Blind Leaving the Blind

This summer I rediscovered Chris Thile's latest album Punch. I tried listening to it when it first came out earlier this year but the opening track "Punch Bowl" was a little to raw musically for me to listen to at the time so I ignored it for awhile. Though the "Punch Bowl" can still kinda rub me the wrong way, I've been endlessly fascinated by the longer work on the album "Blind Leaving the Blind". It's somewhat of a symphony for bluegrass instruments (it's in four movements)- though I think I've heard it been called a suite, I don't feel comfortable calling it such because I thought a suite was a collection of dances- maybe I'm not up on the modern music lingo of what a suite is these days. Anyway, theres so many juicy features in it- it's really not bluegrass unless you peg it as "progressive bluegrass" which is kind of a broad term- it's for bluegrass instruments but it's really art music with folk and pop influences- along with a lot of other influences. There is thick counter point (he loves Bach), polyrhythms (Stravinsky...?), extreme chromaticism- you name it. I did a presentation on John Coltrane's A Love Supreme this week and I'm finding lots of parallels. Though Love Supreme is more spiritual, both are shameless expressions of the author's thoughts and feelings- and both works are more than just pop music. Blind Leaving the Blind even seems to have jazz influences. There is much improvisation- it's organized around themes, lots of call and response- theres even licks that remind me of Philip Glass- anyway to understand it one has to listen- heres a clip of the second movement. Note the chromaticism and the layering (neoclassical...?) I have a hard time identifying atonality because I don't have a very good ear- as my dictation quizzes will prove- but it's hard for me to believe that this is tonal...



Oh to be able to talk to the composer and write a REAL paper on this...!