Program Note

The name “Ghosts Before Breakfast” comes from a 1928 German dadaist film by Hans Richter of the same name. For the life of me I cannot remember how I came across this film but I remember being quite captivated by it. It is a short film, only around 10 minutes in length and has no plot, just a series of seemingly random odd occurrences. Some of these occurrences include hats flying around, a tie untying itself from a man’s neck (to the frustration of the said man), a group of men running up and down stairs, a gun firing at a target that keeps spinning, and many others. The cast of the film included a who's who of the 1920s avant-garde including composer Paul Hindemith (who also wrote the score which was destroyed by the Nazi party), composer Darius Milhaud and his wife Madeleine who herself was an actress and librettist, composer Walter Gronostay (a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg), and creatives Jean Oser and Werner Graeff.

Originally I had intended to write my own accompanying score to the film but I lost interest in this idea and moved on to other projects. When writing this quartet I began to think back to the imagery that initially struck me and I instead decided to write a companion work inspired by the visuals rather than a direct accompanying score.

Performances 

April 27, 2025 John A. Paulson Center, New York University, Manhattan, NY. The Rhythm Method.