And I Paint Stars with Wings

AND I PAINT STARS WITH WINGS is composer Stanley Grill’s most ambitious album to date, presenting several related works for larger ensembles. Expanding on the same themes that influence most of his work, the music on the album represents the composer’s attempt to influence the minds and hearts of those who hear it in such a way as to encourage thoughts about the possibility of world peace, as well as music composed in an attempt to translate something about the nature of the physical world.

At the core of the works on the album is the string orchestra, an ensemble that is particularly well suited for the composer’s delicate sound landscape based on Renaissance influenced modal, contrapuntal writing, employing extended, interweaving lines of melody. The one work for string orchestra alone, Pavanne (for a world without war), is the first in a series of works for various instruments belonging to the composer’s Music for Peace project.

The Four Elements is a concerto for viola intended to represent the four ancient elements – earth, air, water and fire. Mystical Songs sets four poems for soprano, viola and strings by Fernando Rielo, a Spanish Catholic mystic, philosopher and author, by whom the work was commissioned.

In Praise of Reason, for solo cello, horns and strings, was composed for cellist and Camerata Philadelphia music director Stephen Framil. This music was started in the weeks leading up to the 2012 Presidential election – and the title came first, born in reaction to the lack of reason evident in the political discourse that preceded Election Day.

Featuring Brett Douglas Deubner, viola; Peggy Pei-Ju Yu, soprano; Camerata Philadelphia conducted by Stephen Framil.
Produced by Ralph Farris. Recorded, engineered and mixed by Randall Crafton at Kaleidoscope Studio, Union City, NJ.