A beautiful tribute from Francesco Mastromatteo (DMA ’12) to a lost colleague, Prof. Elliott Antokoletz (1942-2017), Professor of Musicology at the UT Butler School of Music…
“April 2011 That morning was a revelation.
I knocked at the office’s door of Prof. Antokoletz with joy, enthusiasm, fear, desire…and my usual uncertainty about pretty much everything. Prof. Antokoletz, the living legend in music history, and after one semester in his class an hero in my personal life, was sitting humming a twelve tone row….the simple ability which made me falling in love with this bigger than life man. “Professor Antokoletz, I am sorry I bother you, but I have few questions about the Moto Perpetuo in Britten first suite for solo cello, if you have a bit of time…” “Of course, I actually do not know this piece, but let me see”. ” Here you go, I found the cells in this movement, but I really do not understand how they relate and the process of growth and if there is an axis of simmetry or not…” In those days in my life everything needed an axis of simmetry, possibly around C/C#….life seemed manageable only this way. Prof. Antokoletz, scribbled down the cells and gave me back the score, then started to hum again, now with those new cells among papers and books everywhere in his tiny, humble, intensely alive studio. He was now writing sixteen notes, one after another, and I had in my hands the score, he started to write with good pacing for almost 20 measures and kept humming at time…then he turned toward me…”What? Why are you looking at me like that?” I think my jaw was on the floor, and with my mouth wide opened ” well….you are writing Britten’s music as…it is”. “Oh really?…” he giggled…”…well that’s pretty good, he is moving around two axis then, 1 and 3, and finally he arrives to 0 in the coda, this is why this Suite is in C, now we only have to find the spots where he did differently from what I am doing and we found…the genius…”. His light blue shirt looked brighter than usual, his eyes where music to me and I suddenly could go and memorize the piece, I could possess it, I could play it, I could be more alive than ever….”Francesco one more thing. Listen…” He moved closer on his chair, ” None of us can be Bartok or Britten, Casals, or Rostropovich, but neither they can be us… as long as we do our best, as we live at our best. We are all unique. Your life is unique, your music is unique, and it is unique as it is. And… in any case and for anybody on this planet, there is nothing better than the last Beeethoven quartets….humanity reached its pick there, except for when I met my wife…of course…. See you tomorrow, great music, this Brittten…” and he kept humming along, turning away with his smile among his cells, his love for Art, his boundless passion for Life. You will be missed, Prof. Antokoletz, every day, every single day. Bartok will learn a lot from you now. I am sure”
Diana Burgess (BM ’15) appears twice at the 2017 Austin Trail of Lights: first, as member of the Mother Falcon String Trio, at the 4th Annual “
Longhorn Cellos 