Dark Love
Theodore Wiprud
About this work:
Pat Lipsky’s Black Paintings are extraordinary to me because they open themselves to the viewer over time and convey such powerful emotion in purely abstract terms. In both ways they work like music, and from the first time I saw them, I began thinking of how they might sound. Percussion would clearly be the medium of choice. These paintings deal in color, rhythm, and form--the very qualities in which percussion excels--as opposed to melodic line and functional harmony. These paintings do not suggest narratives, as do those by Victor Hartmann that inspired Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Melody and functional harmony are not in the Black Paintings. They are not representational; they do not illustrate situations or emotions. Instead they simply are; they mysteriously embody mood and emotion with great subtlety and complexity. Their music is both austere and intimate; formal and mercurial; monochrome and polychrome.
Each painting is both an imposing sensory experience and a deep psychological statement. As a triptych, in the order in which Pat painted them, the three convey a powerful inner journey. The first movement, Dark Love, is scored almost completely for metals. The movement is obsessive, given to vertigo, finally overwhelmed by an astonishing, glowing patch of color. The second movement, History, is scored mainly for woods and skins, a warmer palette of sound. A deeper, more regular stratum pulses behind a ruffled surface. The third movement, In Memoriam C.G., includes most of the instruments heard already with the addition of a steel drum. Here the grid is most regular, the colors most jewel-like, the effect like stained glass. In place of the obsessive few pitches of the opening movement are tall, colorful, ringing chords, seeking this painting’s calm, its profound reflection, its awe.
Year composed: 1999
Duration: 00:32:00
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Percussion Ensembles
Instrumentation: 1 Marimba, 1 Xylophone, 1 Vibraphone
Instrumentation notes: Large instrumentation. The first movement is played on metals, the second movement on skins and woods, and the third movement on a combination of both, plus steel drum.