Judith Embley

Berlin, 1933. À neuf ans, Anna aime lire, dessiner, se rendre au zoo avec son frère Max. Brusquement tout change. Son père disparaît sans prévenir. Puis, elle-même et le reste de sa famille s’exilent pour le rejoindre en Suisse. C’est le début d’une vie de réfugiés. D’abord Zurich, puis Paris, et enfin Londres. Avec chaque fois de nouveaux usages, de nouveaux amis, une nouvelle langue. …

William Schuman juggled many careers in his full and productive life: teacher, administrator, conductor and composer of ten symphonies as well as a significant representation of music in many genres. His two-movement Symphony No. 3, dating from 1941, derives its organization from Baroque era models. Known as Symphony No. 5, though published without a number, the Symphony for Strings is remarkable for its contrapuntal mastery and irresistible rhythmic élan. Judith (1949) was based on the ancient Hebrew tale of the Jewish widow who saved her people by seducing and beheading the despotic general Holofernes. The syncopated score conveys the anxiety and determination of Judith’s heroism.

The Way We Live wasn't a terribly commercial or compelling name for a rock band, and Tractor is a yet more awkward and less appealing moniker. Yet, for some reason, that's what the Way We Live changed their name to between the 1971 A Candle for Judith album (which turned out to be the only the Way We Live LP) and their 1972 follow-up, Tractor. Both albums are combined onto one CD on this 1994 reissue by See For Miles. A Candle for Judith was uneven, second-division, early-'70s British hippie rock, divided between lumpy, bluesy hard rock and far folkier, pastoral, acoustic-flavored musings.

L'auteure affirme que le genre n'exprime pas une essence mais un effet naturalisé et stabilisé par une performance. Exprimant une approche nouvelle de l'identité sexuelle, du sexe biologique aux identités de genre en passant par le désir et la sexualité, elle remet en cause notre propre perception, infirmant ou confirmant les travaux de M. Foucault, de Sigmund Freud ou ceux de C. Lévi-Strauss. …