Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) - Maya Deren (Original Music by Feona Lee Jones)
I composed music (String Quartet No. 2) to Maya Deren's silent experimental film, "Meshes of the Afternoon" to create my own twist on the narrative.
Movement 1: 0:35
Movement 2: 4:08
Movement 3: 9:05
Movement 4: 12:18
Other Maya Deren films I've scored:
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoETYvwI7I0
At Land (1944): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvafmE3Lel0
A Study In Choreography For Camera (1945): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3W9yFHaVGI
Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P86jPAHOvG4&ab_channel=FeonaLeeJones
Performed by: Del Sol String Quartet
Banjamin Kreith (Violin 1)
Sam Weiser (Violin 2)
Charlton Lee (Viola)
Katheryn Bates (Cello)
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is a short experimental film directed by wife-and-husband team Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid who also starred in the film. The film's narrative is circular and repeats several motifs, including a flower on a long driveway, a key falling, a door unlocked, a knife in a loaf of bread, a mysterious Grim Reaper–like cloaked figure with a mirror for a face, a phone off the hook and an ocean. Through creative editing, distinct camera angles, and slow motion, the surrealist film depicts a world in which it is more and more difficult to catch reality.
Plot:
A woman sees someone on the street as she is walking back to her home. She goes to her room and sleeps on a chair. As soon as she is asleep, she experiences a dream in which she repeatedly tries to chase a mysterious hooded figure with a mirror for a face but is unable to catch it. With each failure, she re-enters her house and sees numerous household objects including a key, a knife, a flower, a telephone and a phonograph. The woman follows the hooded figure to her bedroom where she sees the figure hide the knife under a pillow. Throughout the story, she sees multiple instances of herself, all bits of her dream that she has already experienced. The woman tries to kill her sleeping body with a knife but is awakened by a man. The man leads her to the bedroom and she realizes that everything she saw in the dream was actually happening. She notices that the man's posture is similar to that of the hooded figure when it hid the knife under the pillow. She attempts to injure him and fails. Towards the end of the film the man walks into the house and sees a broken mirror being dropped onto wet ground. He then sees the woman in the chair, who was previously sleeping, but is now dead.
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As a composer some of my inspirations include: Maya Deren, Ligeti, Terry Riley, Penderecki, Bartok, Elliot Carter, Schnittke, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Chen Yi, Tan Dun, Elliot Carter, George Crumb, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, Toru Takemitsu, Alan Hovhanes, Jaap Blonk, Meredith Monk, Bernard Herrmann, Cecil Tayler, Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett, Yoko Ono, Robert Ashley, Sonic Youth, Tarkovsky, Kenn Russell, David Lynch, Stan Brakhage, Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Adam Elliot, Bernard Herrmann, David Raksin, Ennio Morricone, Cliff Martinez, Bauhaus, Oingo Boingo, Devo, Talking Heads, Gary Numan, Love & Rockets, Wire, PIL, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, David Wise, Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Swans, Slayer, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Bjork, Frank Zappa, and John Zorn.
BIOGRAPHY
Feona Lee Jones currently lives in Santa Cruz, where she works as a freelance composer, pianist, and educator. As a composer and pianist, she continues to explore her own musical language, influenced by classical, jazz, North Indian classical, avant-garde film, experimental theatre, and electronics. Her music has been performed in the United States, Iceland, and Finland. She has been commissioned by prestigious ensembles, organizations, and artists such as the Del Sol String Quartet, Composers Inc., Awesome Orchestra, The Humane League, Opera on the Spot, Luger Hofmann-Engl, and Invoke String Quartet. Never satisfied with a single medium, she has worked in concert music, film music, interactive games, and most recently, opera.
ARTIST STATEMENT
As a composer, I strive to cross the cultural sound barrier, to erase existing boundaries between modern and ancient, East and West, masculine and feminine, physical and spiritual. Challenging norms and experimenting with possibilities in the sonic realm is at the core of my work as an artist. I hope to bridge disciplines working with and across disciplines. I avoid stereotypical ways of working with these media and have found my voice as a composer unifying them. Like most art forms, I believe the function of music is to create an experience, so that each work evokes a new conclusion, and is dynamic and evolving in nature.
