4/30/08

Prescient and Archaic! Yeah!

Today, having some fun searching the NY Times archives--we're getting to that point in the concert season where classical music reviews and articles begin to slow down a bit--I stumbled across one of the most prescient thoughts ever, written in 1988. Take a step back, and it could even be the most succinct and eloquent mission statement for our little project.

It is a fanciful thought, but perhaps our century is feeling the pressure to tidy its house, settle on its strongest languages and discard its detritus while it still has time.

Ironic, because it’s also a jab on Morton Feldman and Olivier Messiaen.
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4 comments:

Sator Arepo said...

How very, very ironic. And hilarious. Although we often oppose him, Mr. Wooden Shoes is quite the prose stylist.

1988...So, I guess he was...only 110 when he wrote that?

Empiricus said...

And only one year after Feldman died, who was 18 years younger than Carter, at the time.

Empiricus said...

Also, for those of us who were still watching Growing Pains and didn't care one rat's ass about the Times, there were a lot, and I mean a lot, of fond articles about Morton Feldman around his death.

Anonymous said...

This is like a comic book! The evil villain summons his eventual rivals by an errant stroke of the pen, only to be realized some twenty years later-- that line was his undoing...

SA & Emp: Detritus Twins Power Activate!

Emp: Form of... Litote!
CA: Form of... Chiasmus!