''The Previous Evening (Music for Dance Volume 4)'' is a

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by English

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and improviser

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...

. It is the fourth of a series of Music for Dance albums Frith made, and was recorded in Germany in 1993 and 1996. ''The Previous Evening'' was composed by Frith and is divided into three parts, in which Frith pays homage to three contemporary classical composers,

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

, Morton Feldman and Earle Brown. The CD booklet also contains the following dedication: "This recording is dedicated to my father, Donald Frith, whose support has been and continues to be warm and unwavering." Frith, Fred. ''The Previous Evening'' (1997, Recommended Records). CD booklet.

Background

''The Previous Evening'' was originally commissioned by United States

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

Amanda Miller. Part I was premiered by the London Contemporary Dance Theatre at Sadler's Wells, London in December 1993. Parts II and III were premiered by the

Pretty Ugly Dance Company Pretty may refer to: * Beauty, the quality of being pleasing, especially to look at ** Physical attractiveness, of a person's physical features Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Pretty'' (advertisement), a 2006 television advertisement for Ni ...

in 1996, at the Tiroler Landestheater,

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

and the Berliner Hebbel Theater, respectively. Frith incorporated elements of

, Morton Feldman and Earle Brown's working methods into the respective pieces on the album. "Fragments of text heard in Part I were taken at random from John Cage's book '' Silence: Lectures and Writings''. Tape editing, the structure of events, and dynamic markings in this section were also determined using chance methods." An Australian Dawn chorus appears in Part III, and other sound sources include works by Cage, Schumann,

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

and "some bits and pieces of my own earlier work."

Reception

In a review for AllMusic, Rick Anderson wrote: "Long-standing fans of Fred Frith may not recognize his voice easily in this music, but all of it is worth listening to." Rob Walker, writing for Exposé Online, commented: "Frith seems to acknowledge and utilize each composer's characteristic creative style in his own writing. These pieces are thus intriguing in the way they are identifiably Frith's, yet bear the cosignature of another giant of modern music... A challenging and adventurous work that is certainly not for the faint of heart, ''The Previous Evening'' adds an intriguing new element to Frith's substantial oeuvre of innovative and experimental music."

Track listing

All tracks composed by

Personnel

– all instruments (except those listed below), tape manipulations, voice * Christian Kaya – clarinets (1) *

Claudio Puntin Claudio is an Italian and Spanish first name. In Portuguese it is accented Cláudio. In Catalan and Occitan it is Claudi, while in Romanian it is Claudiu. Origin and history Claudius was the name of an eminent Roman gens, the most important me ...

– clarinets (2,3) *

Heike Liss Heike may refer to: * Heike (given name), a (not exclusively) feminine given name, derived from the male name Anri (Henry) * Taira clan, sometimes referred to as "Heike" * Heike crab, a species of crab named after the Taira (Heike) clan * Heike On ...

– percussion (1) * Bern Settelmeyer – percussion (2,3) * Bernd Weber – voice (1)

Sound

*Track 1 recorded by Benedykt Grodon at Studio Grodon, Munich, Germany, Spring of 1993 *Tracks 2 and 3 recorded by

Peter Hardt Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

at Studio Jankowski,

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

, Germany, April and June 1996 * Amanda Miller – producer *

– art work *

Jon Crossland Jon Crossland is a British designer and Illustration, illustrator, known for having collaborated with great names in music designing the covers and leaflets of their albums, highlighting among many others, his collaboration with Pink Floyd, Kansa ...

– design

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Previous Evening, The 1997 albums Fred Frith albums Recommended Records albums