Morton Feldman - Neither

Neither is a one act 'opera', for soprano and chamber orchestra, using a 'libretto' from Samuel Beckett. The words are indecipherable - they hang in the air and never resolve, complementing the music which shifts, flows and ebbs. According to Feldman, every line of Neither "is really the same thought said in another way. And yet the continuity acts as if something else is happening." It's interesting to compare this to Boulez's idea of the text which is constantly changing and which never ends the same way.

to and fro in shadow from inner to outer shadow

from impenetrable self to impenetrable unself by way of neither

as between two lit refuges whose doors once neared gently close, once away turned from gently part again

beckoned back and forth and turned away

heedless of the way, intent on the one gleam or the other

unheard footfalls only sound

till at last halt for good, absent for good from self and other

then no sound

then gently light unfading on that unheeded neither

unspeakable home

Eirian Davies (soprano)

SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg

Conductor - Kwamé Ryan

Salzburg Festival, 1997