Many Many Women

Description

"Many Many Women" by Petr Kotík is a large-scale work for voice and instruments, composed between 1975 and 1978 on the text of the eponymous short story by Gertrude Stein. Published in Paris in 1910 in the collection "G.M.P. - Gertrude, Matisse, Picasso", it was reissued in 1972 by Dick Higgins, through his publishing house Something Else Press. Kotík used the full text, which determined the duration of the work. Inspired by his close collaboration with the composer and singer Julius Eastman, Kotík began composing for voice in 1971. Gertrude Stein was the first author from whom Kotík drew inspiration to compose a series of works based on her texts. "Many Many Women" represents the culmination of this series. The performance of the complete work lasts nearly six hours and features three pairs of singers and three pairs of instrumentalists playing in parallel perfect intervals: fifths, fourths, and octaves. It can also be performed in a shorter version with a reduced instrumental ensemble. The Czech-American composer Petr Kotík (based in the United States since 1969) created an original and timeless music. From the mid-1970s, "Many Many Women" was performed progressively, as Kotík continued its composition. The complete work premiered in 1979, during three consecutive six-hour concerts: at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo (New York State), then in New York at the Paula Cooper Gallery and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Recorded in 1980, it was released on Labor Records: a six-hour studio concert, issued as a five-vinyl box set. It was reissued by the Paula Cooper Gallery in 2000 as a three-CD box set.