19 Mar 2017

Meredith Monk - On Behalf of Nature

From New Horizons, 5:00 pm on 19 March 2017
On Behalf of Nature - cover image

On Behalf of Nature - cover image Photo: ECM Records

Meredith Monk is a singer and composer, the creator of multi-disciplinary works that combine ritual, music, dance and theatre. She is utterly without category, although 'contemporary classical' is probably where she gets filed most often. Her closest relations, none of which she is in any way alike, are musicians such as Laurie Anderson, Cathy Berberian, Yoko Ono, Björk, and minimalists like Steve Reich and Philip Glass. William Dart refers to her in this programme as "the grande dame of the American avant-garde".

Her most recent album, On Behalf of Nature, is an ECM recording of the music from a work she wrote in 2013. Monk has described it as "a meditation on our intimate connection to nature, its inner structures, the fragility of its ecology and our interdependence." As William puts it, it's "an hour of beautifully immersive music".

Music Details

'Song title' (Composer) – Performers
Album title
(Label)

'Nature' (Mason) – The Fourmyula
The Complete Fourmyula
(HMV)

'Ritual Zone' (Monk) – Meredith Monk
On Behalf of Nature
(ECM)

'Greensleeves' (Trad) – Meredith Monk
Beginnings
(Tzadik)

'Water/Sky Rant' (Monk) – Meredith Monk
On Behalf of Nature
(ECM)

'Travel Dream Song' (Monk) – Dina Emerson (vocal), Ensemble/Wayne Hankin
Atlas – an Opera in Three Parts
(ECM)

'Walking Song' (Monk) – Meredith Monk
The Big Lebowski – Soundtrack
(Mercury)

'Double Fiesta' (Monk) – Meredith Monk
Monk Mix
(House Foundation)

'Double Fiesta' (Monk) – Arto Lindsay
Monk Mix
(House Foundation)

'Last Song' (Monk) – Caetano Veloso
Monk Mix
(House Foundation)

'Gotham Lullaby' (Monk) – Björk
Monk Mix
(House Foundation)

'Spider Web Anthem' (Monk) – Meredith Monk
On Behalf of Nature
(ECM)

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