Other Minds announces The First CD of the Music of Ezra Pound: EGO SCRIPTOR CANTILENAE Dear Member of the Ezra Pound List: Greetings from San Francisco. I want you to know about a remarkable new CD featuring our favorite composer. I invite you to add to your already massive collection of Poundiana a definitive compilation of the music of Ezra Pound. You may hear recorded excerpts now at http://www.otherminds.org/shtml/Poundcd.shtml. The recording lists at $25.00 but is being offered now on the Other Minds web site for a limited time at the introductory rate of $20 plus shipping and handling. It's available via secure Internet ordering or by phoning or faxing us in San Francisco. (See bottom.) This CD been three years in the making and we're excited to announce that we now have copies in stock to provide to you. A New York Times feature review by Richard Taruskin is forthcoming. Be sure to get yours before it's publicized so we don't run out. This is a limited edition product. This deluxe package, containing one audio CD and an 80-page booklet with previously unpublished photos and an essay by Margaret Fisher, is the result of a 45-year-long labor of composer, conductor, bassoonist and musicologist Robert Hughes of Berkeley, CA. After meeting Pound in 1958 at St. Elisabeths and playing music for him, Hughes embarked on a lifelong search for the musical works of the poet that had been dispersed in various locations. His research and editing of the operas and chamber music and his guidance in compiling this remarkable collection has been central to our ability to hear and assess Pound's beautiful and unjustly neglected music. Between 1920 and 1933, Pound, known for his revelatory work concerning the music of language, turned as well to the language of music. Composing two complete operas and several pieces for solo violin, all in a very personal language which drew from sources as diverse as troubadour music and Igor Stravinsky, Pound set texts by Guido Cavalcanti and François Villon which he felt resisted translation, in order to share his appreciation of these poets with his contemporaries. The result is a body of music, still unknown to many, which is of surpassing beauty and casts new light on the practice of prosody, the elusive craft of setting texts to music. In addition, Margaret Fisher has unearthed a previously unknown song from an unfinished opera: Collis O Heliconii (Catullus) and recorded here for the first time. The recording of Cavalcanti also is a world premiere recording. Other Minds has gathered historical recordings from performances around the world made over three decades (1971-2001) to create this richly sonorous compilation of heartfelt, affecting performances. Conductor and Pound music scholar Robert Hughes conducts The Other Minds Ensemble and others. Reinbert de Leeuw, the outstanding Dutch conductor, leads a performance with tenor Harry van der Kamp, otherwise known as one of the world's leading singers of early music, from the 1980 Holland Festival; other recordings from England and Italy round out this brilliant collection. An 80-page booklet with an essay by Pound music expert Margaret Fisher and previously unpublished photographs make this deluxe package a must for those interested in 20th century music, and in operatic and literary history. The project was funded with grants from Jennifer Wilson, The Thendara Foundation and the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, along with the supporters of Other Minds, a non-profit organization devoted to the work of maverick composers of non-commercial music. (Incidentally, you might wish to view items of related interest on the composer George Antheil also on our site: http://www.otherminds.org/html/Antheil.html. And for a two-CD compilation of Antheil's music plus recordings of his voice, see http://www.otherminds.org/shtml/OMcds.shtml.) I hope to hear from some of you! -Charles Amirkhanian, Executive Producer Order directly from the OM Website at http://www.otherminds.org or by phoning (415) 934-8134 (10am-5pm Pacific Daylight Time). EGO SCRIPTOR CANTILENAE: THE MUSIC OF EZRA POUND Other Minds OM 1005-2 Price: $20 plus shipping and handling. Inquiries: Charles Amirkhanian or Lisa Petrie (415) 934-8134 Charles Amirkhanian, Executive & Artistic Director Other Minds, Inc. 333 Valencia Street #303 San Francisco, CA 94103-3552 U.S.A. FAX (415) 934-8136 http://www.otherminds.org -- *~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Other Minds 9 Festival of new music March 5-8, 2003 Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, SF http://www.otherminds.org Featuring Composers: Ned Rorem, Evelyn Glennie, Amy X Neuburg, Ge Gan-ru, Daniel Lentz, Jack Body, William Parker, Stephan Micus and Stephen Scott