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It takes an exceptional amount of compositional courage to write a piece that moves extremely slowly, if at all; a piece that never arrives anywhere, in fact does not even have a destination.   In our fast-paced world, we want our music, like our conversations, to “get to the point”.   We are goal oriented, constantly in motion, and we want a clear sense of arrival.

In the midst of these quickly moving  musical journeys, a few pieces come along  that ask us to take a different approach to listening, one in which time does not push ahead, and in fact barely seems to exist. 

In Charles Ives’s Unanswered Question, the first chord continues, unmoving, for over 20 seconds.  If this doesn’t seem very long, realize that several of Chopin’s Preludes, Op. 28, are brilliant gems of arch and form, melody and motion, lasting between 25 and 40 seconds in their entirety.   Ives gives us a single chord which is almost as long as an entire Prelude!

Chopin Preludes - Op. 28, no. 1 - played by Martha Argerich

Charles Ives:  The Unanswered Question - 1906

 The first movement of Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs begins with an 8 part canon which moves gradually up through the string sections, leading to the soprano entrance.  This entire canon, with one unchanging theme,  unfolds through different modes for over 13 minutes, melts into the vocal section, then resumes again on its timeless path.  The entire first movement is 27 minutes long, and seems both endless and much too short. 

Henryk Górecki - Symphony Nº3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs). First Movement.

A few weeks before his 13^th birthday, composer Michael Jon Bennett entered this rare world of timelessness to write The Divine Recollection.   He begins with a low G in the double basses, which we cannot hear at first.  His dynamic marking is n, which gradually crescendos to ppp.   The dynamic marking “n” means niente or nothing.   Michael’s piece, therefore, begins with a long silence.  A single note slowly emerges from the double basses, and  lasts several minutes before the cellos join in on another G at the octave.  The duration of this one note is equal to several Chopin Preludes!  By now we, as listeners, understand that something unusual is taking place.  This piece requires a different kind of listening.

Take time from your busy day, and treat yourself to an immersion in this slow-paced masterpiece, which is posted at Michael's VirtualArtists member page.  To really hear this piece, you should set aside fifteen minutes of uninterrupted time, relax and get comfortable, start the piece, then close your eyes.   Listen to The Divine Recollection as you would watch a beautiful sunset – the gorgeous colors sometimes remain stationary, sometimes change slowly and gradually, sometimes disappear, sometimes  return.   We are not trying to arrive anywhere, there is nothing to analyze.  We are simply being still in a place out of time, and remembering ….