones the texts; the orchestra an ever-present commentator, its impressionistic harmonies fulfilling Adams' description of creating a "memory space" where each listener can find a personal response to the events. The orchestra erupts in an overwhelming climax after the words "I wanted to dig him out," managing, in a brief passage, to encompass anger, deep grief, and the enormity of the tragedy. Then it subsides into a long, slow decrescendo overlaid by the quiet recitation of names, as if the souls of the title hover over us. Adams has created music for his time and place that fulfills music's ability to move us. --Dan Davis
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| Customer Reviews: Read 37 more reviews...
 Moving May 24, 2008
I am not one of those people to praise modern music if it sounds like mindless noise. When I first found this CD, I had already read about it in the AJC (Atlanta Journal-Constitution), and so I went to get it for myself. When I first heard it, I was not sure what to think. I was moved, almost to a point that I felt uncomfortable with, and subsequently put the disc away for over a year. When I finally pulled it out again and gave it another try, I felt though I was in the exact "memory space" John Adams was trying to convey. The music is haunting in a way that is unique to this matter. I am moved by music of all eras, but this piece is very special in how the simple lyrics (the missing persons signs) and the large orchestration collide to form a unique experience. Many people have scoffed at the piece, calling it trash, but those who really give it a try will be more than rewarded for it. I really enjoy this piece.
Transcendent, yet deeply moving as well April 5, 2008
After the events of 9/11, composers had two choices, it seemed. They
could write Wagnerian sturm und drang, patriotism uber alles-type pieces,
or they could be transcendent and sympathetic at the same time. Mr. Adams
has taken the latter course, and it's no wonder he earned the 2003 Pulitzer prize for this work, largely one of contemplative
reflection on that tragic day, interspersed with a bit of Sibelian and
Ivesian orchestral color. Adams uses collage techniques to great effect
in the piece, interweaving the street noises with the readings of victims'
names, punctuated by NYPO principal trumpeter Philip Smiths' mournful,
questing solo. The real highlight comes when the orchestra and choruses
erupt in a Finlandia-meets-Dies Irae moment at the words "Light! Day!
Sky!" punctuating the horrors of that fateful day with searing fury,
then just as quickly fading back into a respectful, quiet space, a
poignant abscheid to a day hopefully not to rear its ugly head again.
On the Transmigration of Souls, John Adams October 4, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is, to say the least, a landmark piece. Musically, and I am not a musician, it should appeal to everyone in that it does not wander down a path of seeming abstraction as is the case of some contemporary orchestral music. It is, to be sure, heart-rending. The initial listening session produced tears.
The orchestration couples with the voices flawlessly. How would this be brought about in a live performance?
This cd is a must-have for any serious listener.
An Insider's View August 25, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was fortunate this past year to be able to perform this piece with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus directed by Mr. Adams himself. I was in the children's choir (which the score lovingly called "Chi Cho"), and I must say that this is the hardest piece of music I have ever sung, not only note-wise, but emotion-wise.
The hardest part of "Transmigration" comes just before the second "storm", as I called it, around the 30:00 mark. By this time, our feet would be numb from standing, and it is also at this time where we sing the hardest line in the piece: "I wanted to dig him out. I know just where is. I know just where he is." And then all hell breaks loose in the orchestra. This line comes from a woman Mr. Adams imagined, frantic to get onto Ground Zero to look for her husband. She protests, "I know just where he is!" Without the added emotional story behind it, Mr. Adams told the choir to basically scream the words. All this combined brought me nearly to tears every performance- even thinking about it now is difficult.
I have great respect for the New York children's choir that recorded this. If I was affected by the music, I have no idea how they must have felt.
On a more humorous note, the moments after the second "storm" are the hardest to sing in anything (we're singing against the adult choir, who are singing syncopation, we have no idea where the downbeat is, we have no idea where our note is, and Mr. Adams is up there swinging his arms around, lost in the music).
I must admit, when I first began singing the piece (about two months before the performances) I really didn't like it. It was too hard, I complained. I really had no idea how we were going to sing it. Others in my choir complained that it was too weird (I didn't say that because I happen to like weird stuff). But by the time Mr. Adams got done with us, we all- well, even if we didn't all love it (as me and a few others did), we respected it. It will grow on you.
Another insiders' note: listen very carefully to the orchestra when the children's choir is singing "A gold chain around his neck, a silver ring, his middle finger," etc. It's too bad that you can't hear just the orchestra, because just then is some of the most ominous and beautiful music in the entire piece. Think of paper snow, falling from the tower just after impact. Mr. Adams is a genius: he wrote the falling paper into the music. Try to pick it out.
Now a little advertising. This February, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Gwinnett Young Singers will be recording this again. Check it out! I'll be the really loud one in the Chi Cho. (We're totally getting shirts that say "I Survived 'On the Transmigration of Souls'" to wear. I'm glad I got through it the first time; I have no idea what kind of wringer the second time will put me through).
 Paul_Burton's review is spot-on! August 22, 2007
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
I just want to reiterate what Paul Burton said in his March 2007 review... it seems my review was deleted by the *freedom of speech* that *we* are killing people to uphold around the world.
"...Transmigration is simply awful. Pandering to the lowest common impulse to evoke emotion ... by having children read the names of people who died, a choir belting out some of the most insipid and uninspiring lyrics that HAPPENED to be phrases taken from signs around the site and topping it off with sound effects of ambulance sirens? Come on. This is not cathartic, it's pandering to people's guilt and emotion ...
On the Transmigration of Souls". The ONLY reason this symphony won the Pulitzer Prize for Music was the subject matter. Adams simply happened to be the ONLY composer who submitted a musical tribute to the fallen. He had no competition because the NSO commissioned him to do the piece. The NSO knew that the guilt people feel over this horrific event would prevent anyone from honestly appraising his work. He knew he had a golden opportunity to elevate his own myth and it worked."
Thanks, Paul
P.S now all we need is a zealous Nationalist to report you and I to Amazon as unpatriotic and have this removed... Ho,Ho, But political ignorance is not offensive is it.
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