1995 Voices of Light - Richard Einhorn

[Another Mad Dancer]

In the year 1995; Richard Einhorn released a decade and a half worth of work; a musical companion (essentially a soundtrack) to Dreyer's cult film "the Passion of Joan D'Arc" which narrates the last worldly days of the Maid of Orleans as she is being interrogated, tortured, interrogated again, and finally burnt at the stake by her English captors. This film had been banned, burnt and thought lost until its recent rediscovery in 1978 at a mental institution at Oslo.

This work[Voices of Light] started as a "... large piece on a religious subject when a friend suggested Joan of Arc as the subject" back in the eighties. It was finally completed in 1994 and premiered as a live accompaniment of Dreyer's film in western Massachusetts in the same year.

Now the music itself. This is a Oratorio for chamber orchestra, chorus and soloist. Far be it from me to make a well cultured and organized appraisal of this work. I can tell you that I like it and yet I lack the ability to say why. It is a dramatic and captivating depiction of an excruciating trip and its otherworldly culmination. A musical pleasure full of radiant passages and highly emotive motifs. A deep plunge unto the insanity of Joan D'Arc; starting as a powerful rebellion, then iconoclastic defiance, then a bit of a homely intermezzo as Joan conferences with a mad monk who believes in her as a God-sent Saviour, then a climatic, tempestuous torture... then a long redemption starting as an exalted fever... weakness... a classical individual-society conflict... then the raze of the building by the French as Joan is being burnt and finally mets God. I feel that my words do not make justice for the outstanding synergy between this powerful score and the masterful camera.use of Dreyer. Let alone the words to the music which are actual passages of medieval female mystics in Latin!

Anyway, enough banter. I have re uploaded this work as 320kbps MP3 format in two links. its a fragmented zip, you must have both parts to unzip The links are:

http://massmirror.com/4e3c3c4b81180f877561511bce746730.html
http://massmirror.com/5e63488c6550cb4a2338a301bcfd3d89.html

And the pass is

superkickasspass

Enjoy!

[Another Mad Dancer]

Bump becuz' i'm cool liek dat.

[Sirusjr]

This sounds very interesting! I shall check it out! Thanks for your sharing
You may want to post it in the Big Orchestral Action Music Thread because this sounds like something those people would very much enjoy as well
Oh yes! There are some fantastic epic choral pieces here that really grab your attention! Very nice!

[Lens of Truth]

Excellent post. I’m glad you bumped or I’d have missed it!

Like the film, I find Eihhorn’s piece difficult to return to often. It speaks of suffering on such an elemental level. This might sound odd, but I’ve always found minimalist throbbings quietly terrifying, even in non-sinister contexts (I don’t mean this in a facetious way at all - it reminds me of a recurring nightmare I used to have as a child about a conveyer belt of death!). The undulating minor progressions feel both desperate and sad in a very human way, but also machine-like. The torture sequence is the apex of that convergence and also the convergence between film and score. Almost throughout, the music feels ‘close-up’ like Dreyer’s camera, yet at the same time rather detached; the suffering is inevitable, universal.

The libretto in PDF is a thoughtful touch - a very moving read in itself.

Originally Posted by Sirusjr

You may want to post it in the Big Orchestral Action Music Thread because this sounds like something those people would very much enjoy as well

Yes! It can join the 'Silent Scores' series

Thank you AMD!

[Sonataaa]

Thank You So Much Another Mad Dancer For This Excellent Uploading...Much Appreciated...
I Like Your Phrase Lens of Truth When You said "This might sound odd, but I’ve always found minimalist throbbings quietly terrifying, even in non-sinister contexts (I don’t mean this in a facetious way at all - it reminds me of a recurring nightmare I used to have as a child about a conveyer belt of death!)The undulating minor progressions feel both desperate and sad in a very human way, but also machine-like. The torture sequence is the apex of that convergence and also the convergence between film and score".....I Agree With You in this Point...

[laguu11]

Very dramatic and captivating work. Now I just wish that I could hear this along with Dreyer's film...Thank you for such an excellent share.

[Ranged Weapon]

I'm intrigued by this but i can't extract the files from the zip.
what am i doing wrong? I have 2 files 001 and 002 (which I've downloaded twice) but i can't get Winrar, Winzip or 7zip to unpack them. Winrar and 7zip will give me the contents directory and allow me to enter the password, but won't unpack the files.
Am I missing something like a 000 file?

[Leon Scott Kennedy]

Originally Posted by Ranged Weapon

I'm intrigued by this but i can't extract the files from the zip.
what am i doing wrong? I have 2 files 001 and 002 (which I've downloaded twice) but i can't get Winrar, Winzip or 7zip to unpack them. Winrar and 7zip will give me the contents directory and allow me to enter the password, but won't unpack the files.
Am I missing something like a 000 file?

Try to join them with the software HJSplit, then extract.

[Another Mad Dancer]

Maybe your software is a bit outdated? I zipped those with 7-zip 4.65. Otherwise... it doesn't seems like corrupted date; you can view the directories. What kind of error message do you get?

[Sirusjr]

Worked fine for me with 7zip. I agree with the suggestion of new version.

[Ranged Weapon]

Joining the files and updating my software did the trick
Thanks for the info and for the download.