Notes on "Prologue"

(Notes by Peter Saltzman)

Kabbalah Blues begins and ends with with the “Oseh Shalom”, from the Kaddish, a standard part of the Jewish liturgy. These movements, along with the plain rendition of the same tune in movement 11, are the only ones that contain non-English text. Oseh Shalom is not, as you may suspect, in Hebrew, but in Aramaic, the lingua franca of the Mid-East around the time of Jesus. The melody for these three interations is the only non-original music in KBQF—it is by the late Jewish liturgical composer Max Helfman. I learned it from hearing the tune on a regular basis during Shabbat and high holiday services. I love the sweet simplicity of the tune: it's a little bit sad, but hopeful, which sums up this whole work.

The setting in this movement, I'm sure you will agree, is anything but peaceful, except perhaps near the very end. Rather, it is about the most avant garde moment on the CD. I employ everything here from serial techniques, to chance, to a great deal of sonic manipulation via ProTools plug-ins (e.g slowing down, speeding up, reversing select audio passages.) If the overall effect is less a piece of music than a musical collage, that was my intent. You can interpret it however you want, but here's what I was after: an attempt to find peace in a noisy world. I'll leave it at that!

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