Only the bass line is notated all of the other parts are derived from it in ways specified by the composer. The instrumentation is open and the piece can be performed by any number of players, though usually 8-10. This treatment is the recitation of the text, a few words at a time, over a driving pentatonic bass line of steady 16th notes. The act of reading and rereading finally led me to the idea of a musical treatment.” It seemed that I was trying both to capture a sense of the physical pres- ence of the writer and, at the same time, to unlock a hidden meaning from the simple but ambiguous language. “As I read it, I was impressed both by the poetic quality of the text and by its cryptic irony,” Rzewski wrote. i read much, exercise, talk to guards and inmates, feeling for the inevitable direction of my life. i am deliberate – sometimes even cal- culating – seldom employing histrionics except as a test of the reactions of oth- ers.
in the indifferent brutality, incessant noise, the experimental chem- istry of food, the ravings of lost hysterical men, i can act with clarity and meaning. As lovers will contrast their emotions in times of crisis, so am i dealing with my environment. there are doubtless subtle surprises ahead but i feel secure and ready. i am in excellent physical and emotional health. it’s six months now and i can tell you truthfully few periods in my life have passed so quickly. I think the combination of age and the greater coming together is responsible for the speed of the passing time. A book of letters he wrote from prison was posthu- mously published, and Rzewski took his text for Coming Together from Melville’s letter of (which was first published separately in a magazine): He was shot and killed during the retaking of the complex. Melville pleaded guilty to conspira- cy and bombing the Federal Office Building in Manhattan and was transferred to Attica, where he became one of the leaders of the prison rebellion.
#Malist meaning series#
He became increas- ingly active in political demonstrations, which escalated into a series of bombings in 1969. One of those was Samuel Melville (born Grossman he borrowed Melville from the American novelist), a draftsman who became radicalized by apartheid when his company put him to work on new bank offices in South Africa. At least 43 people died, including 33 prisoners. Four days of tense negotiations followed, culminating in the storming of the prison by state police as ordered by Gover- nor Nelson Rockefeller. That was an eventful year in a tumultuous era, and in September, a riot broke out at the At- tica Correctional Facility in upstate New York, demanding improved health care, sanitation, and food, as well as an end to beatings. In 1971, Rzewski returned to New York from his period in Italy.
He continues to perform and was the soloist in the world premiere of his Piano Concerto at the BBC Proms in 2013, with Ilan Volkov conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. In Italy in the 1960s, he formed Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum, and the group became well-known for pioneer- ing work in live electronics and improvisa- tion. He teaches composition himself, on the faculty of the of the conservatory in Liege, Belgium he has also taught at other institutions in Europe and the U.S., includ- ing CalArts and UCSD.Īlthough he did not consider music seriously as a career until college, Rzewski did study piano from early youth and is a brilliant performer. He also studied with Luigi Dallapiccola in Italy and Elliott Carter in Berlin, and became friends with Christian Wolff, John Cage, and David Tudor. A Massachusetts native himself, he studied at Harvard with Randall Thompson and Walter Piston, fol- lowed by graduate work at Princeton with Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt. Rzewski’s early men- tors and colleagues present a highly distinguished cross- section of 20th- century music.
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