Ralph Shapey: Radical Traditionalism

"Radical traditionalist" is what I've been called. My music combines two fundamentally contradictory impulses-radical language and romantic sensibility. The melodies are disjunct and dissonant; they contain atonal harmonies and extremes in register, dynamics and textural contrast.

Yet the musical structures are grandly formed and run the gamut of dramatic gestures. Like the Romantics, I conceive of art in a deeply spiritual way. A great work of art transcends the immediate moment into a world of infinity. -Ralph Shapey

This collection-drawn from the original CRI LPs-provides a glimpse into a critical point in Ralph Shapey's artistic development and comprises several of his most important compositions. It covers a period from 1963 to 1979, when he moved from an astringent, visionary modernism, to a version of the same that was tempered by a more "classical" character. This is a major restoration to the discography of contemporary American music of the work of one of its most uncompromising and largely misunderstood figures.