Saturday, October 8, 2011

Carter Interpreted


American composer Elliott Carter (below) is 102 years old. He spoke at the Guggenheim Museum in New York last weekend when the same selections from his chamber music were used by two different choreographers to create new dances for the museum's Works & Process series.



Carter talked at the Guggenheim about the influence of Balanchine on his music. I was dumbstruck to read that Carter first saw Balanchine's work on stage in Paris 75 years ago. It made him think about connections, he said. Balanchine made him realize that he didn't need to use silence to connect different movements, that silence could be part of the movements.

Photo at top is from With Thoughtful Lightness by Emery LeCrone. It Makes Me Nervous was the title of Avichai Scher's companion piece. Short video interviews with the choreographers (plus rehearsal footage) can be seen here and here.