"I have finished Jurgen; a great and beautiful
book...The book hurts me - tears me to small
pieces - but somehow it sets me free. It says the
word that I've been trying to pronounce for
so long. It tells me everything I am, and have
been, and may be, unsparingly."
-- Deems Taylor,
letter to Mary Kennedy, 1920
Jurgen: Symphonic Poem for Orchestra, by Deems Taylor
CD Recording by Mike Keith
Fans of Virginia author James Branch Cabell, and his picaresque adventure novel Jurgen, have waited 73 years for this, the first ever recording of the Symphonic Poem for Orchestra based on the book. This lovely, but nearly "lost", piece of music was composed in 1925 by American composer Deems Taylor, who you may already know as being the voice-over narrator in Walt Disney's film Fantasia.
I recorded this CD in 1999 using a Roland M-OC1 orchestral synthesizer and a Kurzweil K-1000 synth. Every note of the 17-minute full orchestra score was entered into a computer with painstaking care given to accurate reproduction of the composer's tempo and dynamic markings. Then the result was captured on CD via digital recording (in other words, this is a DDD disc).
As an extra-special bonus, I also unearthed a virtually unknown second version of the piece, arranged by Taylor himself for piano four hands! This is the second track on the CD, for a total of about 33 minutes of music in all.
The CD comes with an 11-page booklet of liner notes which gives detailed background on Cabell, Taylor, and the novel Jurgen, explains the four themes around which the Symphonic Poem is built, and traces the many connections between the music and the story of Jurgen. This is a truly unique recording that would be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in the writings of Cabell, the music of Taylor (whose wonderful "Through The Looking Glass" suite is also in print, on a recording by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony), the famous Algonquin Round Table (of which Taylor was a member, along with Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, et al), or classical music in general.
This CD and the accompanying liner notes won the 1999 Cabell Prize given annually by Virginia Commonwealth University for the best original work related to James Branch Cabell.
To order one or more copies, send $20 per CD (includes shipping) to
Mike Keith
P. O. Box 15142
Richmond, VA 23227An e-mail letting me know your order is on the way would be appreciated, but is not necessary.
