"What ties everything together is a string of creativity and inventiveness in every track."
--Logan Molyneux, Daily Herald
"Maxfield's variety is astonishing. Where most student composers struggle to blaze a trail, Andrew Maxfield's early output is a six-lane freeway." "I find myself getting just as excited about the heartfelt quality of the popular songs as I do about the sophisticated choral works, or in admiring the frenetic passion of the 6th movement of his string quartet. This young composer has no boundaries--clearly a force to be reckoned with."
--Ron Simpson, GM Tantara Records
"[Peacemakers] is a unique and lush sequence of sonic images with a cinematic flow. Very engaging and magical. Soulful and rhythmically kinetic."
--Christian Asplund, Director, Seattle Experimental Opera
***
Why roots rising? This eclectic fistful of compositions is simultaneously an homage to my roots--people and sounds I revere--and an effort to lift and extend my own artistic voice. What pleases me most is that these disparate musics appear together; with something of an ironic grin I'm handing you a peanut butter-salmon sandwich (which may have been a catchier album title, now that I think of it) and hoping that you'll enjoy it. But my experience with music thus far has been as varied as it has been rich and this motley recording represents me very personally: quirky, driven, but sincere.
Nearly all of this music contemplates growth, grace, peace and the passage of time. E Sempre Corsu, which means Corsica Forever, explores the oddly juxtaposed vistas of Mediterranean beauty and religious hostility I encountered on a visit there in 2001. I chose to write choral settings of two texts by Wendell Berry because of the way they communicate the need for gratitude and, in the case of the latter, faith in uncertain times.
Peacemakers, a String Quartet in Six Parts, was loosely inspired by James Joyce's "Dubliners," though none of the movements corresponds directly to any of his vignettes. The piece explores the quotidian aspects of being or becoming a peacemaker: regularly making small decisions that aggregately establish peace. This quartet differs from most others in classical idioms because it requires the players to improvise extensively. Therefore each performance of the piece was distinctive and uniquely interesting (maybe just to me since I wrote it), hence the motivation for including two different realizations of the fifth movement. Finally, the pop songs included here express my voice in words as well as in music and represent selections from the past four years of my songwriting. For the record, my simplest and most profound aspirations are embodied in the lyrics of Under the Old Cherry Tree, which depict a metaphorical place where I'd like to arrive, eventually. Maybe we'll meet there sometime, sandwiches in hand.
Bon Appetite.
A.M. 12/05
PS: All album sales will benefit the Utah Food Bank.
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.maxfieldmusic.com
Track List:
1. Brand New Year
2. February 2nd
3. Menuet
4. Invention
5. Fugue
6. Wiltz
7. E Sempre Corsu
8. Prayer After Eating
9. A Gracious Sabbath Stood Here
10. Peacemakers, I. Restraint
11. Peacemakers, II. Per diem
12. Peacemakers, III. Release
13. Peacemakers, IV. Marche
14. Peacemakers, V. Mirror A
15. Peacemakers, V. Mirror B
16. Peacemakers, VI. Bantam
17. Saturday Sara
18. Under the Old Cherry Tree
19. On the Ground
20. Promised Land
Other Genres:
--Logan Molyneux, Daily Herald
"Maxfield's variety is astonishing. Where most student composers struggle to blaze a trail, Andrew Maxfield's early output is a six-lane freeway." "I find myself getting just as excited about the heartfelt quality of the popular songs as I do about the sophisticated choral works, or in admiring the frenetic passion of the 6th movement of his string quartet. This young composer has no boundaries--clearly a force to be reckoned with."
--Ron Simpson, GM Tantara Records
"[Peacemakers] is a unique and lush sequence of sonic images with a cinematic flow. Very engaging and magical. Soulful and rhythmically kinetic."
--Christian Asplund, Director, Seattle Experimental Opera
***
Why roots rising? This eclectic fistful of compositions is simultaneously an homage to my roots--people and sounds I revere--and an effort to lift and extend my own artistic voice. What pleases me most is that these disparate musics appear together; with something of an ironic grin I'm handing you a peanut butter-salmon sandwich (which may have been a catchier album title, now that I think of it) and hoping that you'll enjoy it. But my experience with music thus far has been as varied as it has been rich and this motley recording represents me very personally: quirky, driven, but sincere.
Nearly all of this music contemplates growth, grace, peace and the passage of time. E Sempre Corsu, which means Corsica Forever, explores the oddly juxtaposed vistas of Mediterranean beauty and religious hostility I encountered on a visit there in 2001. I chose to write choral settings of two texts by Wendell Berry because of the way they communicate the need for gratitude and, in the case of the latter, faith in uncertain times.
Peacemakers, a String Quartet in Six Parts, was loosely inspired by James Joyce's "Dubliners," though none of the movements corresponds directly to any of his vignettes. The piece explores the quotidian aspects of being or becoming a peacemaker: regularly making small decisions that aggregately establish peace. This quartet differs from most others in classical idioms because it requires the players to improvise extensively. Therefore each performance of the piece was distinctive and uniquely interesting (maybe just to me since I wrote it), hence the motivation for including two different realizations of the fifth movement. Finally, the pop songs included here express my voice in words as well as in music and represent selections from the past four years of my songwriting. For the record, my simplest and most profound aspirations are embodied in the lyrics of Under the Old Cherry Tree, which depict a metaphorical place where I'd like to arrive, eventually. Maybe we'll meet there sometime, sandwiches in hand.
Bon Appetite.
A.M. 12/05
PS: All album sales will benefit the Utah Food Bank.
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.maxfieldmusic.com
Track List:
1. Brand New Year
2. February 2nd
3. Menuet
4. Invention
5. Fugue
6. Wiltz
7. E Sempre Corsu
8. Prayer After Eating
9. A Gracious Sabbath Stood Here
10. Peacemakers, I. Restraint
11. Peacemakers, II. Per diem
12. Peacemakers, III. Release
13. Peacemakers, IV. Marche
14. Peacemakers, V. Mirror A
15. Peacemakers, V. Mirror B
16. Peacemakers, VI. Bantam
17. Saturday Sara
18. Under the Old Cherry Tree
19. On the Ground
20. Promised Land
Other Genres: