CD: THE CHORD CATALOGUE – WITHIN FOURTHS/WITHIN FIFTHS

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Released in 2013



EXCERPTS

The Two to Four Part Chords
The Nine Part Chords
Within Fifths IV


USE BUY NOW BUTTON OR E-MAIL SAMUEL VRIEZEN DIRECTLY TO ORDER


Playing over eight thousand chords in half an hour is no problem for a computer. But when done by a human pianist, it’s a breakthrough in piano technique. After ten years of work, composer/pianist Samuel Vriezen managed to record his remarkable version of Tom Johnson’s 1985 cult classic, The Chord Catalogue. Together with a major solo piece by Vriezen himself, it is now available on CD from Edition Wandelweiser Records.

The Chord Catalogue is a simple idea. Johnson, a composer known for his playful mathematical experiments in music, calls the piece a ‘list’ rather than a composition. It consists of all chords you can play using the thirteen keys of one octave, from the 2-part combinations up to the 13-tone cluster. In between, a weirdly mesmerizing music of surprising vivacity unfolds. Simple as the idea is, the musical result is rich and complex.

In 2002, Vriezen was the first pianist other than Johnson himself to take the piece seriously as a virtuoso concert work. Playing the piece at more than twice Johnson’s speed, he has managed to make more audible the beauty and excitement hidden within this rigid concept. This requires a whole new kind of piano technique and a new way of thinking about rhythm, melody and color.

Johnson loved Vriezen’s performances, and the two composers became friends. Vriezen dedicated his Within Fourths/Within Fifths, composed in 2006, to Johnson. It responds to Johnson’s musical ideas, but applies them within a sound world of a very different quality. Here, similar simple principles of rigid construction yield highly lyrical meditations of chord progressions, with organically expanding and contracting melodic patterns emerging from its gradually transforming world of colors.

In 2012, with the help of friends and of Johnson himself, Vriezen embarked on a highly successful crowd funding campaign, with the goal of recording his unique rendition of The Chord Catalogue besides the piece that he wrote in homage to the older composer. Hundreds of music enthusiasts worldwide offered their support for the project. In less than two months, Vriezen raised the money to rent a hall and one of the best pianos in the Netherlands. The result, a disc pairing strong conceptual unity with widely contrasting atmospheres, can be heard now.

The CD The Chord Catalogue – Within Fourths / WIthin Fifths is available from Edition Wandelweiser Records. Other channels include distributors Erstwhile Records (USA, Canada), Metamkine (France), Edition RZ (Germany) and Ftarri (Japan).

The CDs can also be acquired directly from Tom Johnson and from Samuel Vriezen (Vriezen's price is EUR 15, 00).







CD recording by:

Azazello Classical Music Recording
Guido Tichelman, Bastiaan Kuijt, Matthijs Ruijter






Many thanks for helping make this CD possible:

Michel van der Aa, Aagje, Mirsa Adami, Christopher Adler, Jacob Adler, Arnoud van Adrichem, Jim Aitchison, Myfanwy Alderson, Frank Alexander, Jennifer Allum, Louis Andriessen, Pantxo Arretz, Maarten van As, Ali Askin, Oana Avasilichioaei, Joost Baars, Claudio Baroni, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, Jay Batzner, Anne Becking, Steve van Beek, Zohra Beldman, Antoine Beuger, Stefan Beyst, Sandeep Bhagwati, Catharina Blaauwendraad, Marijke Bloem, Jaap Blonk, Joost de Bloois, Philipp Blume, Estelle Boelsma, Martijn Bolkestein, Dante Boon, Sidney Boquiren, Susanna Borsch, Younes Bouadi, Evert Bouws, David M. Bowen, Jerry Bowles, Colette Broeckaert, J.C. Bruins-van der Hulst, Wilbert Bulsink, Jack Callahan, Christian Carey, Laura Carmichael, Florence Chaumont, Boudewijn Cielen, Anthony Ciesielka, Carson Cooman, Evan Cordes, Allan Cronin, Simon Cummings, Frans Curvers, Maria van Daalen, Jose daLuz, David Daratony, D. Edward Davis, Rosemary Davis, Hans Dekkers, Gilbert Delor, Hans Demeyer, Erik van Dieden, F. van Dixhoorn, Emily Doolittle, David Drexler, Tom Dyer, Cathy van Eck, Edwin Fagel, Suzanne Fagel, John Fallas, Douglas Farrand, Melaina Feenstra, Marianne de Feijter, Rubén Figaredo, Christopher Fox, Nadia Francavilla, Jürg Frey, Jason Fulford, Paul Gangloff, Bas Geerts, Hélène Gelèns, Piet Gerbrandy, Monica Germino, Vincent W. J. van Gerven Oei, Samuel Gilbert, Bob Gilmore, Bernard Girard, Robert Glick, Klaas van Gorkum, Maarten van der Graaff, Hans Groenewegen, Rob Halpern, Dick van Halsema, Laurens Ham, Sam Hayden, James Helgeson, Ernst van den Hemel, Johnny Herbert, Johan Herrenberg, Rozalie Hirs, Michael Hodder, Ton van 't Hof, Julia Holter, Reinier van Houdt, Lucas Hüsgen, Shirin Jalali, Jannes, Franck Jedrzejewski, Cristina Jiménez Peralta, Evan Johnson, Tom Johnson, Joost J. Joosten, Stan Kaatee, Marianne Kalsbeek, Jeromos Kamphuis, Zubin Kanga, Frank Keizer, Erica Kemper, Harald Kerres, Eugene Kim, Marije Koens, Gert-Jan Kooren, Frans-Willem Korsten, Caglar Koseoglu, Dmitri Kourliandski, Adriaan Krabbendam, Tomasz Krakowiak, Roland Kuit, David Kweksilber, Yannis Kyriakides, Anne La Berge, Juan Sebastian Lach Lau, Teun de Lange, Henk Lasschuit, Kris Latoir, Josien Laurier, Steve Layton, Avigail Caspi Lebovic, Jan van Leeuwen, Madeleine Lenagh, Herb Levy, John Rodney Lister, Ernst van der Loo, Albert Manders, Rob Manthey, Arnold Marinissen, Missy Mazzoli, Ned McGowan, David McIntire, Andrew McIntosh, Scott McLaughlin, Janis Mercer, Geert Meuffels, Pascal Meyer, Rüdiger Meyer, Sara Molinari, Kate Moore, Erín Moure, Demetrio Muñoz Gielen, Jonathan Myers, Mayke Nas, Ketty Nez, Ricco van Nierop, Juhani Nuorvala, Rachel O’Reilly, Serge Onnen, Wouter Osterholt, Merijn Oudenampsen, Philip Peters, Bart van der Pligt, Jacob Plooij, Gijsbert Pols, Sarah Posman, Bart Prins, John Prokop, Marcel Raman, Anne-Mariken Raukema, Angela Rawlings, Marc Reichow, Ronnie Reshef, Melinda Rice, Matthijs de Ridder, Renée de Rijk, Olaf Risee, Ruth Rose, Dean Rosenthal, Justus Rozemond, Sam Rozemond, Xander Rühl, Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Marieke Samson, Dan Schmidt, Corriette Schoenaerts, Elmer Schönberger, Eleonore Schonmaier, Barbara Schoute, Joky Schoute, Hester Schoute, Kees Schoute, Margot Schreuder, Patrick Schreuder, Pieter Schreuder, Elliott Schwartz, Mark Seegers, Bruce Sesnovich, Sam Sfirri, Keiko Shichijo, Elisabeth Smalt, Lisanne Snelders, Floris Solleveld, Jochem van der Spek, Jonas Staal, Teodora Stepancic, Angela Stevenson, D. Andrew Stewart, Arjen Stolk, Taylan Susam, Tom Swafford, Paul Swoger-Ruston, Toon Teeken, Dorinde de Tempe, Hugh Thomas, Guido Tichelman, Mark van Tongeren, Elisabeth Tonnard, David Toub, Vasilios Tsokis, Iris van der Tuin, Elke Uitentuis, Frances-Marie Uitti, Libby Van Cleve, Tom Van de Voorde, Maud Vanhauwaert, Erik Vanlangendonck, Jack Vees, Han van der Vegt, Herlinda Vekemans, Ineke Veldhuis, Justus Verhagen, Striptekenaar Vick, Ingrid van der Voort, Martijn Voorvelt, Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec, Emma de Vries, Gerrit Vriezen, Henk Vriezen, Angela Vu, Sake van der Wall, Juan Felipe Waller, Raoul van der Weide, Stefan Weisman, Lars Werdenberg, Bas Wiegers, Mike Winter, Barbara Woof, Luiz Henrique Yudo, Christof Zürn, Ben Zwaal, Klaske Zwaal-Bruinsma, Miek Zwamborn