About the creation

The "drama" in this wok represents the conflicts and inner struggle that a man must needs live through – conflicts with the environment and struggles with himself. The work consists of one movement divided into several sections, separated by a kind of "screen" created by the strings. These are the static movements, which are sharply contrasted with the dynamic passages rising to a number of climaxes throughout the work. The personages in the drama are represented by several motifs taken from the first string "screen." They undergo hardly any motivic change in the course of the work: whatever changes may take place are situational. At certain critical moments, something akin to tonal disintegration takes place: the performers are given a few sounds which they are supposed to produce in whatever manner they please – or, in other words, they are given a certain measure of aleatoric freedom to interpret the work. At these points, the conductor's task is to determine the timespan and the integration of the individual sounds into vibrant tone-blocks. The work ends in a mood of silent question. Meditations on a Drama was composed in the winter of 1965-1966, and was awarded the ACUM Prize for 1966-1967. Tzvi Avni