Description
“Untitled No. 4” was commissioned by the Beethovenfest Bonn, and is scored for four voices and string quartet. It was written for and is dedicated to the Hilliard Ensemble and the Arditti String Quartet.
The text, in classical, pre-Christian Latin, consists of two sets of fragments by Ovid, one describing a summer, the other a winter landscape. The first takes place in Sicily, the second during Ovid‘s exile in Romania. The music is not intended to be a programmatic description of the words, and in order to demonstrate this the two sets of fragments are heard simultaneously. The text is to be seen not as central to the music, but as one of many elements, such as fossils, debris or coal might be regarded when found in rock strata.
It is a quality of music and some of the visual arts that they do not communicate ideas in the same area as words. The substance is different. I prefer to allow the music to make a statement on its own terms and to avoid as much as possible the descriptive (including titles). The American artist Clyfford Still wrote, “My paintings have no titles because I do not wish them to be considered illustrations or pictorial puzzles. If properly made visible they speak for themselves.”
Referring to one of his works, Jackson Pollock stated, “Any attempt on my part to say something about it, to attempt explanation of the inexplicable, could only destroy it.” I believe that to attempt to describe the impulse or “inspiration” behind a work is to detract from its enigmatic potential and undermine the directness of its power.
