by Grady Harp
Creativity at the highest level!
New York City composer, arranger, and scholar Wayne Alpern is a highly honored among educators and music societies. In addition to his extensive schooling in music, he is also a lawyer and educator at such diverse institutions as Mannes College of Music, Hunter College, Brooklyn College, and Cardoza Law School. His gifts have been evident in his jazz arrangements, string quartets, woodwind and brass quintets, pieces for string orchestra, and piano works.In keeping with he impact of this recording, the title is defined as Secular Rituals — recurrent patterns of normative behavior imposing order and form upon the abyss, celebrating the regulated, the named, and the explained — create the illusion of purpose and meaning in our lives. These routines conceal the “made-up-ness” of culture, its malleability and alterability. Through formality and repetition, they seek to convince us the cosmos, or some small part of it, is orderly and explicable. They help us navigate the rough and tumble of everyday life, the whimsicality of choice, and the multiplicities of daily contradictions.
New York City composer, arranger, and scholar Wayne Alpern is a highly honored among educators and music societies. In addition to his extensive schooling in music, he is also a lawyer and educator at such diverse institutions as Mannes College of Music, Hunter College, Brooklyn College, and Cardoza Law School. His gifts have been evident in his jazz arrangements, string quartets, woodwind and brass quintets, pieces for string orchestra, and piano works.In keeping with he impact of this recording, the title is defined as Secular Rituals — recurrent patterns of normative behavior imposing order and form upon the abyss, celebrating the regulated, the named, and the explained — create the illusion of purpose and meaning in our lives. These routines conceal the “made-up-ness” of culture, its malleability and alterability. Through formality and repetition, they seek to convince us the cosmos, or some small part of it, is orderly and explicable. They help us navigate the rough and tumble of everyday life, the whimsicality of choice, and the multiplicities of daily contradictions.
This new recording continues to celebrate his skills at composing and performing: all instruments are performed by Alpern. The tracks, all composed and performed by Alpern – Utopia, Victims of Venom, Millennium, Schenker’s Dream, Gomoa Fetta, Brave Art, Sista Re, Bach CmP, Afterglow, Triangularity, and Vishvakarma.
Wayne’s fine compositions deviate from the norm of conventional musical categories – making them magically unique.
