Time
2018 | 5 mins | for solo guitar
The effect of time on memory is a constant source of fascination: how unreliable it can be and how we tend to fill the gaps with a nostalgic recreation of the ‘facts’. As Marcel Proust observed: remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were. This is the theme of Stephen Goss’s Time.
As his starting point Goss takes two pieces by Mahler: the Adagietto from the 5th Symphony and Der Abschied from Das Lied von der Erde. The Adagietto has been allowed to decay in the composer’s memory so that only an impression remains – certain kinds of chords, a sense of character, longing and nostalgia. But new connections are made, and when the original Adagietto seems to come to the surface for a moment, it suddenly reminds us of Der Abschied and this is the springboard which triggers a more extended and detailed memory of the song. Eventually this dissolves back into the Adagietto again as its ending is recalled – an eloquent evocation of the beauty of faded memory.
Time was commissioned by Christoph Denoth for the TIME Unwrapped season at Kings Place in London. Christoph gave the first performance on 10th October 2018.
© Christoph Denoth and Simon Heighes
