Even more interesting was James Sellars' "Afterwards -- Identity
and Difference," a recomposition and deconstruction of the first movement
of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Sellars undermines every harmonic and structural
procedure of a work so familiar that it has the force of universal law,
and in doing so he inverts every expressive intention. Sellars' orchestration
has a penny plainness that sounds like Virgil Thomson, which in turn suggests
Beethoven (Thomson would have been horrified by this notion); somthing more
vivid and quirky might have been more appropriate to the task. But Sellars
did create a piece you can listen to on its own merits; the interchange
of playfulness and profound seriousness in it is fascinating. Sellars' cultural
commentary is also a cultural object.
Copyright 1996 by The Boston Globe