Kevin Sutton wrote:
>>>That heap of dreck is the Testament of Freedom, and in my less than
>>>humble opinion ranks amongst the worst American compositions for voices
>>>ever penned. Sorry, but I can't stand to listen to more that three bars
>>>of that piece before I lose my lunch.
John Dalmas wrote:
>>Yes, many of my acquaintances on the Left who take freedom for granted and
>>enjoy it to the utmost are now embarrassed by the "Testament," not only for
>>its unabashed patriotism but also for its bow to the Almighty.
Then Kevin Sutton amended:
>How dare you assume that I am unpatriotic and atheistic simply because I
>find a particular piece of music trite.
and
I find the texts to be poorly set, static both in rhythm and harmony and
>frankly, the piece is a crashing bore.
and
>And Jefferson was an agnostic anyway!
First of all, I had a similar reaction to Kevin's initial posting. Quite
a bit of hyperbole, which IMO invited criticism. How many of us, for
example, would "lose our lunch" after three bars of any work? One might
infer from that an agenda other than a simple musical one.
Kevin's second posting, used much more focused language: "trite, poorly
set, static, crashing bore." That's much easier to understand in the
context of a discussion of music.
Anyway, like many of the other individuals who responded to the original
post requesting recommendations for Thompson's music, I am a big fan of
Testament of Freedom and find it to be a (minor) masterwork. These are,
after all, Thomas Jefferson's own words, not Thompson's, and I find the
words very inspirational, lo these many years after they were penned. And
I find Thompson's music to be first rate. I wish the Abravanel/Utah SO
recording would be re-released on CD by the Angel/EMI folks. In the
meantime, either the Koch (SATB version) or Reference Recordings (TTBB
version with winds) discs will do nicely.
Final point: As I understand it, Jefferson was agnostic regarding
traditional Christian theology, but most assuredly a believer in the
Supreme Being of the Judeo/Christian tradition. It would be more nearly
correct to refer to him as a Deist.
Regards,
John M. Proffitt
General Manager & C.E.O.
Radio Station KUHF-FM
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