Four-time GRAMMY-winning sextet, Eighth Blackbird (8BB), ‘one of the smartest, most dynamic contemporary classical ensembles on the planet’ (Chicago Tribune), presents the world premiere recording of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang’s composition as explanation, based on Gertrude Stein’s seminal 1926 lecture of the same name.

Called Super Chamber Music by David Lang, this multidisciplinary work incorporates elements of chamber music, theatre, and performance art; it has the ground-breaking ensemble not only performing the music, but also speaking and singing Stein’s text. For the performance, the 8BB players committed themselves to a rigorous education process, including lessons in acting, diction, and the art of theatre.

Musical America praised 8BB’s live performance of Lang’s work as ‘every bit as witty, circular, and self-referential as Stein’s own prose; it’s rare, not to mention utterly satisfying, to hear a work that so completely embodies its text. To invoke Stein, one suspects Composition as Explanation will be a work of our time for many times to come.’

In 2016, 8BB asked David Lang to propose a project that they could perform at the Chicago Arts Club in conjunction with the Club’s centennial year. In his research, Lang discovered that Stein had spoken at the Club in 1934; this led him to employ Stein’s text as the basis for the piece.