Notes on "Finale"

(Notes by Peter Saltzman)

A better name for this concluding movement, one I wished I had used, would be "And let us say: Amen", the final words of the Oseh Shalom which concludes the piece. (Better yet, I should have used the Aramaic: "V'imru: Amen".) Finale seems to trite, although it certainly is the end.

The "Oseh Shalom" theme, at any rate, is preceeded by quite a bit of introductory music, mostly centering around the bluesy "Americana" theme that that is derived from the solo piano piece, Broken Vessels. Here, it is first stated beautifully by Jill Kaeding on solo cello. She in then joined by the band, and then the jazz guys take over the theme play it gospel style, with Jim Gailloreto leading the way on tenor sax. After generating considerable heat this settles down and segues into Oseh Shalom.

One admirer of Kabbalah Blues told me he was troubled by its ending, commenting that it seemed to imply that peace (shalom) comes only through death. While it hard to escape the impression that the ending, with its sense of dying out, is a kind of musical death, I don't quite agree with this interpretation. Rather, I see the ending as the resolution of the violence that nearly overwhelms the Oseh Shalom theme when it first appears at the beginning of the piece in the Prologue Here, after much struggle, we do achieve a kind of peace. Amen.

Part 1

• Prologue
• Unity
• I Was There
• Indeterminacy
• Sooner or Later
• Shekina's Dream
• Interlude
• Quantum Funk
• Quantum Reprise
• Broken Vessels
• Oseh Shalom

Part 2

• Living In Another Time
• Superstrings
• Blues without Barlines
• Force of Nature
• Searching
• Finale
•  
• Main Music Page