Although it's very hard to describe this experience, which involved my witnessing of the re-creation by Alice Myers of a lost painting, the performance of mystical music written by a talented composer whose life had been crushed by fascism, and deeply moving interpretive choreography by a dear colleague, it was wonderful to be part of it! My own contribution was mainly in connecting the animation to the music. In that respect, this was a familiar role for me, since in 2003 Alice and I had collaborated on a technically similar project; the animation and projection based on paintings by Swiss artist Etienne Delessert for a performance by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra of Ravel's "Ma Mère L'oye." In both projects, we brought our intellectual heritage of traditional art forms into new digital contexts. Alice's work was based on the famous Medieval panoramic mural painting from the interior walls of St. Mary’s church in the town of Lübeck in Northern Germany, where Hugo Distler (the composer of the Totentanz) served as organist. 24 human characters from all walks of life were shown cavorting with skeletal figures in a poignant assertion of the transitory nature of human life. Although the painting was destroyed during WW II, Alice was able to work with Danish scholar Martin Hagstrøm, who made available detailed black and white photographs of the painting that had been taken before the war, as well as color sketches that had been made into lithographs during the 19th century. After Alice recreated a full color version, forming a very large digital image, we used the characters in the image, and the panorama itself, as the basis of a series of animations coordinated with Distler's music and Wendy Shifrin's choreography. During the choral passages in Distler’s composition (conducted by Christine Gevert), characters come out of the painting after they are summoned by the narrator.
The experience was deeply moving for everyone, including the performers and artists as well as the audience. During the preparations for the premiere of the production, I was teaching a section of First-Year Seminar at Simon's Rock. The pieces we were working on all seemed to explore the same theme - our awareness of mortality is deeply connected to the path of the Examined Life. In particular, I kept thinking about a passage from Antigone - "the dead make the longest demands." In my own imagination, I kept thinking about my personal debt to previous generations of musicians (J.S. Bach, Charlie Parker, etc.), and the awesome legacy of their artistic perfection.
I also found the theme of mortality ironic in some ways, considering the ideas of Ray Kurzweil, who among others has pointed out that humanity is pushing back the boundaries of life and death along with the evolution of artificial intelligence and its (possible) eventual merger with organic intelligence. In a similar way, the yhe project is enjoying a (kind of) technological afterlife. The first performances were given in Great Barrington MA on Nov. 9 and in Lakeville CT on Nov 10. We will present a video of the performance in March 2008 in Florence, Italy, at the annual convention of the European Cultural Association of the Danse Macabre. The dance continues!
