I had the opportunity to experience two pieces of music a few weeks ago, and it has taken me the intervening time to decide what I felt about the entire experience. The pieces that were programmed were John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, as performed by the Houston Symphony Orchestra.
On the Transmigration of Souls is, to me, one of John Adams' masterworks. The scale of concepts taken on by this work is staggering, and I truly feel that an event like 9/11 cannot be truly expressed in musical terms beyond those which Mr. Adams chose.
We live in such a fragmented, chaotic world. One that is replete with newsfeeds: frenetic activity, crisis upon crisis, hammering and assaulting our senses in an endless cacophony of emotion, information, and above all: thinly veiled panic. We are rarely shown dialogue or thought-processes that last longer than a few minutes, all ideas are edited and parsed into whatever our mass-media would like to feed us that given day. Through this reality, the melodic ideas of composers such as Mahler, Wagner, Beethoven, and Mozart no longer represent the time we live in. They remain excellent music, and are just a relavant as they were in the past (perhaps more so), but not evocative of where we are. One concept that does resonate with this time is that of texture and layers. All one needs do is watch CNN to observe it. Adams deftly does this through the use of pre-recorded sound and speech, as well as the liberal use of choir and text to add depth and meaning to this "memory space" he has created.
When I visited Ground Zero while on tour with the Cavaliers in 2003, I remember thinking how appropriate the titling of this piece was to me: absorbing the raw, kinetic energy that emmanated from that place. There are places in the world where you can feel the vast amounts of emotion and energy that have flowed through them - Ground Zero is, and will remain, one of those.
The term "memory space" could not have encapsulated the import of this piece better, either. Like any memorial or space set aside for reflection and remembrance, it allows each listener to bring to it their own experiences and insights, adding them to the structure they are presented with. Most commemorative music is aking to this, but much of it presents a theme or motif for the audience to latch onto, taking them along on a journey through the piece. Transmigration simply exists, moves through a structure of emotional highs and lows, texturally varied but always engaging. It allows for each listener to have their time, their space, to remember.
And remember well we should. Not for the fact that we shall never let it happen again: we have limited control over that. We should remember because that is what you do when you lose something. You remember and you reflect. And, with those memories, you live.
Symphony No. 9 was programmed to be the counterbalance to Transmigration and achieved that on a purely conceptual level. Beethoven was a wonderful choice, I just simply wish that it had been performed with the same seriousness of intent that the first half of the program was. The ensemble seemed so much more present for the Adams, and possibly was going through the motions slightly on the Beethoven (perhaps due its warhorse status in the orchestral repertoire). One would think, however, that the setting of these two pieces in contrast to one-another would have opened up new avenues of understanding in both pieces, though they bear few compositional similarities. The photo/video montage that accompanied Transmigration was interesting for the first few minutes, but then as it refused to develop any ideas or present any new views, it quickly lost its poignancy and became simply part of the backdrop. It was nice (and yet distracting) having the text for Beethoven's 9th during the Finale, however.
All in all, a worthwhile experience... if only for the fact that it made me think. So much of life this time of year is reactive and harried. It's nice to "sit back" and let things develop as they may, mentally. A welcome change of pace.
Well, it is nearly 4am - I should go to bed. Much drill to finish tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment