At 82, Gloria Coates, even after decades of work as one of the finest composers around, is woefully underappreciated. One wonders if her gender is among the biggest reasons why. Coming across her name was one of those numerous happy accidents that are more common than we sometimes realize and, hearing this 2006 Naxos release of her work spanning from the early Seventies to the early Oughts (it's always a pleasure to use that archaic word), is another reminder of just how much great music is out there waiting to be discovered. A native of Wisconsin and a long-time resident of Munich, Coates has managed, without little fanfare, to amass a remarkable body of work, including sixteen symphonies, ten string quartets, and a great deal of other compositions with a distinctive style best known for her frequent use of glissandi.
Among the works on this recording, performed by three German orchestras, the first symphony, originally titled "Music on Open Strings" before the composer decided to use the word "symphony," is her most recognized piece. The tuning includes a first movement to a Chinese scale (provided by her teacher, Alexander Tcherepnin, to whom the work is dedicated) and the finale is a staggering aural experience of great glissandi intensity. The seventh symphony was "dedicated to those who brought down The [Berlin] Wall in PEACE" and the use of brass and percussion with those glissandi in the strings (especially in the first and third movements) is striking, even if the piece is not conventionally celebratory. The fourteenth symphony was new at the time and was an homage to early American hymn writers Supply Belcher and William Billings as well as to another mentor, Otto Luening, and is subtitled "Symphony in Microtones" because of extensive and impressive use of quarter tones. This album, with cover art by Coates, was a revelation when first heard and is a powerful sampling of the work of a great composer who deserves to be far better known and recognized.
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