Frederic Rzewski: Which Side Are You On? (1978)

Performed by the dedicatee, Paul Jacobs, with a couple of stanzas of "Which Side Are You On?" sung by Florence Reece.

Part of Rzewski's "North American Ballads", four piano pieces based on old workers' songs. Jacobs unfortunately skips the optional long cadenza on the last page -- Rzewski is a skilled improviser from his days with MEV, but most classically trained pianists are a bit timid about approaching the improvisations built into his music.

Florence Reece was the wife of a coal miners' union organizer who was harassed by company thugs during a 1931 union strike in Harlan County, Kentucky. After an incident with armed men terrorizing her and her family she wrote the words to this song, setting them to the hymn tune "Lay the Lily Low."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• protest
• workers
• union
• song
• north
• american
• ballads
• rzewski
• paul
• jacobs
• piano
• florence
• reece
• 20th-century
• avantgarde
• classical

[John11inch]

No improvisation?

[minirausch]

a bit of a letdown, isn't it? of course, i'm not too crazy about coming up with a ~6min improvised cadenza either, but even if i had to compose some or most of it beforehand i'd probably do it. alters the balance of the piece completely, and makes the straightforward statement in the coda make a little more sense...

the library here has rzewski's original LP recording of this (paired with the four pieces), i'll have to go listen again sometime. doubt it ever made it to CD.

[dservias1977]

It does say that the improvisation is optional in the score.

[brennabreakdown]

I'm afraid it's just too fast for me... and seriously, no improvisation?