Calling the music eclectic is like saying that Brecht had a social conscience. Gordon blends together jazzy and romantic rhythms and melodies, a tango, a snippet of an opera aria, a dash of ‘Blue Moon.” His music is harmonic, but as soon as he establishes a lyrical mood, Gordon undercuts it with harsh, heavy, jagged chords.
The constant musical shifts create a sense of dissociation and disharmony complementing Brecht’s hard-edged vision of war’s effects.
The constant musical shifts create a sense of dissociation and disharmony complementing Brecht’s hard-edged vision of war’s effects.
– Barbara Mackay, The Denver Post
Ricky Ian Gordon’s original music elevates the play into an event. The young composer gives the entire production aesthetic coherence, for he has written both haunting background music for the dialogue and lively melodies evoking the sleaze of wartime canteens and echoing the mindless patriotic patter Brecht wrote so cynically.
– Irene Clurman, Rocky Mountain Newss