In Review :: YES! Picks - Music

Musical inspiration while putting out this issue

Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

Rhode Island trio The Low Anthem offers a bipolar range of elegant Americana balladry singed with a bit of junkyard rock. Harmonium and banjo thrum alongside Tibetan singing bowl and oil drum.

Charlie Darwin, by The Low Anthem.

To Ohio, by The Low Anthem.

www.lowanthem.com

The Roadsinger  

Welcome back Yusuf Islam (the former Cat Stevens) as he returns to the pop world. His music is auto­biographical—sleepy and nostalgic, tinged with age. 

Roadsinger, by Yusuf Islam.

Welcome Home, by Yusuf Islam.

To Be What You Must, by Yusuf Islam.

www.yusufislam.org.uk

The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

Composer Frederic Rzewski hammers home a message of solidarity in his piano masterwork 36 Variations, based on the rousing Chilean people’s chant El pueblo unido jamás será vencido. In performance, it is traditional to play the spoken chant before the piano variations.  Stephen Drury captures that drama on this recording. 

Thema, by Frederic Rzewski.

Variation 1, by Frederic Rzewski.

Variation 2, by Frederic Rzewski.

Variation 3, by Frederic Rzewski.

Learn more about this composition.

Listen to more YES! music.

YES! Magazine encourages you to make free use of this article by taking these easy steps. lotto. (2009, August 06). In Review :: YES! Picks - Music . Retrieved February 11, 2012, from YES! Magazine Web site: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/learn-as-you-go/in-review-yes-picks-music. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License