ROBERT WILSON

“There will be two realities, two landscapes, two scores.
One is MUSICAL and one is VISUAL.
They are together at the same level
Linked in a MULTIMEDIA production.
Listen with your eyes”
Robert Wilson

RELATIVE LIGHT is a music/theatre production conceived and directed by Robert Wilson which is based upon musical selections by four composers: Johann Sebastian Bach, John Cage, Eric Satie and Lou Harrison. Wilson has created a structure, which employs Bach’s famous Chaconne, selections from the Freeman Etudes by John Cage, Eric Satie’s Ogives and Gymnopedie and Lou Harrison’s Polka. These pieces, all performed by violinist Nurit Pacht, are placed within the distinct visual world indicative of Robert Wilson. The musical and visual world will be supported by the use of video projection, an aural environment, and Wilson choreography performed by four dancers.

The Chaconne from Partita II in d minor, is a virtuous cycle of 32 variations (approx. 17 minutes) from a brief theme of four bars.
Since the first publication, composers from Mendelssohn and Brahms to Busoni, Stokowski, Casella and Riccardo Nielson have transcribed this already perfect piece for themselves and for their modern audiences. In this production, the original will be presented.

The second musical element is a series of selections made by Wilson from Cage’s Freeman Etudes. The 32 Freeman Etudes are divided into four books of eight pieces each. The first two books where composed between 1977 and 1980. The remaining two books where not completed until 1990. The Freeman Etudes where composed through an intricate chance technique. Cage utilized chance methods to determine the note, pitch, time, and every other characteristic of the note. The result is a very demanding composition for both the performer and the listener. Cage saw this as a celebration of the ability to do hard work. In an interview in 1983 Cage describes this theme:

“These are intentionally as difficult as I can make them, because I think we’re now surrounded by very serious problems in society, and we tend to think that the situation is hopeless and that it’s just impossible to do something that will make everything turn out properly. So I think that this music, which is almost impossible, gives an instance of the practicality of the impossible.”