For Four Orchestras is an album by American jazz saxophonist and composer Anthony Braxton, recorded in 1978 and released on the Arista label a triple LP.[1][2][3] The album features a composition by Braxton written for four separate orchestras recorded in quadraphonic sound which was subsequently rereleased on CD on The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton released by Mosaic Records in 2008. The album is dedicated to Eileen Southern.[4]

For Four Orchestras
Studio album by
Released1978
RecordedMay 18 & 19, 1978
VenueHall Auditorium Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
GenreJazz, contemporary classical music
Length114:30
LabelArista A3L 8900
ProducerMichael Cuscuna
Anthony Braxton chronology
Creative Orchestra (Köln) 1978
(1978)
For Four Orchestras
(1978)
Birth and Rebirth
(1978)

Background

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Composition No. 82 for four orchestras was part of a planned series of multi-orchestral pieces which was to include a work for 100 orchestras in four cities, followed by even more ambitious works for orchestras on different planets, and in different star systems and galaxies.[5] Braxton stated that he was "profoundly inspired" by Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen and Carré, as well as by the works of Iannis Xenakis,[6] but also acknowledged the influence of Kansas City jazz of the 1920s and 1930s.[7] He recalled: "There has always been something special about the reality of different ensembles making music in the same physical universe space that has excited my imagination. It is as if the whole of the universe were swallowed up–leaving us in a sea of music and color.[7]

Braxton described Composition No. 82 as having to do with "the factoring of distance," and stated that his goal was to "create a sound environment like star systems."[8] The orchestras are placed in corners of the auditorium, arranged at different levels, with the audience situated in the middle, and both the musicians and the audience sit on swivel chairs.[8] The four conductors are linked by television monitors, which are also used by the musicians when they are asked to swivel away from their group's conductor.[9]

The recording took place at Oberlin Conservatory, and involved student musicians with four faculty members as conductors.[10] The project presented a number of challenges, ranging from the need to copy 160 parts plus four conductor scores, to the process of having to assemble nearly a thousand brief recorded segments in order to construct a master tape.[10] In the end, only two-thirds of the work was recorded, and Braxton eliminated another thirty minutes in order to maintain sound quality on the LPs.[10]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [11]
Tom Hull – on the WebB+[12]

The AllMusic review by Brian Olewnick stated: "the results don't live up to expectations. 'Composition 82' is written in an extremely dry academic style with little differentiation of its course... the musical material itself sounds routinely dreary and uninspired, as if Braxton was declaring that he too could write music as sterile and vapid as his European contemporaries. One might more charitably, however, write this effort off as an interesting experiment that failed; ideas appear herein that would bear far more beautiful fruit in later works".[11]

Reviewing the rereleased recordings for All About Jazz, Clifford Allen observed "The work moves in cycles based around single chords... there is an affinity for instrumental flurries presenting themselves in relation to a steady and central pulse... one never gets the sense of an overbearing sonic weight. Rather, each orchestra operates as a separate but interactive living organism, conducted and arranged in specific relation to the others... Braxton's Four Orchestras expand a color field without pushing those colors too far out of the canvas' edges".[13]

Writing for Point of Departure, Art Lange called the piece "a remarkable, audacious, dazzling, dizzying achievement," and praised its "epic scope." In a review of the 2008 reissue, he commented: "While it still requires a serious commitment on the part of the listener, 40 years of Braxton's music have prepared us to hear For Four Orchestras in a new light, and recognize its value in a broader context than was previously possible."[14]

Track listing

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All compositions by Anthony Braxton.

  1. "308M-64 / 30 / C4DM(R)- Z (For Four Orchestras) [Composition 82]" - 114:

Personnel

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Instrument Orchestra I Orchestra II Orchestra III Orchestra IV
conductor Kenneth Moore Gene Young Robert Baustian Murray Gross
violin I Francine Swartzentruber
Shelley Fowle
Lilyn Graves
Lorraine Adel
Robert Scarrow
Barry Sargent
Zabeth Oechlin
Edward Shlasko
Steven Schuch
Audrey Hale
Karin von Gierke
Stanislav Branovicki
Susan Demetris
Monique Reid
Judith Bixler
Peter Jaffe
Diane Cooper
David Wilson
Pamela Stuckey
Mary Bolling
violin II Marriane Smith
Marcus Woo
Amorie Robinson
Jennifer Steiner
Kathy Blackwell
Lori Fay
Andra Marx
Alison Feuerwerker
Ellen Ziontz
Lauri Gutman
Sally Becker
Elizabeth Welch
Susan Brenneis
Julie Badger
Jane Moon
Shannon Simonson
Lynda Mapes
Margaret Morgan
Johnathan Dunn
Jennifer Doctor
viola Naomi Barlow
James Thomas
Sarah Bloom
Rachel Yurman
Amy Leventhal
Jeffery Durachta
Kathleen Elliott
Helen McDermott
Nanci Severance
David Rogers
Dee Ortel
Beth Thorne
Norin Saxe
Theodore Chemey
Alex Guroff
Igor Polisitsky
cello Steven Harrison
Elizabeth Warren
Suzanne Wijsman
Elizabeth Knowles
Tom Rosenberg
Steven Drake
Dawn Wilder
Sarah Binford
Carol Elliott
Aaron Henderson
Matthew Wexler
Michele McTeague
Kathy Kelly
Daniel Kazez
Carole Stipleman
Steven Wise
bass Mark Shapiro
Suzanne Tarshis
Leon Dorsey
Michael Talbert
Robert Adair
Mikkel Jordan
Jeffrey Hill
Matthew McCauley
Jeffrey Soule
Arthur Kell
David Seckinger
Daniel Savage
flute and piccolo Celeste Johnson Leonard Garrison Betsy Adler Virginia Elliott
alto flute Joel Karr Wendy Tarnoff Adam Kuenzel Carol Goodwillow
clarinet Michael Zakim David Hostetler Bela Schwartz James Colbert
clarinet and E♭clarinet John Guest Marty Rossip David Bell Marta Schworm
bass clarinet Mark Gallagher Cynthia Douglass David Ballon Carol Robinson
oboe Pamela Hill Carolyn Hove James Hois Michael Harrison
English horn Cameron McClusky Giselle Lautenbach Bernard Gabis Claudia Patton
bassoon Allen Smith Ann Kosanovic Deanna Kory Mark Gross
trumpet John Bourque
David Driesen
Alan Campbell
Thomas Gotwals
Dave Rinaldi
Chris Kerrebrock
James Kirchenbauer
William Camp
trombone Robert Asmussen
Richard Ruotolo
Mark Kaiser
David Fogg
Ann Mondragon
David Stocklosa
Bradley Cornell
Kadie Nichols
Mark Adams
Brian Campbell
Eileen Jones
Erik Johnson
tuba Barry Jenson Brian Bailey Steven Box John Lomonaco
harp Cynthia Mowery Naomi Markus Nancy Lendrim Susan Kelly
percussion John Gardner
Andrew Collier
Stephen Pascher
David Wiles
John Kennedy
Philip Seeman
Galen Work
Gregg Linde
Victor Thomas
Andre Whatley
Charles Wood
Derek Davidson

References

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  1. ^ Anthony Braxton discography Archived 2012-09-11 at the Wayback Machine accessed March 17, 2015
  2. ^ Filippo, R., Enciclopedia del Jazz: Anthony Braxton accessed November 3, 2016
  3. ^ Anthony Braxton Project: 1971-1979 Chronology accessed November 7, 2016
  4. ^ Blake, Ran (15 Mar 1979). "Third Stream: Anthony Braxton". Bay State Banner. No. 23. p. 16.
  5. ^ Broomer, Stuart (2009). Time and Anthony Braxton. Mercury Press. p. 60.
  6. ^ Lock, Graham (2018). Forces in Motion: Anthony Braxton and the Meta-Reality of Creative Music. Dover. p. 132.
  7. ^ a b Broomer, Stuart (2009). Time and Anthony Braxton. Mercury Press. p. 61.
  8. ^ a b Lock, Graham (2018). Forces in Motion: Anthony Braxton and the Meta-Reality of Creative Music. Dover. p. 327.
  9. ^ Lock, Graham (2018). Forces in Motion: Anthony Braxton and the Meta-Reality of Creative Music. Dover. pp. 327–328.
  10. ^ a b c Shoemaker, Bill (2017). Jazz in the 1970s: Diverging Streams. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 91.
  11. ^ a b Olewnick, Brian. For Four Orchestras – Review at AllMusic. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  12. ^ Hull, Tom. "Anthony Braxton". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved June 26, 2022.
  13. ^ Allen, C., Anthony Braxton: The Complete Arista Recordings - Review, All About Jazz, January 19, 2009
  14. ^ Lange, Art. "A Fickle Sonance". Point of Departure. Retrieved June 26, 2022.