Morton Feldman - Piano And String Quartet (1985)

Aki Takahashi (piano) & Kronos Quartet (strings) Elektra Nonesuch 79320-2 (1993)

Kronos Quartet
David Harrington - violin
John Sheba - violin
Hank Dutt - viola
Joan Jeanrenaud - cello

"Written two years before his death in 1987, Morton Feldman's Piano and String Quartet is a shimmering, pristine musical event. Contrasting Aki Takahashi's widely-spaced piano arpeggios with Kronos Quartet's extended chords, Feldman allows lingering sounds from either the piano or the strings to haze over many of the piece's near-silences. Kronos plays their parts with tremulous fragility, often making pointedly clear the viola's musical valley between the leading violins and the trailing cello. By the time Feldman composed this piece, he was deeply committed to extended works--chamber pieces that could telescope motifs and worry their tonality so that it warbled between hauntingly atonal and familiarly tonal singing. This is a powerful, evening piece, one that can set an extravagantly crystalline musical mood. --Andrew Bartlett"

My girlfriend and i (we made the video together) started with 6 pieces of film. Each of about 7 seconds long. The films were made in an empty room of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. You see a wall, the ceiling and a corner, filmed from diffrent angles.
From each original we made a "slower" version of about 14 to 15 seconds. Change (via random.org) then decided the sequence of the segments and if a "fast" or "slow" version of the segment was used.
When the film was completed we made a copy and from this copy seconds were removed at random places. From this film we took a rectangle which was then placed in the original film. This process was repeated a few times.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Morton Feldman
• Aki Takahashi
• Kronos Quartet
• David Harrington
• John Sherba
• Hank Dutt
• Joan Jeanrenaud
• Aki Tkahashi
• Nonesuch
• piano
• string quartet
• John Cage
• long

[undergodot]

love the music, and love the film...enchanting!

[tondekruyff]

@undergodot Thanks, it's always a pleasure to read a positive comment :)

[4StringTheory]

Finally they're getting more acquainted with Morton Feldman in The Netherlands.

I was ecstatic when the Muziekgebouw aan't IJ held the Morton Feldman festival... still cannot believe I was part of the 20% of people left over that was actually awake by the end of his 2,5hr 1st string quartet endurance piece : ) Not to mention the flabbergasting Rothko Chapel!

PS. The Ives ensemble is performing this Piano & string quartet at the

Felix Meritis Nov 15. and I've got my ticket yea!

THX4posting! :)

[tondekruyff]

@4StringTheory I rediscovered Feldman because of that festival. They should do a repeat :)

Working on a "clip" for the string quartet that will put most people to sleep

Thanks for the Felix Meritis tip!

[dchiapello]

Thanks for the commentary on the film. My hat is off to you and your girlfriend! So I take it that all the movement within the fields is just the play of light on the walls - but because of the low video resolution, we see lots of shifting grays. When I first watched, my brain was looking for a person or animal or some sort of animate being in those shadows. Wonderful!

[tondekruyff]

@dchiapello That's right, nothing was moving in the museum room when we made the initial films. The quality of the "image" also detetriorated every time a step or conversion was made. Had we made two more converions the image would just have dissappeared.

[lockjaw6]

amazing.

[krakus5813]

I just fucking love this piece!



[loltheworld]

Death itself. static, lifeless, gently toward the everlasting light.

[vakhi1]

An hour of bliss!

[4StringTheory]

@tondekruyff It would, most certainly, be splendid if they did : )

Although I do know for certain that the Ives ensemble have scheduled

more Feldman pieces in the near future...

...or at least that is what I read on their website.

THX again for posting it. Wonderful hearing it again after so many years.

And looks like the digital anomalies on the video are indeed a welcome

serendipitous error. Kudos.

[4StringTheory]

Finally they're getting more acquainted with Morton Feldman in The Netherlands.

Got the gift of a lifetime couple of years ago when the Muziekgebouw aan't IJ held the Morton Feldman festival... still cannot believe I was part of the 15-20% of people left over that was actually awake by the end of his 2,5hr 1st string quartet endurance piece : ) Not to mention the flabbergasting Rothko!

PS. The Ives ensemble is performing this Piano & string quartet at the

Felix Meritis Nov 15. Can't wait : )