Music of David Lang
Shara Worden (vocals), Bryce Dessner (guitar), Owen Pallett (violin), Nico Muhly (piano)
Cantaloupe Music
Our unending fascination with death grants a great latitude
to artists that create works on this theme. With requiems, they range from
Verdi’s bombast through the gentle benedictions of Fauré’s to the soothing
abstractions of the medievalists. In this last mode, death speaks, David Lang’s song cycle on his album of the same
name, the text is a compilation of fragments of phrases from Schubert lieder
where the singer assumes the voice of Death personified. One wonders, what can
the composer know of this and how successful is his expression? He calmly
invites us to a beautiful place of light – of comfort – of joy. The musical
language stripped to the simplest harmonies; melodic shapes and small intervals,
supported by a monochromatic sonic backdrop of repetitive phrases unique to
each song; show the composer absenting himself so his audience can meditate the
more deeply on his message.
