Friday, April 9, 2010

Busy Sunday? -- Rare event, on line!


One of the many reasons to be glad its not 1910.... Gathering small audiences together worldwide.

This weekend an (almost) never to be repeated performance of Morton Feldman's String Quartet (II), which takes six hours without a break, will be broadcast live on the new music service of WQXR, called Q2. The many readers of this blog who insist that contemporary music can only express unease will be shocked at the beauty of Feldman's music -- and people who call Tiger Woods an athlete will be astonished at four people performing a complex and demanding piece of that length.

5 comments:

David Chute said...

The "anxiety" thing wasn't my line, and it refers only to 12-tone music.

Tulkinghorn said...

You can tell you've won when they start explaining away their opinions...

Anyway check out the Quartet when you think of it on Sunday, from time to time -- it's not expected that you'll listen to the whole thing.

David Chute said...

Nice line from a recent Pretenders song: "You're like a modern work of art: disturbing and lacking in heart."

Tulkinghorn said...

There are a lot of people who believe that art is incomplete without 'heart'.

I'm not one of them...

Luckily for those who disagree with me, a great deal of modern art has lots of 'heart'. -- including the music of Morton Feldman, one of whose most popular works (coming full circle) is called "Rothko Chapel"

David Chute said...

A writing partner and I once turned in a script for an exploitation film about a psycho glamor photographer killing his models and were told it lacked "heart." So I guess it's a flexible concept.