Morton Feldman - Durations 3, I-II
Durations 3, for tuba, violin & piano (1961)
I. Slow
II. Very slow
III. Slow
IV. Fast
Ensemble Avantgarde
Durations 3 is probably the most dynamic, and (relatively speaking) the most virtuosic of the five Durations pieces. The overall conception remains the same as with its four counterparts: each note in the score appears as a whole note, and all bar lines and meter indications have been removed. The performers are allowed to determine the length of each note they play, and each performer proceeds at his or her own pace within an overall tempo.
But in Durations 3 Feldman treated the three parts in a "vertical" fashion — that is, he conceived of the chords the three would play first, then adjusted the sound of those chords based, as he put it, on "the weight of the three instruments used." The sound of each chord was "thinned" or "thickened" in order to keep "the image intact," with the instruments often playing in octaves or otherwise sharing pitch material. Unlike the other four pieces of the series, each of which remains at one tempo, Durations 3 is in four movements or sections, their tempos marked "slow," "very slow," "slow," and "fast." The tuba moves freely through both its upper and lower registers, while the violin employs a variety of tone colors, including frequent pizzicati and harmonics. After a spare first section, the second is even more spacious. There are very few notes, but each must be articulated carefully to maintain the delicacy of the ensemble's sound. The third section opens with repeated notes for each instrument that eventually move away from one another. An almost slow motion tuba solo leads into the quick flurry of notes, barely 30 seconds long, of the fourth and final section, one of the few really fast-paced passages in all of Feldman's output. [allmusic.com]
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