{"product_id":"conversations-with-meredith-monk-expanded-edition-9781555541668","title":"Conversations with Meredith Monk (Expanded Edition)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Meredith Monk is one of the most important composers alive. I remember hearing her \u003cem\u003eDolmen Music \u003c\/em\u003eas a teenager. It most definitely provided me with one of my musical DNAs... As a person she is a fierce spirit, optimistic, spiritual, and soulful.\" --\u003cstrong\u003eBj rk\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"If Monk is seeking a place in the classical firmament, classical music has much to learn from her. She conveys a fundamental humanity and humility that is rare in new-music circles.\" --\u003cstrong\u003eAlex Ross, \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Meredith Monk has given new voice to the spirit, knit the word together with her universal vision to music, and balanced movement and stillness in ways that illuminate and transform us all. Eternity will never be the same.\" --\u003cstrong\u003ePico Iyer\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis expanded edition of \u003cem\u003eConversations with Meredith Monk \u003c\/em\u003eoffers a fascinating portrait of the internationally renowned composer, performer, director, and filmmaker, from her early years to the present. It has now been updated to include discussion of her latest music-theatre work, \u003cem\u003eCellular Songs\u003c\/em\u003e, and a work-in-progress, \u003cem\u003eIndra's Net\u003c\/em\u003e, in addition to the recent revival of her opera \u003cem\u003eAtlas\u003c\/em\u003e at the Los Angeles Philharmonic--a work that the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/em\u003ecritic called \"her masterpiece and one of the defining operatic experiments of the 20th century\"--and the showing of the remastered film of Monk's great work \u003cem\u003eQuarry\u003c\/em\u003e. The five long conversations that comprise the volume part of PAJ's \"Performance Ideas\" series, generate invaluable insights into artistic process, the human voice, interrelationships of time, space, and music, and the complexity of artistic legacies. What is a \"contemporary\" work? How does an artwork retain its integrity of form over time? In these deeply engaging conversations, Monk speaks in great detail on her creation of music-theatre works, operas, and films, reflecting on the large-cast theatrical works and the more recent poetically distilled, abstract pieces. In her preface to the new edition, \"Performance as a Life Science,\" Bonnie Marranca writes: \"Now, against the background of life \u003cem\u003ein extremis\u003c\/em\u003e, it is evident that Monk had already acknowledged both the always unknown future and the resilience of human beings. For decades her body of work has been rooting itself in the recurrent themes of spiritual quest (\u003cem\u003eSongs of Ascension\u003c\/em\u003e), healing (\u003cem\u003eThe Politics of Quiet\u003c\/em\u003e), compassion (\u003cem\u003emercy\u003c\/em\u003e), plague (\u003cem\u003eBook of Days\u003c\/em\u003e), fragility of life (\u003cem\u003eimpermanence\u003c\/em\u003e), cultural identity (\u003cem\u003eEllis Island), \u003c\/em\u003ehistorical trauma (\u003cem\u003eQuarry\u003c\/em\u003e), ecology (\u003cem\u003eOn Behalf of Nature\u003c\/em\u003e), and community (\u003cem\u003eCellular Songs\u003c\/em\u003e).\" The volume also includes an eight-page color insert.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eBonnie Marranca is the author of the essay collections \u003cem\u003ePerformance Histories\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eEcologies of Theatre\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eTheatrewritings\u003c\/em\u003e. She is the editor of \u003cem\u003ePAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"PAJ Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50478220181778,"sku":"9781555541668","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_990d70b6-e246-4a1d-9379-24d37fe3a404.jpg?v=1730290461","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/conversations-with-meredith-monk-expanded-edition-9781555541668","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}