CCLIV. FELDMAN, Morton: The Viola In My Life

CCLIV. FELDMAN, Morton (1926-1987)

The Viola In My Life (1970-71)
1. The Viola In My Life: I
2. The Viola In My Life: II
3. The Viola In My Life: III
4. False Relationships and the Extended Ending
5. Why Patterns?
Karen Phillips, viola
Anahid Ajemian, violin
Seymour Barab, cello
David Tudor, piano
Paula Robinson, flute
Arthur Bloom, clarinet
Raymond DesRoches, percussion
Matthew Raimondi, violin
Paul Jacobs, piano
Yuji Takahashi, piano
Arnold Fromme, trombone
Richard Fitz, percussion
Eberhard Blum, flute
Jan Williams, percussion
Morton Feldman, piano/cond.
(1:14:41)

Like a Zen rock garden, Feldman's work is reflected in the empty space in which a few islands of matter emerge:

"There is a sort of quietness we experience when nothing is happening, but there is another quietness when something -- something enormous -- has just happened: the shocked quietness of recollection, the sense both of remembering and of gathering oneself together. What matters then is not the paleness of the echo but that it lingers. The ground fell from under out feet. Time itself was shaken."

"Exact notation ... is failing. Barlines, invented to indicate strong beats, no longer do so. Crescendo markings, devised to communicate increasing tension or affirmation, have become ruffles in the plane. The vast resources of difference are bending towards an essential sameness."

"'Situations repeat themselves with subtle changes rather than developing. A stasis develops between expectance and its realization. As in a dream, there is no release until we wake up, and not because the dream has ended.'" -- Paul Griffiths

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