Coruscating
album by John Surman
Coruscating is an album by English saxophonist John Surman recorded in January 1999 and released by ECM September the following year. Surman is backed by bassist Chris Laurence and string quartet Trans4mation, consisting violinists Rita Manning and Keith Pascoe, violist Bill Hawkes, and cellist Nick Cooper.
Reception
The AllMusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4½ stars, stating, "Coruscating is one of the finer moments in an already stellar career. Coruscating's mood and timbre is delicate, mysterious, and gentle, but its musical reach is muscular and wide."
Track listing
All compositions by John Surman.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Coruscating” is album by John Surman. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Coruscating, album and John, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “album by John Surman” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q5173422. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1999.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Coruscating”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Coruscating primary sources, Coruscating archive and Coruscating research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Coruscating”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Coruscating” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.