The world’s coming a part at the seems
to me it’s in the DarkteenAging process pool.
HELP
But how—-now? Sinkholes, swimmingpools
orbitsofboth? (take as needed)
The world’s becoming crowds and dropouts and needs
(rise to them?)
Help?
Homage
Published in January 1st, 2009
Posted by Ben Johnston in Ben's posts
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Credo
Published in December 22nd, 2008
Posted by Ben Johnston in Ben's posts
The more difficult the obstacle, and the more interior its hold , the greater the value of struggling out of its dominance. This is a principle I try to live by, and it is a powerfully humble basis for creating art Any insincerity is painfully evident as is excess of pride in “who I am” [...]
Relevance
Published in December 18th, 2008
Posted by Ben Johnston in Ben's posts
How is it that this orchestra piece, Quintet for Groups, composed in the 1960’s, should in 2008 seem relevant to the world as we experience it now? While in Germany for its rediscovery by the festival orchestra in Donaueshingen I talked to a number of people about this. My purpose in raising this issue now [...]
Dissonance/Consonance, part five
Published in November 16th, 2008
Posted by Ben Johnston in Ben's posts
I remember thinking, as I watched the rehearsing orchestra players and conductor react to the music and to each other, that a very positive atmosphere was growing among all the participants; and this clearly spread to the concert hall staff, as they assisted in helping us composers know how we should proceed when receiving the [...]
Dissonance/Consonance, part four
Published in November 15th, 2008
Posted by Ben Johnston in Ben's posts
The next events were focused on the final rehearsal followed a day later by the performance of Quintet for Groups. The first move in this direction was locating me where I could communicate back and forth with the conductor. The obvious choice, the first row of seats, was occupied by ticketed audience members, who clearly [...]
Dissonance/Consonance, part three
Published in November 13th, 2008
Posted by Ben Johnston in Ben's posts
Even at rehearsals seats were reserved. At one such time there were three of us in wheelchairs and we were all asked to locate as near the left rear entrance to the concert hall as possible but without (1) blocking the aisle, (2) hindering audience members from coming and going to their ticketed seats, (3) [...]
Dissonance/Consonance, part two
Published in November 12th, 2008
Posted by Ben Johnston in Ben's posts
Following the Boulez keynote concert, changing my relationship to that was a challenge as the series of Donaueschingen Festival Events unfolded. I was much aware that active participation by me, with Marc Sabat’s help and my son Ross’s increasingly great participation was an essential first step. We made sure we were, notwithstanding my need to [...]
Dissonance/Consonance, part one
Published in November 12th, 2008
Posted by Ben Johnston in Ben's posts
Wasn’t dissonance emancipated ?
Emancipation should mean freedom from boundaries, no hierarchy : simply equality. Instead it too easily comes to mean something quite unlike that : an enforced equality. At the onset of the 20th centurt Arnold Schoenberg fought that fight but it’s not settled yet. I doubt if I can settle it either, but [...]
Quintet for Groups in Donaueschingen
Published in November 12th, 2008
Posted by Ben Johnston in Ben's posts
The first event I was asked to be sure to attend was a concert composed and conducted by Pierre Boulez. I certainly would have wanted to attend this concert even without being specifically reminded to be there, but I clearly understood that as a composer represented on the orchestra concert my presence at this opening [...]
Quintet for Groups in Donaueschingen and Berlin
Published in November 3rd, 2008
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Premiered in 1967 by the St. Louis Symphony orchestra, Eleazar DeCarvalho conducting, Quintet for Groups emerged an imperfect and highly controversial work whose compositional basis, related to but distinctly different from Stockhausen’s Gruppen ( which at that time I had never heard nor seen) was using a large group (the entire orchestra) as the interaction [...]