aworks :: "new" american classical music

Cheating, Lying, Stealing (1980). David Lang /so, percussion.../

Matt Parish previews So Percussion's concert of the music of David Lang:

Cheating, Lying, Stealing sounds like the title of a John Lee Hooker song—broken-down, low on dough, burdened with remorse. But this particular ditty, written in 1980 by renegade composer David Lang, is a different, more exuberant story altogether.

aworks: cheating, lying, stealing

Cheating, Lying, Stealing (1980). David Lang

Despite sounding like various objects being pounded or dropped, David Lang's Cheating, Lying, Stealing is catchy, in a jerky, rhythmic kind of way.  Later in the piece, Bang on a Can works into a clanging groove with cello on top. 

David Lang:  In Cheating, Lying, Stealing, although phrased in a comic way, I am trying to look at something dark. There is a swagger, but it is not trustworthy. In fact, the instruction on the score for how to play it says: Ominous funk.

Amazon Real sample. 

26 from the Library: Intro & #1 #2

Disclaimer: I fall too easily for cello and bass clarinet.