Wonderfully original
author: Paul
This amazing piece blends a lot of different elements: electronic sounds with various instruments; sounds evoking specific "real-world" events (running water, footsteps, the clinking of martini glasses) with pure music; and various styles of popular music with a more esoteric avant-garde idiom. The wonder is that Weisnewski effects these combinations so skillfully and seamlessly, and that all the different elements contribute to both a lucid narrative and a vaguely surreal, vaguely nightmarish atmosphere. Not that the mood is entirely dark. On the contrary, there are many humorous moments in "One Day in One Hour." But for all the composer's evident sympathy for the subject of this musical story, "One Day in One Hour" is a critique of the American dream as it has been co-opted and corrupted by corporate culture in the 21st century. For that alone it is a brave and valuable statement. Ultimately, however, this is a work of art, not a piece of agit-prop, and its musical merits and poetic sensibility are its greatest qualities. At 60 minutes, "One Day in One Hour" makes obvious demands a certain investment of time on the part of listeners. The payoff is well worth it.
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Sounds for the eyes
author: Glenn
One Day in One Hour by Joseph Weisnewski calls itself "contemporary program music", illustrating through sound the 24 hours of one man's life. While seemingly oxymoronic at the outset--the notion of using music to create visual drama--I was reminded, over and over while listening to this work, of how radio programming is called "theater of the mind". And so it is with One Day in One Hour, in which the composer ingeniously relates the tale of his main character's life during a single 24-hour cycle, starting with early morning dreams, now serene, now disturbing, and, following the vicissitudes of a trying day, ending with his return to bed.
One Hour in One Day is quintessential high art and, as such, has to be listened to as a whole to fully appreciate it from both musical and narrative perspectives. Via a combination of traditional musical instruments and sound effects, Weisnewski creates melody,texture and drama while at the same time telling a story that is by turns terrifying, funny and all-to-familiar to anyone who has ever had to get up and go to work in the morning. This is music to listen to with your eyes shut or in a dark room with headphones to fully appreciate the many levels on which it works, not the least of which is the picture book quality to which it inspires one's imagination.
The beginning of the cycle, Dreamscape/Alarm, immediately grabs one's attention, first with the eerie double entendre of its double-barreled name and then with the richness of the scenery conjured by the music. The first movement immediately brought to my mind the shock of the first sentence in The Metamorphosis, "Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubling dreams to find himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin." To be clear, One Day in One Hour is in no way a Kafkaesque wannabe--this music and the story it tells stand in a class of their own through their sheer originality and lyricism.
I hope you'll listen to One Hour in One Day and decide for yourself. This is a very special and highly-original piece of work, designed to stimulate, entertain and thrill. Weisnewski's approach to program music reflects all the joy one finds in William Vollman's Shostakovich (Europe Central). And that's infectious!
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