Little by little, things empty, like those large bones
we come upon in summer on the beach — bones of horses
or prehistoric animals; they lose their inner stuff, the marrow;
only a solid white remains, like lack of color, with invisible holes,
like that color of rooms in winter, when outside
it's raining hard. At such times, you hold the handle of the door or the handle
of the teacup, not knowing whether you are holding them or they are holding you
or whether they or you can be held. And suddenly, as you try
to drink your tea, you see the porcelain handle between your fingers
by itself — the teacup's missing; you examine this handle: so white,
so weightless, almost like bone — and you find it lovely, shaped
like a half-nought — it seeks its complement, while opposite, on the wall,
from a deep fissure, rises the warm steam of the tea you did not drink.
Yannis Ritsos, "Departures III" from χειρονομίες (1969-70)
Translated by N.C. Germanacos

pgblu - Departures (for Simon Howard)



After the cycle 'Morgue' by Gottfried Benn (1886 – 1956)

The atmosphere of nihilism that ran through the work of many German expressionists was often undercut by the apparent desire for an alternate worldview, or at least the inability to escape from such an alternative. The work of poets like George Trakl flirted as much with the hyper-spirituality of Dostoyevsky as it did the bleak world of nihilism, and this dichotomy gave the poetry an intrinsically humanistic quality.

The work of Gottfried Benn, however, escaped this contradiction.

His work is unremittingly nihilistic and bluntly misanthropic. It revels in its disgust with humanity, and sneers with the wry wit of a sociopath. Benn’s uncompromising aesthetic is simultaneously repulsive and compelling, a bastion of nihilism painted too beautifully to ignore.

This piece is an attempt to grapple with Benn’s distorted beauty, to engage with a worldview that I find repulsive, and an aesthetic often at odds with my own. As such, the music works against the text as much as, if not more than, it works with it, deconstructing and subverting the poetry even as it’s being set. In approaching this cycle, I was looking to force myself into new territory, simultaneously subverting both Benn’s aesthetic and my own, while aspiring to maintain the impact of both.

The performers:
Conductor - Stephen Taylor
Contralto - Bethany Stiles
Flute - Kathleen Winters
Sax - Andrew Somerville
Oboe (dbl English Horn) - Amelia Lee
Clarinet (dbl Bass Clarinet) - Sunjae Kang
Bassoon - Chih-Wei Chang
Piano (dbl celesta) - Tomoko Ono
Harp - Chen-Yu Huang
Percussion - Gavin Ryan, Peter Breithaupt
Violin - Qian Yin, Cristian Neacsu
Viola - Kim Uwate
Cello - Mary Auner
Bass - Adam Davis

Kleine Aster Mvt I - II

Sean Harold loves the X-Files. Some of his favorite episodes are (in no particular order): Bad Blood, Jose Chung’s From Outer Space, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, and Monday. He really hopes they make another movie or even just bring the series back, but only if Monica Reyes isn’t in it. She was just awful.


NOTE: This bio was written before the return was announced. As such, I'm taking full credit for the X-Files coming back. You're welcome.

Kleine Aster Mvt I - II

Sean Harold.

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