Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Paul Jebanasam - Music for the Church of St. John the Baptist



Though this might be termed a modern classical piece, it begins with an aesthetic closer to noise or drone: allowing distorted sounds separated from instrumental identities to swell and flow, with continuous climaxes, each more intense than the last.  The noisier aesthetic gives way to what sounds like an organ breathing a sigh of relief; if this is supposed to be religious music, it seems demons have been exorcised. But such relief is only superficial, as the string-dominated second half of the piece expresses great sorrow, not coming off as clichéd or kitschy if only because the listener has experienced a kind of struggle themselves in the first half. These ‘parts’ complement beautifully because intensity is maintained throughout the entire piece, and neither resorts to gimmick to shock or touch. The melodrama of accessible modern classical (though admittedly I sometimes crave it) is absent from this piece, rendering it authentically moving and quite a nice treat indeed.

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