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4Stop Tour

4Stop Tour   Nicholas Reeves was the featured artist of The Four Stop Tour—a series of four performances at different venues around Manhattan, including Riverside Church and Lincoln Center. The motive behind the tour was “to cross the wide gap that separates art music from the population at large.” The tour includes an original film score for the film No Country for Old Men, and other original composition by Reeves. The last stop on the tour took place at Merkin Hall in Lincoln Center, showcasing Reeves’ Symphonic Potential, contemporary music that “exposes the symphonic capabilities of chamber ensembles. Considering that the Four Stop Tour was intended to confront the issue of how “new music is seldom played, appreciated, or heard at all by the average American consumer,” the success of this performance was incomplete. While it certainly addressed the issue, it did not succeed in solving it.   This lack of interest is the result of the current “I want it now” attitude. While Reeves’ music deserves recognition, hardly anyone in a city as fast-paced as New York is willing to take the time to listen to his music several times. Multiple listenings are required, since Reeves has composed complex music that hardly ever has a distinguishable melody, at least as evidenced by the last stop on this tour. To understand and appreciate the music and its complexity takes a great deal of work on the part of the listener. Most people are simply not willing to put in the effort when they can turn on the radio and instantly understand and appreciate the broadcasted melodies. But if a listener can get past that pitfall, it is plain that Reeves’s music is worthy of recognition.   “I found it fitting to pay him tribute by setting two texts that reflect his exuberance for life, “Blue!-‘Tis the life of heaven—the domain,” and its mortal price, “Sonnet to Sleep.”

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