Frederic Rzewski compositions outside of MEV: Search & Destroy

I've had my mind blown regularly for the last five years or so everytime I listen to "Coming Together" which was issued on Opus One along with two other compositions in 1973. It is a very rhythmic piece with a sung-spoken text taken from a letter Sam Melville wrote to a friend while incarcerated in spring 1971 several months before the riots. Its subject concerns the passage of time, and as it is repeated the speaker (Steve ben Israel) becomes more agitated. The background is composed of vibraphone, synth, trombone, piano, alto sax, viola and bass and changes in fervor to reflect the speaker's voice. It is an amazing piece of music, imo. Unavailable on CD, to my knowledge never reissued.
available here: http://incessantnoise.blogspot.com/2009/08/frederic-rzewski-coming-together.html

One of the other pieces on the record also has a text concerning the Attica uprising; the other is a piece for tuned percussion and is fine, as far as that kind of thing goes--personally I find the text-based pieces more compelling.

My other favorite recording by Rzewski is a double LP of solo piano pieces released in 1980. Four Pieces 1977 / Ballad No. 3: Which Side Are You On? Recommended for fans of Tom Johnson's hour for piano, Riley's Harp of New Albion, the well-tuned piano, etc. They aren't just intonation pieces but should appeal to those with an ear for 20th century piano maybe?

The People United Will Never Be Defeated is pretty good, in both the Marc Andre Hamelin and more familiar (to me) Ursula Oppens versions.

Is Coming Together really currently unavailable on CD, or just that one realization of it? I know I've seen recordings of other performances of it. Relache used to perform that all the time in the 80s, but something always felt slightly incongruous about having Barbara Noska do the recitative.

It's been recorded a number of times, but that's the only version of it I'm familiar with. There's probably something available on CD but I'm not sure?

Paul mentions another recording over here, with some funny comments: 500 CDs I think I would like to own (Although I actually find that thread premise pretty embarrassing at this point, especially since my list was over-padded with esoteric stuff I didn't think I'd ever get to.)

some info about different recordings here--
http://www.topologymusic.com/index.php/coming-together-by-frederick-rzewski/comment-page-1/

and here (in Spanish, I can't claim to understand it intimately)--
http://clasiforonuevo.superforos.com/viewtopic.php?t=876

Saw a perf of Coming Together a few years ago. Far less shouty than the recorded version I have. You'd think it polite but no! It turned out you could focus on the layers beneath a bit more, just as puncturing a work.

Love to get hold of a performance of his piano cycle The Road. I think that's the major thing he's done in the last few years.

there are versions of Coming Together available on CD; I've heard the Eighth Blackbird, which was alright, and Alter Ego, which is incredible. I heard it 'blind' in the spring sitting in the window at the tail end of a bad winter and it was one of those definitive moments when something sounds completely perfect as it happens, finding out afterwards where the text came from was the final thing clicking into place.

I have a score somewhere I forget the name of which is two lines long, supposed to be played in a structure similar to the way the text is organised in Coming Together, where you go 1st note, 1st 2nd, 1st 2nd 3rd, until you have everything and then subtract notes in the same way from the beginning. It has the instruction that any mistake the performer makes should be incorporated and repeated, treated as if it were part of the score, which I like as a way of placing performance over composition. some of the piano pieces are great too, Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues w/ piano-as-machine, juddering across the factory floor

"Coming Together" which was issued on Opus One

that's version's untouchable, no idea why it's not out on CD. my copy of "The People United Will Never Be Defeated" is the one by Yuji Takahashi and it is great

really want to hear "Which Side Are You On". guessing that's settings of the folk song, sounds great

he taught briefly at Mills last year, very confrontative, my friends who were there were upset at what they considered to be unprofessional, self-absorbed behavior for a guest lecturer at the time but months later they're still talking about his visit and you can tell he really got his points in. still red.

Can see that. Read one of those 'got up angry in the morning' type interviews..

that first recording of "coming together" is a doozy

What I really want to hear is a Rzewski performance of Beethoven's 'hammerklavier' sonata op. 106. Apparently Rzewski incorporates extensive improvisation when he performs it. I don't think there have been any recordings of him playing other composers.

THE EXPERIMENTAL CHEMISTRY OF FOOD! ! !

I can act

(Whoops, skipped a line.)

i
am
in
excellent
physical
and emotional
health

RIP :-(

Ah, fuck.

RIP

Oh, I didn't know he was still alive, RIP.

God damnit. RIP.

Frederic Rzewski decided to bypass copyright and make the vast majority of his music freely available. Most of it can be downloaded here: https://t.co/edPf47nsAc

— Ian Pace (@ianpacemain) June 26, 2021