“Time is a funny thing,” as one of the more philosophically-inclined Viennese characters so wisely observed in Richard Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavalier.
Der Rosenkavalier had its premiere in 1911, and coincidentally, on today’s date that year, Viennese composer Anton von Webern completed one of the shortest orchestral works ever written — the fourth of his Five Pieces for Orchestra, which lasts about 20 seconds time. It’s so short, it takes longer to describe the music than to actually hear it!
Webern was attempting to render down the extravagant style of late-Romantic composers like Strauss and Mahler into its quintessence — a haiku-like concentration of gesture and color, the musical equivalent of a Japanese painting of just a few deft brush strokes across a blank canvas, with more implied than actually shown.
In the same spirit, but at the opposite end of the time spectrum, is the work of American composer Morton Feldman, who holds the record for composing some of the longest pieces ever written. Feldman was friends with, and inspired by, painters of the so-called New York School, including Mark Rothko and Philip Guston. A 1984 work by Feldman is titled For Philip Guston, and, in complete performance, it’s a piece that runs about four hours.
Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Der Rosenkavalier: Suite; New York Philharmonic; Lorin Maazel, conductor; DG 7890
Anton Webern (1883-1945): No. 4, from Five Pieces for Orchestra; Ensemble InterContemporain; Pierre Boulez, conductor; DG 437786
Morton Feldman (1926-1987): For Philip Guston; The California EAR Unit; Bridge 9078