{"id":124179,"date":"2024-08-26T16:13:24","date_gmt":"2024-08-26T20:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/records\/mark-haney-placentia-bay-summer-of-1941-meaghan-williams-vancouver\/"},"modified":"2024-08-27T07:52:05","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T11:52:05","slug":"mark-haney-placentia-bay-summer-of-1941-meaghan-williams-vancouver","status":"publish","type":"records","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/records\/mark-haney-placentia-bay-summer-of-1941-meaghan-williams-vancouver\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Haney – Placentia Bay: Summer of 1941"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Placentia Bay<\/em> is the final opus in a trilogy that began in 2010 with Aim for the Roses<\/em>, and continued with Omnis temporalis<\/em> in 2022. In it, Mark Haney revisits characters and events from Canadian history. While Aim for the Roses<\/em> was inspired by Montreal car stuntman Ken Carter, and Omnis Temporalis<\/em> by the character of George Sprott, a fictional Canadian TV host who appeared in the New York Times<\/em>, Placentia Bay: Summer of 1941<\/em> reconnects with reality, taking as its subject the meeting held in 1941 in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, between Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. This meeting was to be decisive in shaping the post-war era.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Placentia Bay <\/em>differs substantially from previous albums in that Haney limits himself to instrumental music, with the exception of a few choral passages. Aim for the Roses<\/em> was a spoken-word piece, while Omnis Temporalis<\/em> is a chamber opera. What unites the three works, however, is the marked presence of the double bass as a discursive and solo instrument. Understandably so: Haney is a double-bass player. Here, unlike the first two parts of the trilogy, Haney has entrusted this important role to a colleague, Meaghan Williams, a leading Canadian artist and student of Joel Quarrington. She is a performer of impressive technique and almost infinite nuance. Well done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Placentia Bay <\/em>unfolds in just three movements, resulting in some 22 minutes of a kind of concerto for double bass, orchestra and chorus. At first, the fragmented nature of the musical discourse is disconcerting, revealing (at first glance) in disarray vaguely folkloric melodies, Hollywood-like outbursts and episodes of deconstructed, almost random dialogue. Further listens reveal the discursive logic of the whole, and allow receptive ears to appreciate the beauty of the Vancouver-based musician\u2019s orchestral writing. Ordered chaos imbued with a highly visual narrative force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n