The Pulitzer: On Feldman
One of the musicians from the Symphony mentioned that she met a student from Wash U who's writing his thesis on Morton Feldman, who is one of the composers in tonight's and tomorrow night's concerts. We contacted Matt, and he was nice enough to humor our request for not one but two blog posts (we're greedy). He'll be giving us some pre-concert background and post-concert reactions, tying in his extensive knowledge of the composer. So here's his pre-concert insights into Feldman's piece:
Beckett's radio play "Words and Music" attracts immediate curiosity with nothing but its dramatis personae: Croak, a master and moderator, and his two charges, Joe (Words) and Bob (Music). Croak and Joe express themselves through the customary words and nonverbal expressions, but Bob's "voice" is literally music, played by a small chamber ensemble consisting of two flutes, vibraphone, piano, violin and cello, its "lines" indicated in the script by vague directions as to mood and dynamics. The role of the score in creating the actual utterances of a dramatic character presents a fascinating and extremely difficult problem to the composer, as attested to by the ultimate failure of the original score (by Beckett's cousin) and Feldman's writings on his own trials and tribulations while working on the play. The end result, though, is successful, satisfying, and confusing (in a good way!) both musically and dramatically.
Part of this success may be due to a truism Beckett explores in the play-the impossibility of perfect-- or even meaningful-- expression, on any subject, through any medium. Croak moderates discussions of a sort on topics such as "love" and "age," and there is much humor and tragedy in Joe's and Bob's linguistic and musical failures to come to any understanding or worthwhile description of each. In one sense, any music would do, as any music would be bound to fail this impossible test, and therefore would be bound to work dramatically as a showcase of its own failure. But in a more important sense, it is the specific flavor of failure that is important here. Joe's verbal failures are not caused by random words or some kind of stuttering, but instead involve circular logic and tired rhetorical conventions, giving them the feel of rationality without the substance, and calling attention to the slippery nature of words themselves. Bob's musical failures, on the other hand, stem largely from their coming from outside the realm of convention. Though people of a certain time and culture know what a "love song" is supposed to sound like, Feldman remains stubbornly aloof, composing music that sounds either unfamiliar, or, to those who know Feldman, like Feldman. One does not hear a romantic strain or any identifiable musical depiction, but rather one's attention is drawn to "the sounds of the sounds themselves," a phrase Feldman has used to describe his own music in other contexts.
Beckett's typically sparse landscape, with a bare minimum of plot and characterization, intensifies this focus on the words and sounds themselves. If you're looking for stories and songs, this performance is bound to frustrate you. Instead, come ready for a 45-minute meditation on just what the title implies: words and music. (Matt)
