The Meeting of the Waters

1. Danny Boy

2. Spancil Hill

3. The Bride's Return

4. O'Neill's March

5. Galway Bay

6. From Clare to Here

7. Only Our Rivers Run Free

8. Tog go bog e (Take it Easy)

9. Dublin in the Rare 'Oul Times/Molly Malone

10. Star of the County Down

11. Scenes of Antrim

12. The Reel of Timothy O'Neill

13. Carrickfergus

14. The Town I Loved So Well

15. The Meeting of the Waters

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist
Independent recording artists Tim and Ryan O’Neill have sold more than one million CDs of their relaxing piano music without being associated with a major record label. The brothers are gaining a national reputation for their engaging melodies and soothing piano style. Along the way, the brothers have written and performed music for HBO (including "Sex and the City"), NBC, ESPN and QVC. Their enthusiastic fans have made successes of the O’Neill Brothers’ entire library of albums, which includes collections of wedding music, love songs, holiday tunes, Irish melodies, movie themes, Broadway favorites and lullabies.

Product Description
After returning from a three-month stay in Ireland, Tim O'Neill arranged and recorded this album of familiar Irish songs, such as Danny Boy and Galway Bay, as well as lesser known Irish ballads and solo piano melodies.

Tracks:

Andante - Allegro Vivace
Largo Cantabile
Allegro
Autumn
In The Barn
The Revival
Verse 1 (Adagio) - Verse 2 (Andante) - Verse 3 (Allegretto) - Refrain (Adagio)
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro
Largo
Allegro

Customer Reviews:

Possibly the best available ..... but ..........2005-04-02

These are possibly the best available of these fantastic violin sonatas, although I haven't heard Fulkerson/Shannon. I do believe however that these performances lack the deep understanding of Druian/Simms, especially in regard to evenness of tempi and expressiveness - I get the feeling of assertiveness without conviction - e.g. in the last movement of the #3 - I realize there is a certain element of prejudice associated with judging a new performance against an accustomed one - but I sure do wish the Druian/Simms had been transferred to CD.

Some of the best music I've ever heard.......2005-01-27

Ives wrote a great deal of experimental music, exploring more compositional techniques and ideas than any other composer of the 20th century. In that sense alone he is a remarkable figure, but too much emphasis on that perspective risks diminishing the great beauty of his music. He combined innovation almost to the point of iconoclasm with the unabashed sentiment of the 19th century.

When I listen to Ives, any American music I think of, and I'm reminded of quite a bit of music when I listen to him, whether it's Coltrane, Copland or Cobain, I hear it in Ives, as if somehow all American music after him was already contained in his work, like a seed.

Although I was already very familiar with Ives' music when I got this CD, I was more impressed with these pieces than anything I've heard since I first heard Stravinskys' "Petrushka" at the age of 16.

No bad apples in this bunch!.......2004-05-25

Sometimes comparing a composer's works is like comparing apples and oranges. A big orchestral work is a very different kind of fruit than a small chamber piece. So when a composer returns several times to the same medium, it makes it easier to get an assessment of the composer's thought process and personality. In the case of Charles Ives, these four sonatas for violin and piano offer that kind of unique possibility to observe the composer's strategy at work. Ives stands unique among composers of his generation for his attempt to meld high art goals with vernacular music. Not *folk* music, mind you, but vernacular music: marching band tunes, popular ditties like "Turkey in the Straw," Stephen Foster songs, and especially the rich realm of Protestant hymnody. Ives mixes these vernacular sources together and distills a potent moonshine all his own from the mash. I've loved these four pieces for over 30 years, ever since Paul Zukovsky and Gilbert Kalish recorded them for Nonesuch around the Ives Centennial in 1974. The performances here are every bit as fine as the Zukovsky/Kalish set, and all on one disc at a bargain price! If you find the Ives orchestral works loud and messy, and can't quite warm up to the Concord Sonata (keep trying: it's worth the effort), you may find that these Violin Sonatas will help you understand what the fuss is all about: they just could be the finest works the composer wrote.

How to Listen to an American Quilt.......2004-01-25

Charles Ives - Violin Sonatas

I undertake this review with some trepidation, as all of the previous reviews are quite thorough and thoughtful, and I'm not sure how much I have to add. But two of the other reviewers want me to chime in as well...so here it goes.

Ives is without a doubt the quintessential American composer. Though the composer was highly trained, there exists an air of the autodidact about him, perhaps influenced by his famously eccentric and experimental father George. Ives received a fairly traditional education with Horatio Parker at Yale, but even there he was unable to keep his experimental tendencies in check. (When asked to write a graduation fugue, Ives wrote it in four keys!) However, as experimental as Ives gets, he is still grounded in the American musical tradition as exemplified by Parker and his kind. All one has to do is study the harmonic language of these Violin Sonatas to see this.

The Violin Sonatas span the years 1904 to 1916, but are perhaps the most consistent musical statements in his output. The language is fairly conservative for Ives, though not as conservative as the first two symphonies. You do not find the wild collages of the Fourth Symphony or the biting dissonances of the Concord Sonata in this set. Rather, these are fascinating works that are a typical Ivesian crazy quilt of hymn tunes, popular melody, almost parlor-song harmony, and impressionistic use of dissonances that is highly beguiling and in the case of some of the slow movements, deeply moving.

Each of the four sonatas has a fairly traditional three-movement structure. Sonatas 1 and 4 are fast-slow-fast sonatas while the middle two sonatas surround a fast movement with two more contemplative movements. The materials of all the sonatas are fairly tonal. The real radical nature of these works is in the structure of the movements themselves. As has been said before, Ives uses an original procedure of "cumulative form". Snippets of melody weave in and out of the texture without making a full blown thematic statement. These melodic snippets sound vaguely familiar but are manipulated enough so that they aren't totally recognizable until the end of the movement, when the source theme is stated, often very simply. The effect is climatic and deeply moving and greatly enhanced if you know the source material. For instance, the second movement of the 4th sonata (Children's Day at the Camp Meeting) weaves around a melody that has a hint of nostalgia to it. At the end it finally coalesces into the familiar children's hymn Jesus Loves Me. The effect is more moving than I ever believed that sappy hymn could be.

Shockingly, these beautiful sonatas inspired venom among those to first listen and perform them. (After a musician berated Ives over the first sonata, he uttered his famous self-question, "Are my ears on wrong?"...the inspiration, incidentally, for my own Amazon nickname...weird ears.) These sonatas are wonderfully nostalgic works. Listening to them gives you the feeling of catching a glimpse of a lost world, Victorian America with its parlor songs, camp meetings, and vigorous popular musical culture. Listening to the Ives Sonatas is like hearing that world again, but through the prism of memory and dream. The themes waft in and out, not in the organic way that a typically Germanic sonata would, but rather in a freely associative manner. So the way to appreciate these works is to follow the form in much the same way, letting your attention flow from moment to moment until Ives brings it all together in his cumulative themes. It also helps if you have some familiarity with turn of the century Protestant hymnody, as almost all these works are based on camp meeting hymns such as Watchman Tell Us of the Night, Land of Rest, and Beulah Land. Also, a bit of familiarity with fiddle tunes and 19th century popular tunes is also helpful. However, even without this knowledge these are magical and very powerful works and repay repeated listening. They are also perhaps the best place to begin for Ives novices. They have a truly Ivesian feeling without the forbidding dissonances of some of his thornier works.

Performances on this CD are really excellent. Curt Thompson is a promising young violinist with a full, pleasing tone, and a handle on the distinctively American sound these sonatas need, and he is expertly supported by Rodney Waters. Naxos is to be credited for bringing these works out as part of their Ives cycle. They were long overdue for a complete recording.

My 2004 New Year's resolution was to review this CD..........2004-01-02

...and make it my first review of the new year.

This superb Naxos CD of the four Violin Sonatas by Charles Ives might well have been reviewed months ago by me, had it not been for one small matter. Every time I'd set out to listen to the CD, I'd get as far as the Largo cantabile (2nd) movement of the 1st Violin Sonata, only to stop and play it again. And again.

Then, a few times, I actually got as far as the 3rd movement of this work, only to hear the strains of "Watchman, Tell Us of the Night," the Lowell Mason hymn, little known these days but used to such superb effect by Ives, years later, in the opening "Prelude: Maestoso" movement of his culminating masterpiece, the 4th Symphony. There I was, stuck with the same problem: Couldn't go further; simply had to listen again. And again.

Needless to say, I finally managed to solve the problem. But it took both a conscious effort to listen to the sonatas in reverse order AND a New Year's resolution as well.

There is little that I can add to the two excellent previous reviews. Scott Morrison and Robin Friedman pretty much touched all the bases: Ives's use of "cumulative form" (a developmental "working toward a summing up" of each movement, by introducing thematic fragments which, only by the end of the movement, come together to present the full theme), his inveterate borrowing of vernacular and hymnic materials, and the total parity between the two instrumentalists. (Probably never before, and never since, have such sonatas been written where the piano part is so equally matched, both thematically and technically, to the violin part. Calling these works "violin sonatas" does an injustice to the violinist's equal partner!)

Ives was not, himself, a violinist, although his father, George Edward Ives, had been a pretty good fiddler, and I'm sure that there's more than a fair bit of sentimental tribute by Charlie to George in these works. What Ives certainly did, in these sonatas, was to "introduce a distinctly American style of violin playing [...], namely paraphrases of fiddle music" and [he] "associated the violin with spiritual exaltation and with hymn singing." (These quotations are the words of Nancy Mandel, violinist and wife and co-collaborator with Alan Mandel in performing Ives's chamber works, written nearly three decades ago for an Ives centennial symposium, "On Performing the Violin Sonatas." They're certainly better than any words I could think up for this review occasion.)

Every bit of this stylistic description by Nancy Mandel comes through in these works: Scattered throughout the total of twelve movements spread over the four sonatas, one will in fact hear idiomatic fiddling - including ragtime and country and barn dances - and spiritually exalted hymnic phrasing. And, though the four works cover more than a decade of Ives's composing career, there is not an expected sense that the later works are in any way more complex than the earlier ones; almost the exact opposite occurs, in which the later two sonatas are considerably more accessible than the two earlier ones: Ives, in his "Memos," describes the later two works as "...a kind of slump backward."

While I'm not necessarily buying into Ives's self-criticism, his observation perhaps in part explains why it is that the 1st Sonata grabs me in the gut the way that it does. The work looks back to the classical tradition, with its Lisztian piano writing in the Largo cantabile movement, at the same time that it looks forward in this movement, with some eerily gorgeous violin double-stop writing that sounds to these ears as if Ives is writing in true quarter tones. This Largo cantabile movement is simply magic. And then comes the cumulative-form thematic development toward "Watchman..." in the concluding movement: spiritual exaltation indeed! Is it any wonder that I had difficulty moving past this sonata, and on to the others?

Like Scott Morrison, I remember the much earlier Rafael Druian/John Simms LPs. Unfortunately, unlike Scott, I just barely remember them. And I'm unfamiliar with the Gregory Fulkerson/Robert Shannon CDs. So, at the same time that I am rediscovering (and loving) the sonatas, I am hearing Curt Thompson and Rodney Waters for the first time.

These young instrumentalists are simply superb. Thompson gets into the dance-like episodes with true "fiddling" style, and simply soars in the hymnic passages. Waters handles the very difficult piano part with aplomb, and is every bit the equal partner to Thompson (as he needs to be, given how Ives wrote the virtuosic piano parts). I may or may not be missing anything by not having either the Druian/Simms LPs or the Fulkerson/Shannon CDs. But Naxos - once again, as it has demonstrated in the past with its Ives contributions to its "American Classics" series - need not apologize to anyone for these performances. Moreover, unlike Fulkerson/Shannon on the full-price Bridge label, where the sonatas are spread too generously over two CDs, here they fit without a problem onto a single budget CD.

I have a collection of scores in my library, admittedly small and mostly orchestral, covering those works near and dear to me. My SECOND resolution of the New Year is to track down the score for at least the 1st Violin Sonata (if only to see how Ives wrote the violin part for the Largo cantabile movement, particularly for the quarter-tone double stops), and preferably the scores for all four. This is not only "canonical Ives"; these sonatas are among the finest 20th century works in the genre.

And, looking back over all of 2003, I think that the single classical work that received the most playing time by me was this Ives 1st Violin Sonata. What a supremely sublime piece of music it is! It's strange to find myself using this as an "excuse" for such a long delay in writing this review. But there you have it.

Bob Zeidler

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ENCHANTING INTERPRETATONS OF CLASSIC IRISH TUNES!
The Meeting of the Waters

The Meeting of the Waters
Tim O'Neill
Manufacturer: O'Neill Brothers
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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P.S. I Love You
Love Always

ASIN: B00003JAMY
Release Date: 1996-07-01

Tracks:

Danny Boy
Spancil Hill
The Bride's Return
O'Neill's March
Galway Bay
From Clare to Here
Only Our Rivers Run Free
Tog go bog e (Take it Easy)
Dublin in the Rare 'Oul Times/Molly Malone
Star of the County Down
Scenes of Antrim
The Reel of Timothy O'Neill
Carrickfergus
The Town I Loved So Well
The Meeting of the Waters

Album Description

After returning from a three-month stay in Ireland, Tim O'Neill arranged and recorded this album of familiar Irish songs, such as Danny Boy and Galway Bay, as well as lesser known Irish ballads and solo piano melodies.

Customer Reviews:

ENCHANTING INTERPRETATONS OF CLASSIC IRISH TUNES!.......2001-03-07

This is so relaxing!Just a man and his piano.His playing is so heartfelt and just flows...this is perfect to kick back with and meditate.While I 'm no expert on Irish music,I have had the pleasure of visiting once,and I can appreciate the way Tim O'neill expresses his sentiments towards that lovely land!

The Meeting of the Waters.......2000-10-20

This is a very relaxing and easy to listen to album of beautiful Irish melodies. I had the pleasure of meeting him at the New Paltz, NY Arts and Crafts Fair in May of 2000 and was very impressed by his and his brother,Ryan's, music. I will certainly purchase more of their albums.

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review from All About Jazz:

Meeting of the Waters
Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra
Manufacturer: Oa2
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000N69P0M
Release Date: 2007-04-17

Tracks:

Encontro Das Aguas (Meeting of the Waters
The Checkered Demon
The Tulip Wonder
Self-Portrait
Waltz of the Jellyfish
The Mighty Urubamba
Old Folks
Miraflores

Customer Reviews:

review from All About Jazz:.......2007-04-27

[from All About Jazz by Jack Bowers]

The Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra, now seven years old, has produced its second superlative album of contemporary jazz, a cosmopolitan enterprise showcasing impressive compositions and arrangements by musical director Daniel Barry; Englishwoman Hazel Leach, co-leader of the European-based United Women's Orchestra; and Jill Townsend, one of Canada's most talented writers in the big-band genre.

As on its previous recording, Dreamcatcher (OA2, 2004), SWOJO leaves no doubt that it can play with anyone, readily mastering charts that would test even the most battle-hardened ensemble. The careful use of shading and dynamics is especially remarkable, as all but one of the eight selections were recorded in concert with no safety net or second chances. The exception is Barry's "Checkered Demon" which, unlike the others, ends with no applause. The album is so cleanly recorded, however, that the absence of an audience response is the only avenue by which to separate the concert selections from the lone in-studio track.

Barry, the orchestra's music director since its inception, appreciates a Latin beat, a fondness that is conspicuous on three of his four compositions, even though the rhythms are often gentle and understated. Again, the anomaly is "Checkered Demon," a bluesy charmer on which tenor saxophonist Cynthia Mullis excels. "Demon" follows the supple opener, "Encontro das Águas" (Meeting of the Waters), whose lone soloist is trumpeter Barry himself.

Leach weighs in with "The Tulip Wonder," a lyrical swinger featuring trombonist Jennifer Kellogg that opens calmly and builds in intensity, and the meditative "Self Portrait," nicely sung by Greta Matassa alongside splendid solos by trumpeter Sarah Nelson and tenor Tina Richerson. As with most modern songs, I haven't a clue as to what the lyrics mean, but they seem quite serious and profound.

Townsend's charts appeared previously on her excellent album, Tales from the Sea (Pagetown, 2003). The first is her own enchanting composition, "Waltz of the Jellyfish," the second the lovely standard "Old Folks," a luminous arrangement on which Mullis is again showcased, this time on alto sax.

Bassist Rachael Contorer, alto Lisa Gordanier and pianist Ann Reynolds are the soloists on "Jellyfish," which precedes Barry's powerful "Mighty Urubamba," "Old Folks" and his softly flowing "Miraflores." Nelson, drummer Jeremy Jones and percussionist Michelle McGowan are admirable on the former, Jones and Richerson ditto on the latter.

In sum, the inescapable verdict is that SWOJO has earned another blue ribbon. Recommended without pause.

Track listing: Encontro das Águas (Meeting of the Waters); The Checkered Demon; The Tulip Wonder; Self Portrait; Waltz of the Jellyfish; The Mighty Urubamba; Old Folks; Miraflores.

Personnel: Daniel Barry: music director, trumpet (1); Dennis Haldane: trumpet; Marge Rosen: trumpet; Angela Smith: trumpet (2, 4-8); Sarah Nelson: trumpet (2, 4-6, 8); Mike Mines: trumpet (4); Chad McCullough: trumpet (1, 3); Michael van Bebber: trumpet (1, 3); Shelly Devlin: trumpet (7); Lisa Gordanier: alto sax, clarinet; Cynthia Mullis: alto, tenor sax; Barbara Hubers-Drake: alto sax (1-7), Gwen Bayly: alto sax (8); Tobi Stone: tenor sax, clarinet; Tina Richerson: tenor sax; Ann Babb: baritone sax; Carolyn Caste: trombone; Mariah Ralston: trombone (1, 3-8); Erin Easley: trombone (1, 3, 5, 6, 8); Cynthia McGowan: trombone (2, 4, 7); Kellyn Haley: bass trombone (2, 7); Jennifer Kellogg: trombone (2), bass trombone (1, 3-6, 8); Ann Reynolds: piano; Rachael Contorer: bass; Jeremy Jones: drums; Michelle McGowan: percussion (1, 6, 8). Special guests: Greta Matassa: vocals (4); Hazel Leach: conductor (4); Jill Townsend: conductor (5).

Style: Big Band | Published: April 24, 2007

William Vincent Wallace: The Meeting of the Waters

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William Vincent Wallace: The Meeting of the Waters

Manufacturer: Cala
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00006BCR9
Release Date: 2006-11-20

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Ireland Calling

Manufacturer: Kevin Shannon Travel Unlimited
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000E3FPNK

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Endless Mercy
Vinny Flynn , and Still Waters
Manufacturer: Spirit Song Ministries
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000M1E09E

Product Description

Gentle, healing songs by Vinny Flynn and Still Waters, guaranteed to soothe your spirit or comfort a loved one. An increasingly popular album, often used for retreats, prayer meetings, and healing services. Songs include: In His Name, Change My Heart, Portrait of Jesus, Spirit Song, From the Cross, I Lift My Eyes, Mother of Mercy, Josephs Song, You Are Holy, Endless Mercy.

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Ruben Waters Loves You
Ruben Waters Loves You
Manufacturer: Dulce Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000094TVV
Release Date: 2003-02-11

Tracks:

Wasting
Who Would Have Guessed
Keep Me Around
Anything
Hold On
This Is
Bonus Track: Rolling Over

Album Description

Ruben Waters Loves You further defines and extends the soul genre with its singular blend of intimate lyrics and harmonies. one can hear elements of motown, 70's r&b, country, and britrock, distilled into something uniquely modern.