Release Date: August 10, 2018
Catalog #: RR7989
Format: Digital
21st Century
Chamber
Orchestral
Orchestra
Saxophone
Wind Ensemble

Places in Time

The Musical Journeys Of Richard Brooks

Richard Brooks composer

Richard Brooks’ PLACES IN TIME travels through the acclaimed composer’s personal history with each piece representing a different period in the composer’s life. Many of these recordings were originally released by Brooks’ label, Capstone Records. Each piece gains new life as Brooks and Ravello Records team up to share this fascinating work in tonality, soundscapes, and emotional sway with a new generation of music lovers.

Opening with Seascape: Overture to Moby Dick from 1997’s AND THE EAGLE FLIES, a grand yet suspenseful soundscape, the piece rises and swells with the droning low brass and tense tremolo strings, as if waiting for the emergence of the great white whale. Choral Variations for Two Horns and String Orchestra, from 1995’s TONUS TOMIS, is one in a collection of pieces recorded in Constanta, an ancient city on the shore of the Black Sea in Romania. This piece is a complex, theoretical, and emotional traverse through the realm of tonality, where the mood is described as “almost anguished in its search for resolution.”

Prelude and Lament from 1986’s MUSIC VISIONS demonstrates both academic and raw elements of Brooks’ compositions. Prelude and Lament is a powerful example of his work in twelve-tone composition, a method devised by Arnold Schoenberg wherein each note in the chromatic scale is given equal emphasis. The track takes on a heavy, emotional tone in the Lament in response to a personal tragedy: the death of Brooks’ younger brother in a traffic accident before the completion of the work.

PLACES IN TIME offers a fresh, remastered look at this acclaimed composer. With each track comes a revived sense of purpose and the genius behind it. In bringing the tracks from the analog world into the realm of digital music, Brooks and Ravello have assembled a collection of compositions that inspires through its musical complexity and moments of raw intensity and sensitivity.

Listen

Hear the full album on YouTube

Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Seascape "Overture to Moby Dick" Richard Brooks Polish Radio National Orchestra | Joel Eric Suben, conductor 12:19
02 Landscape... With Grace Richard Brooks Kent Philharmonia Orchestra | Lynn Asper, conductor 11:25
03 Sweet Betsy Richard Brooks Deirdre Viau, flute; Yhasmin Valenzuela, clarinet; Lilit Hartunian, violin; Christopher Homick, cello; Leah Kosch, piano 7:16
04 Four-Play Richard Brooks The New Hudson Saxophone Quartet | Paul Cohen, Avi Goldrosen, David Demsey, Tim Ruedeman 7:54
05 Chorale Variations Richard Brooks Constanta Symphony Orchestra | Radu Ciorei, conductor 13:14
06 Prelude & Lament Richard Brooks Memphis Woodwind Quintet 10:15
07 Suite for Percussion Richard Brooks Florida State University Percussion Ensemble | Gary Werdesheim, director 7:57
08 Violin Sonata Richard Brooks Carroll Glenn, violin; Kenneth Gartner, piano 20:19

Seascape: Overture To Moby Dick  from and The Eagle Flies
Recorded September 24, 1993 at the Concert Hall of the Polish Radio, in Katowice, Poland

Landscape…With Grace from and The Eagle Flies
Recorded April 20, 1996 Grand Rapids Community College

Sweet Betsy
Recorded at the 2013 PARMA Music Festival at St. Johns Church in Portsmouth NH

Four Play from Quartet at The Crossroads
Engineered by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio LLC in Yonkers, NY

Chorale Variations for Two Horns, String Orchestra from Tonus Tomis
Recorded by Thalassa Sound, Constanta, Romania, Remus Munteanu, director

Prelude and Lament from Music Visions

Suite for Percussion from Music Visions

Sonata For Violin and Piano from ASUC #5
Recording Engineer: David Hancock

Cover Art: Mike Labrie Photo
mikelabriephoto.photoshelter.com

Executive Producer Bob Lord

Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
Audio Director Jeff LeRoy

Engineering Manager Lucas Paquette
Mastering Shaun Michaud

Design & Marketing Director Brett Picknell
Design Ryan Harrison

Artist Information

Richard Brooks

Composer

Richard Brooks (b. 1942) is a native of upstate New York and holds a B.S. degree in Music Education from the Crane School of Music, Potsdam College, an M.A. in Composition from Binghamton University and a Ph. D. in Composition from New York University.  From 1975-2004 he was on the music faculty of Nassau Community College where he was Professor and Department Chair for 22 years, supervising 13 full-time and c. 30 part-time faculty.