Piece explores the stillness of music
Pianist Jenny Lin part of series ‘Riffs and Digressions’
Most of us forget about the space between the notes. But music always begins with silence.
Serenata of Santa Fe will explore that stillness with the pianist Jenny Lin in “Silenced Music” at SITE Santa Fe on Friday, Nov. 15. The concert is part of a series called “Riffs and Digressions” reflecting the artwork at SITE.
The program will open with Selections from Musica Callada (“Quiet Music”), an hypnotic piece by Spanish composer Federico Mompou. The composer wrote: “This music is silent because its audition is internal… Its emotion is secret and does only take a sound shape in its resonances under the huge cold dome of our solitude.”
Hungarian composer György Ligeti’s Selections from Musica Ricercata follows.
“Ricercata” means searched for or thought after.
“Silence was also an integral part of his music,” Serenata artistic director Pamela Epple said. “He avoided the censorship of the Communist Party by hiding; he literally hid. This censorship informed his composing style.”
The first piece is nearly solely comprised of a single, sustained note.
“The music unfolds by adding sustained pitches to each piece,” Epple explained. “Being behind the Iron Curtain was critical to his voice.”
Self-taught Ukrainian composer Valentine Silvestrov was a civil engineer who also studied under the Soviet regime.
“He was under pressure to conform to the Socialist fashion,” Epple said. “He was asked to apologize for walking out of a big composers’ meeting.
“This was also the function of silence.”
Franz Liszt’s Transcendental Étude No. 11, “Harmonies du soir” and his Funérailles complete the program.
“It’s very calm and chordal,” Epple said. “He was very occupied by death. There is a dark theme running throughout his work. It ends in a tragic death march.”