Score Salon:
Tom Baker on Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel

September 10, 2002 at Bad Animals

The Rothko Chapel is a spiritual environment created by the American painter Mark Rothko (1903-1970) as a place for contemplation where men and women of all faiths, or of none, may meditate in silence, in solitude or celebration together. For this chapel, built in 1971 by the Ménil Foundation in Houston, Texas, Rothko painted fourteen large canvasses.

John and Dominique de Ménil asked composer Morton Feldman to write a composition as a tribute to Rothko to be performed in the chapel the following year. The result is a strangely rhapsodic work for viola, celeste, percussion, soprano and chorus that, along with its obvious beauty, also manages to take into account the physical space for which it was written.

Feldman said of the work:

"To a large degree, my choice of instruments (in terms of forces used, balance and timbre) was affected by the space of the chapel as well as the paintings. Rothko's imagery goes right to the edge of his canvas, and I wanted the same effect with the music - that it should permeate the whole octagonal-shaped room and not be heard from a certain distance. The result is very much what you have in a recording - the sound is closer, more physically with you than in a concert hall.

The total rhythm of the paintings as Rothko arranged them created an unbroken continuity. While it was possible with the paintings to reiterate color and scale and still retain dramatic interest, I felt that the music called for a series of highly contrasted merging sections. I envisioned an immobile procession not unlike the friezes on Greek temples."

Tom Baker moderated the evening's discussion. Tom has been a prominent composer and performer in Seattle since arriving in 1994. As co-founder of the Seattle EXperimental Opera (SEXO) and curator of the Seattle Composers' Salon, he is dedicated to composing, producing, and promoting the new music for which the region is fast becoming known. Tom's works have been performed throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Europe. He has been guest conductor for the Seattle Creative Orchestra, composer-in-residence for the Esoterics, and has received awards from the Jack Straw Foundation, the Washington State Arts Commission, and Artist Trust. Tom completed his Doctorate of Musical Arts in 1996 at the University of Washington and has studied composition with Chinary Ung and John Rahn.

For study, Tom suggested the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus/California EAR Unit recording of Rothko Chapel on New Albion records, which also contains a recording of Felman's equally-intriguing Why? Patterns.

Capitol Music Center is the official sponsor of the SCA Monthly Score Salon.

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