I’m intensely interested in the different approaches that composers take to setting text so I was intrigued to read the blurb on a new CD release by American composer Jackson Greenberg.  The text is Rilke’s Der Panther and the approach is to take an old (anonymous) recording of an actor reading the poem and provide an orchestral accompaniment for it.  It’s quite short; just shy of eight minutes, and the music is an atmospheric variant on largely tonal minimalism.  It’s not a big surprise to discover the composer works mainly in film and TV.  It’s unusual and worth a listen.

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