Noriko Kawai opens the score of Morton Feldman's For Bunita Marcus for the first time

What is it like to play music, to have the music in one's mind, and then in one's arms and fingers, or in one's voice? Where is it? This is a film that watches closely, perhaps to answer that sort of question.

To begin with, concert pianist Noriko Kawai opens a score that she does not know, that of Morton Feldman's serene and lovely For Bunita Marcus.

As Kawai looks at the first notes on the first page, her fingers wander across the keyboard, testing chords, searching for phrases and looking for detail. Her comments are practical rather than theoretical, which seems right, for all that can ever be seen of her process is superficial. What matters is internal, and so invisible.

The goal here is to settle for a glimmer, a glimpse of musical experience, of musical substance.

These are moments that long precede the polished, silken texture of a finished performance.

Is what we witness music? Is music capable of being witnessed?

camera, editing, direction: Adam Roberts

MiniDV 16:9 colour

25 mins

2005