Around noon on 20 September (1976), during a rehearsal at the Schiller-Theater, the American composer and Professor of Music at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Morton Feldman came to meet Beckett in the small Werkstatt theatre. Feldman, who wore thick horn-rimmed glasses because his eyesight was so poor, related how he met Beckett and their subsequent conversation: I was led from daylight into a dark theatre, on stage, where I was presented to an invisible Beckett. He shook hands with my thumb and I fell softly down a huge black curtain to the ground. The boy [who had escorted him] giggled. There were murmurs. I was led down steps to a seat in the front aisles ... After this unpropitious start, Feldman invited Beckett to lunch at a nearby restaurant, where Beckett only drank a beer. He [Beckett] was very embarrassed - he said to me, after a while: Mr. Feldman, I dont like opera. I said to him, I dont blame you! Then he said to me I dont like my words being set to music, and I said, Im in complete agreement. In fact its very seldom that Ive used words. Ive written a lot of pieces with voice, and theyre wordless. Then he looked at me again and said, But what do you want? And I said I have no idea! He also asked me why I didnt use existing material ... I said that I had read them all, that they were pregnable, they didnt need music. I said that I was looking for the quintessence, something that just hovered. Feldman then showed Beckett the score of some music that he had written on some lines from Becketts script for Film. Showing keen interest in the score, Beckett said that there was only one theme in his life. Then he spelled out this theme. May I write it down? [asked Feldman]. (Beckett himself takes Feldmans music paper and writes down the theme ... It reads To and fro in shadow, from outer shadow to inner shadow. To and fro, between unattainable self and unattainable non-self.) ... It would need a bit of work, wouldnt it? Well, if I get any further ideas on it, Ill send them on to you. — James Knowlson, The Life of Samuel Beckett https://youtube/watch?v=LgDBdIpOVYI
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 04:14:33 +0000