ANECDOTE OF THE SPIRIT: ROTHKO CHAPEL
Anecdote of the Spirit created for the Rothko Chapel, premiered at MenilFest May 6, 2017.
Music created by Misha Penton, soprano & concept, and Thomas Helton, double bass.
Misha Penton, soprano and experimental vocal composer, and Thomas Helton, composer and double bassist, created music through spontaneous and improvised compositional techniques, yielding quiet, spacious, beautiful and intense sounds, in keeping with the sacred environment of the Chapel.
The audience was invited to wander in and out of the Chapel for a quiet, introspective, and contemplative experience. “Anecdote of the Spirit” is a direct quote from Mark Rothko, and in full reads: “Art to me is an anecdote of the spirit, and the only means of making concrete the purpose of its varied quickness and stillness.” Rothko’s quote speaks to the inarticulable in art and music: the essential and transformational experience of the work not communicable with descriptive words.
