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James Yannatos
I have felt compelled to use my musical voice to express my deep concern for issues that continually divide nations and people — war, poverty, and ignorance — while illuminating the beauty of life and the human spirit. Always intriguing to me is the interplay between musical sound and its effect on our sensory world as we see, hear, and feel it and our spiritual world as we attempt to comprehend it. |
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Trinity Mass (1984)
The complexity of the subject (war and peace) demanded a variegated tapestry of literary and musical sources. Techniques of collage and thematic transformation of such diverse musical materials as Japanese scales, a Negro spiritual, the Gloria from Bach's B Minor Mass are used to illuminate the musical discourse.
Symphony No. 3: Prisms (1989)
Melodic elements of an anthem and a Bach prelude are used to translate the prisms' refraction of light into a transparent music that is delineated spatially and temporally by the refraction of tonality into poly-tonal and poly-harmonic progressions.
Symphony No. 4: Tiananmen Square (1990)
Chinese folk music from different regions of China are combined in various ways, developed and integrated so that both the musical materials and our perception of them are transformed into a new synthesis.
Symphony No. 5: Son et Lumière (1992)
The title is derived from the sound and light shows so popular in France. The music, based on various national anthems, alludes to the changing face of Europe and to vibrations and waves that move through real time and space in the form of sound and light.
Symphony No. 7: Symphonies Sacred and Secular: Prais'd Be the Fathomless Universe (2002)
A variegated tapestry of literary sources from different cultures are used to celebrate our common humanity.
Songs of Life, Love and Loss (2003)
Written after 9/11, poetry from different epochs and countries are interwoven to express joy, love, and loss that each of us share as humans on this earth.
