» On the Transmigration of Souls

On the Transmigration of Souls Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: A Temple of Music
Comment: "On the Transmigration of Souls" is the most stupendously affecting piece of music I've heard in a very long time. It is a profoundly moving testimony that fully confronts the dreadful sorrow and loss of that awful September day. Delicate shifting chords cradle moving voices that read fragments of writings by bereaved survivors. These memorials are periodically transfigured into a numinous collective voice by choir, evoking the shared grief of a nation and world.

The music articulates the full range of emotion provoked by this appalling act of violence, yet goes on. This is itself the deepest statement of Adams's masterpiece, which is unobtrusively indicated by the title and thoughtfully reiterated by the dynamic and flowing voice of the music throughout the piece. That this flow itself enacts the abrupt disjunction of loss suggests a possibility of transcendence that eschews easy answers or denial.

"On the Transmigration of Souls" is a vision of redemption offered to the brokenhearted with the deepest humanity of a sensitive artist at the height of his expressive capabilities.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: wow
Comment: ah! just kidding! this is crap! it should have 0 stars...it feels horribly cheap...the choir is simply cheesy...i think you should buy it though...seriously...buy it! send it back to john and tell him this blows...if he truly wanted to write this he wouldnt have waited for it to be commissioned like he did

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A cathartic piece which ultimately rewards the listener with hope.
Comment: There are a number of comments on this work expressing irritation--calling it "gimmicky" but allowing for its emotional impact, or expressing frustration and declaring it fruitless.

I found it intensely personal--it brought me back to the senselessness of the day and the utter and almost unbearable loss. I don't share any of the sentiment of some that the quotations and moral have lost (or will lose) their impact over time. For me, it was just another example of how John Adams is the greatest living composer. This is perhaps the most daunting commission a composer could face, and the result is, put simply, transcendent. If not evocative of a universal truth defiant of stupidity and hatefulness. If not triumphant. The "bricolage" approach would appear to be reflective of the disjointed nature of the aftermath, and of the failure of knowledge systems to withstand the unthinkable--yet somewhere in there is this tragedy and this rising above.
It is cathartic but intensely intelligent--perhaps the greatest tribute I've seen to those lost in 9/11. A little on the pricey side for a (very) short CD, granted. Recommended nonetheless.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Gimmicky Work That Manages To Move the Listener
Comment: I've always been of the opinion that all's fair in art; the contempt for this work displayed here by certain reviewers thus rings hollow. I'm also at a loss in understanding why the mere fact that it was a commissioned work should have a bearing on its merits as a listening experience. What The Transmigration of Souls manages to do is elicit a recollection of the "emotions of the moment" that surfaced in the aftermath of that horrible day coming up on seven years ago. As a remembrance of the victims, heroism, and sudden personal losses; I think it's a perfectly fine piece that serves its purpose well enough. As a work of absolute music, it's probably found a bit wanting.

The use of an overlapping collage of spoken voices throughout the 25-minute work probably comes across as gimmicky to musical purists, but I found similar "musical" exercises in works by the likes of Stockhausen and others to lend a moving immediacy to the music. I think it works here as well.

It's difficult to recommend purchasing this CD at full price with less than a half-hour of content, but hearing it at least once will not be a waste of anyone's precious time -- I borrowed it from the library.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Moving
Comment: I am not one of those people to praise modern music if it sounds like mindless noise. When I first found this CD, I had already read about it in the AJC (Atlanta Journal-Constitution), and so I went to get it for myself. When I first heard it, I was not sure what to think. I was moved, almost to a point that I felt uncomfortable with, and subsequently put the disc away for over a year. When I finally pulled it out again and gave it another try, I felt though I was in the exact "memory space" John Adams was trying to convey. The music is haunting in a way that is unique to this matter. I am moved by music of all eras, but this piece is very special in how the simple lyrics (the missing persons signs) and the large orchestration collide to form a unique experience. Many people have scoffed at the piece, calling it trash, but those who really give it a try will be more than rewarded for it. I really enjoy this piece.

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