Quartet 1st movement choreography

It is just before dawn. Songbirds are beginning to wake and declare their territories. The bird figures shift vertically as if sitting high in the trees and then as if on the ground searching for nourishment. Wary of predators, watching for their mates or potential mates. It is a quiet scene one that seems to celebrate existence in spite of pain, and death. there are 3 or 4 dancers active, each playing off the sound and rhythm of an instrument: piano, clarinet and violin. There is minimal movement through the space, most of the gestures involve the wings head, neck and the shifting levels of the figures. There is a movement reminiscent of bathing birds fluffing their feathers.

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composer's preface

Subject of the Composition and Commentary on Each Movement

"And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow on his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire...Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land...and, standing on the sea and on the land, he raised his right hand toward Heaven and swore by He who lives forever and ever....saying: 'There will be no more Time; but in the days when the seventh angel is to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled.'"

Revelation of Saint John, Chapter 10

Conceived and composed during my captivity, the Quartet for the End of Time was premiered in Stalag VIII A on 15 January 1941, by Jean Le Boulaire, violin; Henri Akoka, clarinet; Etienne Pasquier, cello; and myself at the piano. The piece was directly inspired by the above passage from Revelation. Its musical language is essentially ethereal, spiritual, Catholic. The modes, realizing melodically and harmonically a sort of tonal ubiquity, bring the listener closer to infinity, to eternity in space. The special rhythms, independent of the meter, powerfully contribute to the effect of banishing the temporal. (But given the awesomeness of the subject, all of the above serves merely as inarticulate and tentative explanation!)

This Quartet comprises eight movement. Why? Seven is the perfect number, the Creation in six days sanctified by the divine Sabbath; the seventh day of this repose extends into eternity and becomes the eighth day of eternal light, of unalterable peace.

abyss of birds

This movement was written first of the eight and it is the one I performed in Atlanta. It is solo clarinet, very demanding with many long sustained notes weaving the wings of liberation. I wanted something simple to compliment the demands of the clarinetist. Something with the feeling of caligraphy and it's delicate brush strokes. I wanted the figure to spend as much time on the ground as in the clouds, human by choice, divine by nature. Images of chicks breaking out of their shells rose in my awareness as I moved through the themes and worked with the costume elements. There was a sense of nesting dolls, decreasing in size as each is opened. Except this had a sense of the innermost doll breaking through each outer doll and expanding, merging with the larger one each time there was a break through...Like moving through the layers of one's energy field. To a higher frequency or way of being in the world, or a larger world. An expanded sense of awareness/consciousness. Composer's notes: "Unaccompanied clarinet. The abyss is Time, with it's dreariness and gloom. The birds are the opposite of Time; they represent our longing for light, for stars, for rainbows, and for jubilant song!"

quartet for the end of time

Abyss of birds, the third movement, composer's notes:

The abyss is Time with its sadness, its weariness. The birds are the opposite to Time; they are our desire for light, for stars, for rainbows, and for jubilant songs.  

The tension created by duality, polar opposites waxing and waning. This particular movement reflects that theme in that the figure spends as much time on floor as in the stars. The slow motion falls, rolling, swirling and ascent repeat with variation. Each fall reflects the opening into a larger reality, a fuller state of awareness or consciousness. With a scarf of wings the image is reminescent of a aboriginal totem pole, figures come to life and moving through space. The original image was a figure with rainbows emiting light from it's hands, and a sense of arcing rays of light. I envisioned the movement of the northern lights across the sky opening and closing, shifting, changing. The brief flutter with the scarf shifting from wings to rope to noose recalls the darkness of the abyss, the sadness and weariness of time and the heaviness of the body, it's dense structure of bones and connective tissues grounding the spirit in the manifest world. The mask accents the eyes and the movement of the eyes. Shifts the identity of the figure from recognizably human to an enigma. The internal rotation of the legs and feet suggest a being unaccostomed to the demands of walking, suggests that this being is more comfortable in another medium, a kinder enviroment, more vulnerable when on land. The feathers of the mask suggest air, the shells indicate water, the costume in motion spirls to creat a vortex which moves around the figure's internal. vertical axis. The falls demand absolute relaxation, complete surrender to gravity, the the magnetic attaraction of the earth, created as our planet turns on it's own axis in space. The ascent which follows needs nothing more than awareness of the rebounding motion of the turning falls and subtle guidance of the rebound. Tension and release, the process of breathing, and singing. The lungs and diaprgm create a vaccum, the air rushes in, the muscles relax and return to their original position. The sound is produced by the changing shapes and the inner structures of the throat and mouth as the air rushes past the vocal cords.

sculpting space

The arm consists of the long humerus bone and the forearm bones, the radius and the ulna. The connection between the humerus and forearm bones forms the elbow joint. The metacarpal bones form the wrist, the carpals form the hand, and the phalanges form the fingers and thumbs. Important bony projections on the humerus serve as locations for muscle and ligament attachments and can also be the sites for injury. When the arm is in the anatomical position (palms up), the medial epicondyle is the rounded part of the bone on the inside of the elbow and the lateral epicondyle is the one on the outside. These two sites are attachment points for the medial and lateral collateral ligaments that hold the humerus to the radius and ulna. They are also the points where many wrist and finger flexor and extensor muscles originate. Since many of these muscles attach at the same site, their tendons (which attach muscle to bone) are often referred to in groups: the common extensor tendons (CET) and the common flexor tendons (CFT).