Track Listing

1. Birthday Sleep
2. I. Butterfly Dreams Based On Chuang Tse
3. II. Haiku By Kokku
4. III. Haiku By Buson
5. IV. Haiku By Issa
6. V. Haiku, Anon
7. VI. The Butterfly By Pavel Friedmann
8. VII. Butterfly Song From Acoman Indian
9. VIII. Butterfly Dreams Based On Chuang Tse
10. The Second Coming
11. Schuon Hymnen
12. As One Who Has Slept
13. The Bridal Chamber
14. Exhortation And Kohima
15. Shunya

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97338 in Music
• Released on: 2004-08-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 74 minutes

Customer Reviews

Utterly Exceptional
In 2003, Stephen Layton and Polyphony released the brilliant 'Triodion', a CD of (mainly) never-before recorded pieces by Arvo Part. That album was a masterpiece.

Now they have repeated the favour for the composer most usually associated with Part (although they have little in common stylistically), Sir John Tavener, and the results are equally exceptional.

This CD contains almost exclusively world premieres, and it is utterly stunning. Indeed, there are moments on this CD where Sir John has outdone himself. I'm thinking mainly of the awesome 18 minute 'Shunya', which is less a piece of music than a temple ritual that he as received and transcribed. I cannot describe this piece any further, only to say that I am grateful that someone like Sir John has had the bravery to be simple, as this piece is.

The rest of the CD is equally striking: 'secular' pieces by Vernon Watkins, WB Yeats and a remarkable short requiem for those fallen in war make up the bulk of the rest of the CD.

But aside from theses pieces - and it is always a pleasure to hear Tavener tackle the supposedly 'secular' (ha! if anything is) - are two pieces that, like Shunya, betray his new direction into a more universalist phase, or, as they might say on Father Ted, 'an ecumenical matter'! These pieces are Butterfly Dreams and Schuon Hymnen.

The first of these takes as its starting point the famous story about Chuang Tzu dreaming he was a butterfly, and then, upon waking, not being sure that he was not now a butterfly dreaming he was a man. The suite is lovely, and includes a wonderful setting of a Native American poem. Schuon Hymnen sets a poem by the Sufi Frithjof Schuon, who was something of a teacher and inspiration for Tavener, and deals with the Song of Songs.

Although this disc is more challenging than 'Triodion' (and that's not to belittle Triodion, which I absolutely love), I can recommend it, especially if you want to hear some of the best pieces to come out of Tavener's new phase.

And buy it above all for Shunya. Take the phone off the hook, disconnect from the internet, don't answer the door, and submerge yourself in these 18 amazing minutes.