PGM 62R "THE BOOK OF SOUNDS"

(click program title to play 30 second MP3 promo clip)

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PGM 062R : "THE BOOK OF SOUNDS"
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PGM NOTE : HANS OTTE's minimalist piano masterwork
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FEED DATE : 1-26-07
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INTRO: We rarely devote an entire program to a single artist,
but the work of German composer HANS OTTE is so subtle and
sophisticated that it really deserves to be heard all by itself.

HANS OTTE was born in 1926 and studied in Italy, in Germany
with pianist WALTER GIESEKING, and at Yale University with
composer PAUL HINDEMITH. He had a very long career in Germany as
a composer and pianist. From 1959 to 1984, he directed the music
department at Radio Bremen, where he was an enthusiastic promoter
of fellow composers of experimental music and sound art.

THE BOOK OF SOUNDS is the title of his 12-part cycle of pieces
for solo piano. Otte began working on "The Book of Sounds" in 1979
and spent almost three years refining this deceptively simple
music. He says he wished to "rediscover the piano as an instrument
of timbre and tuneful sound, with all its possibilities of
resonance, color and dynamics"... and to "rediscover playing as
the possibility of experiencing oneself in sound, of becoming
at one in time with all the sounds around one"... and to
"rediscover the listener as a partner of sound and silence, who
also wishes to be totally at one with sound."

The whole piece takes over an hour and 20 minutes, so we're
only able to bring you nine of the twelve parts on this program.
Hans Otte has taken contemporary minimalism with its meditative
repetitions, fused it with influences from JOHN CAGE to BACH,
and brought it to another level of sensitivity and feeling. Pianist
HERBERT HENCK calls it "a milestone of European minimalism."

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HANS OTTE
Part 1 <>8:39 >
Part 2 <>16:40 >
Part 5 (edited) <>23:40 >
Part 6 <>26:58 >
Part 7 <>35:42 >
Part 9 <>39:27 >
Part 10 <>45:26 >
Part 11 <>50:26 >
Part 12 <>55:08 >
Part 6 (repeated) <>58:20 >
: THE BOOK OF SOUNDS; Kuckuck 11069-2; 1984
: Info: www.harmonies.com/releases/11069.htm

: Reissued as THE BOOK OF SOUNDS/BOOK OF HOURS;
Celestial Harmonies 12069-2; 2006
: Info: www.harmonies.com/releases/12069.htm

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PRODUCED BY : STEPHEN HILL and ANNA TURNER
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PREPARED FOR REBROADCAST BY : STEVE DAVIS and STEPHEN HILL
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BAY AREA WEATHER : refrosted
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(c) 1984-2007 Hearts of Space
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