What was the original violin piece like?
I was at a performance for John Cage in Los Angeles, and Morty was supposed to come out and read something, and John announced that Morty had recently died. I think very highly of his music, so I wrote a piece in his memory. It was based on the letters of Feldman’s name, but I can’t remember how I did it now. I remember the first sound is the F natural on the D string and the F sharp high up on the A string, and the G natural is the harmonic on the G string, which if you push down you get an A flat. So the whole piece is a sort of expanding process. Once I got that sound texture on the violin the whole piece became clear. How was the orchestral version received? Very well, I think. My friend Radu Malfatti came along to the concert, and he liked the first piece, the Feldman piece, but not the second. Maybe he’s right. I’ll have to wait to listen to the recording of it when I get back to Montréal. What kind of practical difficulties did you encounter with the other piece? What Can Be Sai
