21 April 2009

A Mild Meander

It’s late, and/but I’ll indulge in a verbal ‘splurge’.



Just watched perhaps half an hour of Labyrinth of Time, about Elliott Carter. Wonderful, and I want to go on watching the rest of it. Why, though? There is no need to watch it in its entirety tonight, and mid-film like this is actually a fun ‘state’ to be in for such a movie.

He speaks of time, in ways at once familiar to me (by thought) and interesting novek t ome (by expression), the different ‘rates’ at which time passes, how Time and Thought About Time both mix, and fail to mix, about how all aspects of Time (past, future, what miht have been, &c.) can bear upon and exist in the Present.

For these reasons, especially (you might almost say), this is the perfect film to step away from for a night’s rest.



It’s a bit of a strange and wonderful thing, the chummy conversations with Carter via this film, so much of the content has particular resonance for another composer, and yet (even though I am a sort of New Yorker myself) such conversations with him were impossible for me, ‘live’.



It’s also a curiously ‘New York composer’ time, what with watching this film about Carter, and Steve Reich being awarded the Pulitzer. And when I was in the DC area this past weekend, I caught up with an old schoolmate, met his father for the first time, who is a pianist for whom New York composer Charles Wuorinen (with whom I sudied in Buffalo) once wrote an occasional Albumblatt.



Later this week, I shall meet with the flutist and harpist to read and chat about stars & guitars. Very excited. Still in a state of very much liking the piece, which is probably a good sign (though maybe even if I were in a condition of disaffection, or whatever, it might not ‘prove’ much, longer-term). I was hoping to have actual parts for them for this reading, but timing is impractical for that wish; and for our purposes this week, it may not matter any very great deal.

Maria is hard at work on a particularly beautiful project. I am not at liberty to say just what, just at present. But it is a delight to find that she goes from strength to artistic strength.

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