Page 38 - Studio International - May 1965

for them a unique place in the general movement to­ (The visual arts might have been supported with this
ward movement. background approach had Vasarely been given a larger
There were many artists represented in the exhibition share. but alas. this master has become an authentic
and it seemed to me that the field was comprehensively master and the new psychology of the new art detests
covered. Optical illusion in its various guises-in con­ the principle of mastery.)
structions as well as paintings-becomes a series of Foss opened the music festival with an excellent
events in Schbffer's sense. These events. although com­ programme. very carefully prepared and seriously
prising different materials and approaches. tend to delivered. Edgar Varese·s Deserts with electronic inter­
neutralize each other. I mean that the visual sensations ludes alternating with orchestral passages 'placed' the
produced by Riley have about the same intensity and new music. Foss detached a lyrical quality not usually
exhaustibility as those produced by the members of the so apparent in Deserts. and toned down the electronic
Group de Recherche de l'Art Visuel. passages. giving Varese·s concept of contrasts a quality
Certain of the artists will qualify as good representa­ of reserve. Audiences familiar with Varese·s work would
tives of 'Art Today·. Others. epigones to the core. will easily have felt the transition as the programme pro­
assuredly drop out. Given the theme of the festival. it is gressed to younger-generation composers.
not surprising that a much publicized vogue wins out. Foss· next choice was a 1961 composition by one of
I question the value of catering to the natural tendency Poland's avant-garde composers. Krysztof Penderecki.
of a large audience to desire novelty, neatly packaged This is a threnody composed of very closely scored
and no questions asked. If the Albright- Knox had string sounds. beginning with a whispered. frenzied
included other art today, the impact of the exhibition, at lament and moving through several climates of
least in terms of the publicity, might have been diluted. emotional and ceremonial grief. Penderecki's use of
but its meaning might have been intensified. The massed violin sounds-their insistent. tremulous quality
questions raised in conflicting art styles are more -relates far more to abstract expressionist painting
than it does to the programmed works on view in 'Art
Mortensen Today·. Where music and painting verged on similar
Sulle A-Om,nanda 1963 responses ten years ago, they seem to have diverged
Relief
100x81 cm again. (Lest I be accused of interpreting one art through
another. I must point out that almost all the major
young composers in the United States and many in
Europe have repeatedly stated their affinity with
modern visual art.)
Morton Feldman. composer of The Swallows of
Salangan (1960). is an American who again and
again has stated his relationship as a composer to the
principles underlying contemporary painting of the
non-optical variety. The delicate. exceedingly close­
toned textures in Swallows can easily be heard as
aural counterparts to certain modern paintings. Foss·
reading of the piece was a bit too close. too
homogeneous and careful. The piece is scored for
orchestra and chorus with the sounds given but the
performers free to select their own durations. Instead
of the expected small areas of heightened sound. given
the openness of Feldman·s directions. the performance
kept close to the disciplined expectations of the con­
ductor. No voice strayed and no instrument sounded
out. breaking free of the stream of subdued sounds. a
Feldman is an exceptionally subtle composer whose
uncanny ear enables him to organize sound in great.
gauzy veils or smooth. wall-like masses. never losing
the tangibility of instruments and performers. Where
many other composers using aleatory techniques dim
the individuality of the instrument (even when. para­
doxically, the freedom they give the instrumentalist
should work toward individuality), Feldman is able to
conserve the values of vitality and. as painters would
say, 'touch'. In this way he avoids the kind of monoton­ •
ous saturation that is initiated by many electronic
serious and more important than any of the answers compositions and by certain optical and kinetic visual
artificially put forward. In this sense. the Museum of products.
Modern Art's exhibition. 'The Responsive Eye·. neither As a properly piqueing experience, Foss brought John
so handsome nor so impressive on the whole. might be, Cage to Buffalo to conduct his Concert for Piano and
in the end. a far more significant exhibition. Orchestra, and pianist David Tudor to perform it. This
In scheduling musical events, Lucas Foss. conductor 1957 work is known to New York audiences, but
of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, was not quite Buffalo was quite taken aback. Booing accompanied
as concerned with up-to-datedness and managed to the performance at regular intervals.
suggest a continuity in the philosophy of modern music. Cage's piece. as he writes. 'is without a master score.
The sense of continuity was lacking in the art exhibition. but each part is written in detail. both specific direc-
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