Michael Mantler
The School of Understanding
Jack Bruce observer
Per Jørgensen teacher
Mona Larsen refugee
Susi Hyldgaard journalist
Karen Mantler student
John Greaves businessman
Don Preston doctor
Don Preston synth drums
Robert Wyatt guest observer
Michael Mantler trumpet, conductor
Roger Jannotta clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, oboe
Bjarne Roupé guitar
Marianne Sørensen violin
Mette Brandt violin
Mette Winther violin
Helle Sørensen cello
Tineke Noordhoek vibraphone, marimba
Kim Kristensen piano, synthesizers
Giordano Bellincampi conductor
Prelude
Introductions
First Lesson
News
Love Begins
War
Pause
Understanding
Health And Poverty
Love Continues
Platitudes
Intolerance
Love Ends
What's Left To Say
What Is The Word
Recorded August-December 1996
ECM 1648
Background
Related Recordings
Order 2-CD Set
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Michael Mantler has worked exhaustively with text-settings since the early 1970s, putting hs favourite authors – including Beckett, Pinter, Gorey, Ungaretti, Soupault, Ernst Meister – to music. Samuel Beckett again gets the last word on School Of Understanding but elsewhere in this “sort-of-an-opera”, Mantler has – for the first time – written his own libretto. A double album, School Of Understanding is Mantler’s most ambitious undertaking to date. A relentless exploration of “communication” in society and the media, it features the Austrian trumpeter’s Copenhagen-based Chamber Music And Songs Ensemble, joined by a cast of singers and flanked by a string orchestra. Vocalists include four venerable names from the heyday of progressive rock: Jack Bruce, Robert Wyatt, Don Preston and John Greaves, respectively associated with Cream, Soft Machine, the Mothers of Invention and Henry Cow.
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