Yellow

When Giacinto Scelsi went through a personal crisis, he spent hours listening to the sound of a single key on his piano. The haunting music he composed afterwards is my favorite music for the Fall.

DSC 7054

Appropriately once in a while the leaves make a concerted effort to display just one color.

DSC 7079

The yellow fall color is particularly difficult to catch, because the leaves fade too quickly when on the ground. This fragility makes yellow ideal to increase tension in an image.

I have difficulties pinpointing what I like about the image below. I keep returning to the pale yellow tree in the center that seems hover over the slanted lines of nearby rocks and trees,
ready to exert more pressure downwards, but not quite doing it yet.

DSC 7040

Fragility is also part of Scelsi’s music. The first time I heard his music was at a concert in Cologne, and one piece was for solo guitar. Half way through the piece a string broke. The player just sat there for a minute, seemingly uncomprehending. When he recovered, he looked into the audience, went up to get a new string, and recommenced playing. This one minute of silence could very well have been part of the music.

DSC 7101

Preying (South Tyrol I)

In 1997, my then-girlfriend and I spent two weeks in the village Rasen-Antholz in South Tyrol. Besides a famous and truly stunning landscape, this region has many surprises. As it is protected on all sides by tall mountain ranges, the climate is milder than one would expect for a mountain village, and allows for the existence of the biotope we are visiting below.

Biotope212

This ominous boardwalk lures the visitor into an unexpected terroir: Instead of harsh mountain meadows, we encounter humid swamps.

Biotope232

Here thrives the sundew, the only carnivorous plant found in South Tirol. Other predators have similar goals.

Biotope243

What better place to spend an early morning in the fog to listen to Giacinto Scelsi’s Preghiera per un’ombra for solo clarinet?

Biotope078