September 14, 2010

HYPERION
HAMELIN, Marc-Andre: Etudes, Little Nocturne, Con intissimo sentimento (excerpts), Theme and Variations (Cathy’s Variations)
Hamelin, Marc-Andre, piano

NONESUCH
REICH, Steve: Double Sextet, 2×5
eighth blackbird • Bang on a Can

September 21, 2010
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
HAHN, Hilary – Violin: Jennifer Higdon and Peter Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra • Vasily Petrenko, conductor

SONY MASTERWORKS
PÄRT, Arvo: Stabat Mater, Symphony No. 3, Cantique
Rundfunk Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Kristjan Jarvi, conductor

September 28, 2010
NAXOS 20TH CENTURY ITALIAN CLASSICS
CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO, Mario: Shakespeare Overtures Vol. 1

NAXOS CHORAL
PENDERECKI, Krystof: Credo, Cantata in honorem Almae Matris Universitatis lagellonicae sescentos abhinc annos fundatae

NAXOS ORCHESTRAL
BARBER, Samuel: Complete Orchestral works – 6 CD BOXED SET
Royal Scottish National Orchestra • Marin Alsop, conductor

PIAZZOLLA, Astor: Sinfonia Buenos Aires, Aconcagua – Concerto for Bandoneón and Small Orchestra, Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)

NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS CHAMBER MUSIC
PISTON, Walter: String Quartets Nos 1, 3 & 5
Harlem Quartet

COATES, Gloria: String Quartet No 9, Sonata for Violin Solo
Lyric Suite ‘Split the Lark – and you’ll find the Music’
Kreutzer Quartet • Roderick Chadwick, piano

NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS ORCHESTRAL
GALLAGHER, Jack: Diversions Overture, Berceuse, Sinfonietta for String Orchestra,
Symphony in One Movement: Threnody
London Symphony Orchestra • JoAnn Falletta, conductor

ZWILICH, Ellen: Millennium Fantasy, Images, Peanuts® Gallery
Jeffrey Biegel, Reid Gainsford, Heidi Louise Williams, piano • Florida State University Symphony OrchestraAlexander Jiménez, conductor

NAXOS ROBERT CRAFT SCHOENBERG EDITION • 12
SCHOENBERG, Arnold: String Quartets Nos 3 & 4, Phantasy for violin and piano
Fred Sherry String Quartet • Rolf Schulte, violin • Christopher Oldfather, piano

NAXOS CHAMBER MUSIC
STOCKHAUSEN, Karlheinz: Mantra
Xenia Pestova, Pascal Meyer, piano • Jan Panis, electronics

MILHAUD, Darius: Suite, Scaramouche, Violin Sonata No 2, Sonatina
Le Printemps, Cinéma-Fantaisie d’après Le Boeuf sur le toit
Frédéric Pélassy, violin • Jean-Marc Fessard, clarinet • Eliane Reyes, piano

JACOB, Gordon: Chamber Music with Recorders
Suite for recorder and string quartet, Sonatina for treble recorder and harpsichord, Sonata for treble recorder and piano, Consort for Recorders, Variations for treble recorder and harpsichord, Trifles
Annabel Knight, recorders • Robin Bigwood, harpsichord & piano • Maggini String Quartet
Members of the Fontanella Recorder Quintet

NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS KEYBOARD
HARRIS, Roy: Complete Piano Music
Piano Sonata, Little Suite, American Ballads Sets I & II, Piano suite, Toccata
Variations on an American Folk Song, Untitled, Scherzo, A Happy Piece for Shirley, Orchestrations
Geoffrey Burleson, piano

NAXOS LATIN-AMERICAN CLASSICS KEYBOARD
PIAZZOLLA, Astor: Best Tangos
Las Cuartos Estanciones Porteñas, Balada para un Loco, Milonga del Ángel, La Muerte del Ángel Resurrección del Ángel, Chau Paris, Retrati d’Alfredo Gobi, Adiós Nonino, La Misma Pena, Picasso Guardia Nueva, Sentido Unico
Aquiles Delle-Vigne, piano

NAXOS ORGAN ENCYCLOPEDIA
MESSIAEN, Olivier: Livre du Saint Sacrement
Paul Jacobs, organ

Note: This is by no means a complete list of new releases by contemporary composers.  If you have more info for future dates, please contact us.

Chamber Music for the Inner Ear
Kitty Brazelton
CRI, 2002

New York composer-performer Kitty Brazelton brings together many different styles and genres in her late works of the 20^th century. This CRI album presents a diverse selection of her creative and exploratory work from the last decade of the last century.

Come Spring! (1996) for brass quartet is the most traditional instrumentation on this album with two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba. Written for and performed by the Manhatten Brass Quintet, the work explores intense sonorities, extended techniques in a horn solo as well as percussive effects on the horn and tuba and culminates in a final movement improvisatory punk polyrhythmic buildup to a rave-like climactic group scream. To achieve all this with five brass instruments validates Brazelton’s plaintive statement: “Why doesn’t the rock world recognize a wall of brass is as hormonal as a Marshal stack?”

R (1998) includes Brazelton as singer in a textless work for voice, electric 5-string violin, guitar, double bass and bongos. Inspired by a 1987 MIDI computer improvisation, the work has a floating half-conscious dreamlike feel with a haunting melody in the electric violin augmented by a surreal vocal part.

Sonar Como Una Tromba Larga (To Sound Like a Great Waterspout) (1998) is my favorite work on this album. For trombone and tape, this work was composed for trombonist Chris Washburn. The tape (produced at the Columbia University Computer Music Center) uses the sounds of Washburn playing trombone as well as his breathing and rehearsal comments. The result is an exquisite and unique sonic portrait of a versatile instrument and talented performer.

Called Out Ol’ Texas (1994) is an anagram of the instrumentation: alto sax and cello. The work employs four visual models of duality and George Crumb-like experimental notation. This duet presents an unusual sonorous blend in a semi-improvisational interplay of contrasting ideas.

Sonata for the Inner Ear (1999) is an octet composed for and premiered (at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art) by the Los Angeles based California EAR Unit. Scored for flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, marimba, expanded drum set and two keyboardists on piano, electric organ and sampler the work is set in three movements that represent a macro treatment of the sonata form. Where we would normally find the elements of the sonata form within one movement, exposition, development and recapitulation are the movements in this work. Exposition presents a Bartokian first theme in the flute that transforms and moves through the piano to a peak of energy that gives way to a jazz-like second theme in the bass clarinet. Development consists of improvisatory writing for the drum set, bass clarinet, and electric organ followed by two short fugues and closed down with a serene flute solo embellished with improvised whistletones. Recapitulation starts with an introduction for solo improvised sampler and then falls into the traditional form of a recap, presenting the two themes of the first movement with tonal shifts to bring the work to a convincing close.

Despite the fact that some of the jazz and fusion references were too blatant for my taste, I found this collection of works to be a fascinating exploration of the potential of modern acoustic and electronic sonorities. With improvisation written in to most of the works, compositional development is trumped by sonic exploration. The blending of styles and genres are generally very effective and display the maturity of Brazelton’s style and confidence in her intentions as a creative artist.

There is no doubt these pieces are performance pieces. All of the works on this album (with the exception of R) were written for specific performers or ensembles, taking advantage of known strengths and catering to individual styles. The recordings are excellent, but to hear and see these works performed live would be the ultimate experience with Brazelton’s music.

I had the opportunity to meet Brent Michael Davids this past summer at the Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Symposium. His music is highly provocative and gives us a small insight to his cultural heritage. Brent is an active composer residing in Minnesota and has just spent a couple of months in Arizona teaching American Indian youth how to compose.

This interview with Brent Michael Davids is the second in the Contemporary Composer Interview series exclusive to New Music Forum.

First off I would like to thank you, Brent, for agreeing to this interview. The first question I have for you is how did you first get into music?

I can’t even remember when I first heard anything, the origin has gone out of my memory, or I was not even conscious of it when it occurred. I started piano at 8 because my parents wanted me to, and composing at 16 because I wanted to after a new course offering at my Chicago high school called ‘music theory.’ I took it, and found I was good at it, and it was cool to learn that certain rules had been created for composing which I had not known could exist. I was naive back then about composing, it never occurred to me to think of composers. Like when we’re young living in the city, sometimes we don’t know where milk really comes from until we get older because we just go to the store and watch people buying it in cartons. I thought we went into the band room, pulled sheet music from the folders and there it was. But eventually I started asking, where did this come from? And the realization of composers writing this stuff intrigued me. I heard a recording in my junior year in the band room during lunch hour, which hooked me; it was Black Angels by George Crumb. Night of the “Electric Insects” is the movement that hooked me, I was amazed that music could actually sound like its title, not merely allude to it. I just had to figure out how Crumb did that, and I started my trek into the composing world right on the spot. My overall personal trek is a quest to figure things out. In the earlier years, about 11 years or so, the trek was figuring out how people created the things I heard and that intrigued me, and how I could use that knowledge to voice my own music. I would search out things that sounded different than the massive usual musical offerings, and try to figure it out. I wanted to hear the unusual. Now though, it is more about how to find my own voice in what I’m doing. After years of searching and copying and figuring out, I’m looking more into my own voice ands what makes me unique and doing that instead.

You’re an American Indian composer who comes from the Mohican tribe. You’ve written some very interesting works like PauWau Symphony and Last of James Fenimore Cooper. How big of a role does your background play in the music you write?

It is everything to me. If a person cannot write from their own culture, whose culture CAN they write from? All music is voiced in a particular way; there is no such thing as universal music or non-cultural music. I’ve heard people say “music is the universal language” but that is not true. What we call “music” in the west only exists in the conception of the west. In other cultures, such as American Indian cultures, there is traditionally no such thing as music. In the west, “music” is separated out into its own sphere of conception, apart from dance, apart from painting, apart from healing or medicine. In the west, a dance is a dance and not music. A sculpture is not a painting, etc. A great western schism happens maybe from the enlightenment period and the west is still trying to recover from it. From American Indians, the music category does not exist in that same narrow way. We have no music traditionally, but we do songs and ceremonies, which are not the same as “music.” All my works are about me and my views and my life, I am voicing my concerns in every sound of it. I am Mohican and what I create is too. To be anything else, or to buy into that universalistic myth, would be to sell myself short. I prefer to be who I really am, not an imitation of someone else.

Who have you studied composition with?

Paul O. Steg at Northern Illinois University. He passed away now, but was a walking encyclopedia of new music, and an amazingly talented and sensitive teacher. I also studied with Chinary Ung at Arizona State University. I studied orchestration with Jan Bach (NIU) and Randall Shinn (ASU), and jazz arranging with Frank Mantooth (NIU) and John Barry (ASU). I studied electronic music with Joe Pinzaroni (NIU) and Glen Hackbarth (ASU), and film scoring with several composers in Los Angeles through Redford’s Sundance Institute.

Which composers (aside from your teachers) influenced your music when you began composing?

George Crumb for his artistic scores and creative sounds. Bartok for his organization. Mahler for his passionate writing. Beethoven for his grandness. Mozart for his operatic interludes (my favorite Mozart music are the small transitions between the arias and recits). Powwow singers, ceremonial singers, and all my friends. It is the same today as when I started.

You’ve said that music is an inherent part of your life and culture. What has been the response from your tribe in taking your music and putting it on the concert stage?

Although I’m almost sure most of my relatives do not understand exactly what I am doing in the music itself, you know “musically,” they do understand the intent of what I’m doing. There’s a connection in that way. I think any Indian from any tribe can get what I’m doing that way too, even if they listen to Country, Western or Powwow Songs. Indians today live in a weird place sometimes, defining and redefining what it means to be Indian today, or Mohican, and making sense of the community we create together as a people. That endeavor includes relating to others in the world not blocking others out or pushing them away. So, my music is mostly seen as my voice in the world, and perhaps a tribal voice in the world.

Describe for me the experience of having your first piece performed live.

I was kinda scared but not too scared. I knew from the get-go that what I was doing was unusual but I also knew it was a good thing. I knew very few musicians my age were composing written music for a large symphonic band. I conducted it, which may have been a mistake, haha, but was a good experience. I screwed it up actually. I got to the conductor’s platform, stepped up, raised my arms quickly and instantly waved the first downbeat — but I was too fast. Half the band did not even have their instruments up and ready to play. So a sloppy insecure sound meandered out from the group. I quickly realized my mistake, turned around to the audience and said “That was my fault, not theirs” and laughed. Then I did it right, putting up my arms, waiting for the musicians to be ready, and THEN gave them the properly anticipated downbeat. The whole experienced reminded me that I was not alone in my composing, I needed to join others in it, and that has stuck with me ever since. Composing is not and should not be a solitary thing.

What do you consider to be your best experience as a composer?

I’ve had lots of great experiences, and being involved with other artists is probably what I think of first. Joking around with Joffrey Ballet dancers, laughing with the Kronos Quartet, donning fake coonskin caps with the Miro Quartet, telling silly stories with Chanticleer, playing flute with Dale Warland Singers, meeting other composers at conferences and workshops, like Oregon Bach Festival, Sundance Institute, etc. I am a social creature at heart!

What are your current projects?

I just completed a new work for Chanticleer, which premiered in France recently, called The Un-Covered Wagon. It’s a new twist on the old Hollywood epic western, giving the Indian point of view on those events. Also, I am working on what I think is the first All-Indian opera, The Trial of Standing Bear, written completely by Indians — both libretto and music — with Indian singers in every role. It is a slow-going project but is progressing steadily. I’m going to start writing an interesting work for String Quartet this winter, just because I want to. I’m calling it The Tinitis Quartet and it will be based on that particular ear infliction. I’m also interested in getting together with some of my Indian actor friends and creating another comedy play. And, I just finished an audition to possibly score a movie for TV that I hope goes my direction. One never knows about such things until they happen however. Sometimes composerly experiences are very much “hurry-up-and-wait” episodes.

Brent, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I have just one final question for you. What advice would you give to young and emerging composers?

Thanks for this interview Brian. My best advice to any composer, young or old, green or seasoned, is don’t give up! There are many many people in a composer’s life that will not understand what it is you are trying to do, so do not fret over them understanding it. Sheesh, composers ourselves do not entirely know what it is we are doing, so how can others without any driving interest in composing really grasp it? They cannot. The best we can hope for is to keep doing what we want to do, try what we want to try, and hopefully one or two people in our company will “get it.” And, hopefully they will be rich and can donate lots of cash to the endeavor, haha. Another thing is to find a good teacher that let’s our own voice speak. Teachers that turn out little replicas of the teacher, following a certain formula (i.e., serial die-hards, etc.) are not good teachers. A teacher should ask students to try everything and give assignments in things that the student would not necessarily attempt unless prompted by a teacher to do so (i.e., serialism, etc.). But these should be encouragement, not rules, designed to open up other ways of thinking and feeling our way through music, in a search to put forth our own voice. My best advice is to follow your heart in composing — and life — and try to be smart about it, be “awake” in the world. There are plenty of composer who can craft pieces, they are good craftspeople but have no real distinctive voice. I call them hack writers. They can write jazz chords, or neo-classical sound-a-likes, or pretty songs. But what else are they saying in their works? Where is their voice in all of it? It is lost in technique, buried under rules of how proper music “ought to” sound, deluged under an ocean of other people’s ideas and techniques. It is a waste of good craft and good technique. I figure that if I am going to write a piece, put all that work into it, I want the work to say something meaningful beyond the music, not just become a pretty or tear-jerking song. I want more of a purpose for the work I do. Any good composer worth their weight can compose a piece. The important pieces however, are the ones that DO something, not just look or sound pretty. Be relevant! If you tell a story, tell a meaningful one! Know who you are and let that be your guide.

More information about Brent Michael Davids can be found on his website: www.brentmichaeldavids.com

Brian Bice is the co-owner and content manager of New Music Forum.

We wish you all the best and hope to see you again in the future!

Tonight’s Program:
Paul Hembree – Passion for soprano, clarinet, percussion and bass
Peter Lane – Aeromancer for bassoon and electronics
Helena Michelson – Romance for alto flute and piano
Jean Ahn – Berkeley Arirang for piano and electronics

INTERMISSION

Bruce Bennett – Translucent Night for trumpet and electronics
Hubert Ho – Meccanico for piano
John Bilotta – Trifles, Final Scene a chamber opera

Postcard for the 2nd concert of the 8th Annual Festival of Contemporary Music

Rating: ★★★★★

Hilary Hahn’s latest recording is one that is not to be missed.  The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen joins her on this recording.  Ms. Hahn makes a seemingly unlikely pairing of two concertos by two major composers of the early 20th Century.  Arnold Schoenberg and Jean Sibelius.  They are two of the more diametrically opposed composers from the first half of the 20th Century.  However, upon listening to these works and learning more about how these pieces came to be, the pairing may actually be a logical choice.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was born in Germany, fathered the serialist movement and later immigrated to the United States as the Nazi regime came into power.  Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) was born in Finland, and began his musical life as a concert violinist.  While in college he began studying composition.  The allure of composing caused him to set aside his violin.

So why put these two composers, much less these compositions on the same recording?  The development of the two concerti contrast greatly.  Schoenberg began work on his Violin Concerto in 1935, when the venerable composer was nearly 60 years old.  This piece was initially conceived for his brother-in-law Rudolf Kolisch.  Incidentally, this was to be Schoenberg’s first major composition since settling in Los Angeles.  Upon completion of this piece Schoenberg gave a copy of the score to one of his new colleagues at UCLA, violinist Jascha Heifetz (1901-87).  Heifetz returned the music commenting it was unplayable unless the violinist has a sixth finger.  This reaction was not very surprising as Heifetz was ensconced in traditional violin technique.  Louis Kramer (1903-95) ultimately performed the premiere.  Recently, Kramer had commissioned and premiered a Violin Concerto by Alban Berg, one of Schoenberg’s former students.  The premiere of Schoenberg’s concerto took place on December 6, 1940 with Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Schoenberg was unable to be present at the premiere.  He was set to listen to it on the radio, but was disappointed as the broadcast was canceled.

The Violin Concerto of Jean Sibelius has had a long life in the violin repertoire.  Unlike Schoenberg, Sibelius composed his concerto earlier in his life.  He began work on it in 1903 when Sibelius was in his late 30s.  Since Sibelius was a former concert violinist it is not surprising that he attempted such a large work like this early in his life.  The Violin Concerto was composed for the Hungarian violinist and composer Franz von Vécsey (1893-1935).  The premiere took place in 1903 with Sibelius conducting and Viktor Novacek on violin.  In 1905 Sibelius made a subsequent revision of the concerto into its current form.  The revised concerto was premiered in the same year with Karl Halir as the soloist and Richard Strauss conducting the Berlin Court Opera.

As disparate as these two works and these two composers may seem, there are many similarities that join these two pieces.  Both of these concertos were composed in times of personal turmoil in each composer’s life.  Schoenberg had recently settled into his home in Los Angeles and began teaching at UCLA.  Being near 60 years old, he had the desire to prove himself to his new colleagues and set forth in doing so by composing the Violin Concerto.  The Violin Concerto of Sibelius, his only foray into the concerto form, was composed during a period of financial challenges and heavy drinking.  Two problems that often seem to go hand in hand.

Both concerti turned out to be masterful pieces.  However, Schoenberg’s piece took longer to be accepted and adopted into the repertoire.  Despite its early rejection from Heifetz, Schoenberg’s concerto is considered among his the best achievements employing the twelve-tone technique.  Incidentally, the row for this piece is: A, B flat, E flat, B, E, F sharp, C, D flat, G, A flat, D, F.  Sibelius’s concerto is an exquisitely crafted piece that emphasizes the virtuosic aspect of the instrument.  Yet this piece has strong enough musical content to be more than just a showpiece.

Ms. Hahn’s performance of the Schoenberg Violin Concerto is hauntingly sublime.  This piece, which has been unjustly labeled “impossible to play,” is full of musical expressiveness and nuances that Ms. Hahn brings to life.  Even in the shorter legato phrases, the lyricism and emotion shines in her performance.  Through out this work Ms. Hahn is able to take command of the piece by maintaining crisp and clean articulations.  As the moods and performance techniques change, she changes confidently along with it.

The second movement of Schoenberg’s concerto contains lyricism that yearns to be free.  The violin shows flashes of late-romanticism, while the orchestra grinds along in fragmented gestures.  These gestures become so alluring that they draw in the soloist from time to time creating an ebb and flow of motion.  Even this with these constant changes, Ms. Hahn maintains command of this piece.

Schoenberg’s Violin Concerto is a difficult piece to perform; much more so than merely learning new hand positions to perform the notes of the piece.  The style of playing and the emotion of the piece seem to change with nearly every phrase.  Ms. Hahn’s performance demonstrates musical maturity well beyond her years.

Sibelius’s Violin Concerto holds much mystery and intrigue for the performer and listener alike.  At times thematic ideas seem to come out of nowhere to interrupt the current musical thought.  Other times there is an intense lyricism that really captivates the attention of the listener.  According to Ms. Hahn the violin part of the Sibelius concerto reveals an unexpected vulnerability.  This aspect is evident in the passionate performance she delivers of this concerto.

Ms. Hahn accurately portrays the lyricism and intensity of the piece through her phrasing.  Even in the sections where notes move faster, she conveys to the listener a sense of direction and convinces you that she knows where she is going.  Ms. Hahn performs all aspect of this concerto with fluid ease.  Her technique is near flawless as every note sounds with confidence.  Her tone is consistent throughout the range of her instrument.  This is truly the mark of a consummate professional.
The second movement of Sibelius’s concerto stands out from the other two.  The musical language and themes contain flashes of Beethoven and Brahms.  The violin and orchestra take on the more traditional roles of soloist and accompanist.  In the first and third movements there is a lot of interplay between the violin and orchestra that one feels that each group is given equal weight.  The inner workings of the piece between the violin and orchestra are so intricate and powerful that it makes you wonder: “Why was this his only concerto?”

The recording of these two pieces was masterfully done.  The recording is of high quality.  The balance between Ms. Hahn and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra is the same as what you would expect to hear in the concert hall.  Ms. Hahn’s sound does at times dominate the orchestra, but only when necessary.  Not being familiar with previous recordings of these two concertos, this reviewer cannot rightfully make the claim that these are definitive recordings of these works.  These recordings are masterfully done in all aspects of the process, from the performance to the editing and mixing.  The performances are amazing and are a must have for music lovers.

To order the CD click on the picture above.

To purchase mp3 of this album click here: Schoenberg: Violin Concerto / Sibelius: Violin Concerto op.47

This past Wednesday (March 5, 2008) I had the pleasure of attending a concert featuring the music of Dr. Elainie Lillios at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR.  This concert was presented as a part of WOU’s 2nd Annual Electro-Acoustic Music Festival.  Seven of Elainie’s compositions were performed that night.  Before the performance of each piece Elainie gave the audience a brief introduction and insight to the composition.

Elainie serves as Associate Professor of Composition and Coordinator of Music Technology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.  “Elainie Lillios’s music focuses on the essence of sound and suspension of time, conveying different emotions and taking listeners on ‘sonic journeys’.”  (Excerpt taken from the biographical information found in the program notes from the concert.)  Elainie’s compositions are based primarily on source recordings that she made.

First on the program was Arturo.  This piece was composed using samples taken from an interview with a tarot card reader named Arturo.  This piece reflects some of the insight and beliefs of the tarot card reader.  In this piece time is suspended.  Samples tend to be drawn out interjected with smaller events acting as a catalyst for providing forward motion.  Arturo asserts that there is no such thing as a self-fulfilling prophecy.  The cards only reveal the possibilities of the future.

Next on the program was Threads. Elainie describes Threads as an attempt to answer the challenge of composing a melody in electro-acoustic music.  Of this piece she writes, “Threads of sonic material, sinewy, flexible, bending, flowing…weaving together to form the fabric of objects, gestures, motion…the clothes of music.”

New Adventures in Sound Art in Toronto commissioned Hastening Toward the Half Moon.  The work brings together a series of musical ideas that recall a sense of wonder and yearning towards the unknown.  At times there is a sense of urgency in this piece that is not often found in her other works.  Heavy breathing indicating that some one is rushing or hastening to find answers highlights this urgency.

The centerpiece of the program was a performance of 2BTextures a collaboration with video artist Bonnie Mitchell.  Elainie composed two short pieces as a birthday present for Bonnie, who then created a wonderful animation to accompany the composition.  The animation is sharp and vivid, effectively capturing the essence of Elainie’s music.  The two movements were very distinct from each other and yet the underlying elements of both the video and audio create a unifying piece.

Dreams in the Desert was inspired by a documentary about a tribe that must travel across the desert each year to sell salt so that they can have money or other goods to live on.  This piece is conceived as a dream had by an eight-year-old boy who accompanies the tribe on the caravan for the first time.  The source material for this piece apparently comes from various water sources.  Ice cubes being dropped into a glass can be heard throughout in various forms.  One can imagine dreaming about or longing for water while making such a journey.

Backroads is a fun piece composed in three movements that re-imagines various road trips that the composer has experienced.  Elainie explains that this piece not only deals with the trip itself, but also explores the perspective of the travelers.  Are the travelers inside or outside of the car?  Are they dreaming or are they awake?  This piece builds throughout the three-movement structure to a rapid and rhythmic climax that ends with the end of the road trip.

The final piece on the program was Listening Beyond… Elainie has been exploring Deep Listening a technique developed by composer Pauline Oliveros.  Listening Beyond… explores the relationship between Deep Listening and electro acoustics.  In this piece Elainie also employed a technique known as Ambisonics.  Traditional electro-acoustic music explores left and right relationships and in multi-channel compositions front and back as well.  With ambisonics the vertical dimension is added.  This allows the composer to create a true surround sound environment.

For me the highlight of the program was Listening Beyond… While listening to this piece I was able to hear the vertical dimension of the sounds.  The hall in which the concert was held is not an ideal place for a piece of this nature.  This is because the speakers are mounted high on the wall close to the ceiling.  With the speakers that high up it is hard to hear the vertical dimension.  However, to my ear the sounds did have a different depth to them and I was able to imagine the intent.

This concert was presented through a joint effort by Dr. Joseph Harchanko of the department of music, Abby’s house and Wolfgang the student composer’s group, all at Western Oregon University.  I would like to personally thank those groups and individuals for putting on an excellent concert.  Elaine’s music is amazing and I am glad that I was able to attend this concert.

Dr. Elainie Lillios can be found on the web at http://mustech.bgsu.edu/~lillios or on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/elainiesacousmatics.

This interview with Alex Shapiro is the first in the Contemporary Composer Interview series exclusive to New Music Forum.

To start with, I would like to ask, how did you first get into music?

I was lucky enough to grow up in a household in which classical music was played constantly. My father adored music and had an incredible LP collection, and particularly loved late Beethoven string quartets, Brahms chamber music, and Mahler symphonies.  My mother was a talented amateur flutist who studied for many years with the New York Philharmonic’s principal flutist, John Wummer, and she practiced every day.  So, living amidst so much flute repertoire and being lulled quietly to sleep to the dulcet, calming strains of Bernstein conducting Mahler’s 1st (Ha!), I must have absorbed a little something along the way.  I started composing and notating music when I was nine, and by the time I was 15 I knew without question that I was going to be a composer professionally.  I never even questioned it.

Who have you studied composition with?

I was really fortunate to grow up in Manhattan, where there’s so much to take advantage of, in terms of schools and live music. I’ve had a number of terrific teachers, and again, I owe a lot to my parents for being so willing to support my studies and tolerate me trudging around town by myself to go to everything from the Metropolitan Opera to the Village Vanguard on a very regular basis (I always looked older than I was, which was a major plus for a 15 year old Elvin Jones fan).  My first composition teacher was Leo Edwards, with whom I studied when I was 15 when I attended Mannes College of Music summer school.  He was very supportive, and receiving encouragement from him at that age made a big impact on me. That’s also the same year I took my first class in electronic music, by the way, which at the time — 1977– meant learning on a modular Aries system of oscillators and envelope generators, etc. that required an inordinate number of patch cords just to produce a sine wave.

When I was 16 and 17, I was accepted to the Aspen School of Music, and during those two summers I studied composition with Michael Czajkowski, who now heads up the electronic music department at Julliard.  In addition to studying acoustic instruments, I also had the chance for more electronic music studies, working a little bit on the Buchla that Mike had borrowed for the summer from his friend Morton Subotnik.  I also studied ear training and some composition with George Tsontakis, and took master classes with everyone from Elliot Carter to Erich Leinsdorf to Freddie Hubbard!  What an amazing opportunity that was for me– two very life-changing summers. After this, I was accepted to (and graduated from) Julliard Pre-College Division, and was a composition student of Craig Shuler, and took additional classes with Bruce Adolphe.

After graduating high school I attended Manhattan School of Music, where I was a composition student of Ursula Mamlok and John Corigliano until 1983.  They were both fabulous teachers, in different ways.  With Ursula, I would learn the specifics of constructing a piece and developing themes, etc.  From John I learned a great deal about the bigger issue of summoning and responding to the muses.  Both teachers gave me creative tools that I use to this day, especially at that middle point in some pieces when I occasionally become, er… stuck!  I also took electronic music classes with Elias Tannenbaum, and the only class MSM offered in commercial music, taught by Roy Eaton, who at the time was music director at a big advertising agency, Benton & Bowles.  That class was invaluable: I learned about click tracks and about scoring to picture, and as I watched movies and listened more closely to the scores, I began to think that this was the direction I wanted my music career to go.  At the time– twenty years ago– musical styles within the concert scene weren’t quite as broad as they are now, and especially being in New York, I felt that I probably didn’t have much of a chance for a lot of performances of my less-than-cutting-edge work.  After studying with Corigliano the same year he returned from scoring “Altered States” and pouring over that score with him, I also realized that good film scoring was a way to get a larger segment of the public hearing some very sophisticated music.  I saw that a composer can “get away” with a lot harmonically and rhythmically, when their music is set in the context of visuals and a story line.

While I was a student at MSM, I began scoring low budget documentaries for local cable stations in New York City, and started to get my feel a little wet in the jingle business.  But I really felt that I wanted my musical life to be longer than thirty seconds at a pop, so in 1983 when I had the opportunity to come out to Los Angeles and score a documentary video, I grabbed it.  I never left there, and ended up writing scores for low budget features, TV, documentaries and corporate videos for the next 15 years. Ironically, little of the scoring work I did gave me an opportunity to push any musical boundaries the way Corigliano and so many others did, but I was happy to be working and found that being a musical chameleon and writing in a lot of different styles was fun.  I also found that all the studies in electronic music really paid off, because by the late eighties, every working composer in L.A. had to have a pretty sophisticated MIDI project studio, and I was able to put a nice one together without too much difficulty.

Which composers (aside from your teachers) influenced your music when you began composing?

The usual suspects: Brahms and Debussy for their lyricism, Berg for a certain kind of gorgeous angularity, Stravinsky and Bartok, rhythmically.  Oh yeah, and Mahler!  Jazz: Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock; in the 70′s the fusion thing was fresh, it was before “smooooooth jazz,” and it was interesting.  Rock: The Police, the Stones, U2.

Why do you compose?

To communicate with other people!  And with myself.  I write for catharsis, but also to please others. I’m a musical codependent, perhaps.  Surely, there must be a 12-step program for this.

Virtually every piece I compose these days is a commission, many of which are from musicians.  It makes me incredibly happy to see the players light up and really dig playing the music I’ve put in front of them, and to give them something that they’ll want to play more than just once or twice.  Maybe it’s because I used to create a lot of music specifically “to order” when it came to commercial work, but the first thing I ask a commissioning player is to tell me what kind of piece they’d like that would be a nice contrast to other things in their programming repertoire.  I feel that I can still completely retain my own voice and my own direction, while giving them what they suggest. And it helps to have a framework to begin with (not unlike scoring to picture).  Sometimes the most daunting jobs are those where the player responds, “oh just write whatever you feel.”  Yikes!  Even then, already knowing the instrumentation, I at least hone it down to setting the projected length of the piece, and that gives me a general frame in which to determine to arc or flow of the music, and tells me how long I have to “communicate” in that instance.  It’s all about communication.

You write a lot of pieces that are commissioned.  What was the first piece someone commissioned from you?

My very first commission was when I was a 16 year old student at the Aspen Music School, and a brass player who liked what he had heard of my music paid me $500 to compose a brass quartet for he and his colleagues.  I was thrilled to write for them, and they performed the piece a couple of times that summer.  What I remember about the piece is that I took the French horn rather painfully high at a some key points, and I had the poor tubist occasionally playing lines that were far better suited for a pianist’s left hand!   Fortunately, my writing has improved a little bit since then.

What are your current projects?

My writing life is never boring, and there’s a wide diversity in the kind of instrumentation I get to play with.  I just finished two concert pieces, one for SATB choir and piano that premiered this summer in L.A., and the other a comedic program closer for violin and harpsichord that will premiere here later this year.  I’m just about to begin a multi movement duet for piano and mixed percussion that the wonderful pianist Teresa McCollough, who recorded my “Sonata for Piano” a couple of years ago, has commissioned for her next CD.  Following that is a piece for Great Highland bagpipes and electronics– a concerto of sorts– for one of the best pipers in the country, Ian Whitelaw.  On the heels of that, I start a three-movement work for string quintet (a quartet with an added viola in this case) for the Pacific Serenades concert series in Los Angeles in March 2003.

I always find it fascinating to learn how composers got their start.  I tend to see some parallels between my own experiences as a young composer and the way others have started.  You mentioned that you have taken classes in electronic music.  How have those classes influenced the way you think about acoustic music?

All sound is made up of frequencies, and we hear them as textures and feel them as soundwaves against our bodies.  Ooooh.  One of the things that has always impressed me with electronics has been the relative sonic power I can create with these electrified tools.  Not so much volume, but texture and depth. In turn, I’ve given a great deal of thought as to how I can impact an audience with acoustic instruments in a similarly sensual way.  My personal preference in music, be it contemporary or from 150 years ago, is a rich, full sound. Beethoven and Brahms are just two of many giants who consistently achieved this even in their chamber music, because they understood how to voice just three or four instruments and make them sound like ten.

Working with electronics, especially mixing them in the safe confines of a studio, gives a composer a hyper-sensitivity to many aspects of sound: the physical placement of the music around the listener, the frequencies that are or aren’t being stressed, the counterpoint that is or isn’t being emphasized, etc.  As a composer/engineer, you have to think of all these things as you create an electronic piece, and, quite significantly, you have control over them to a large degree.  Now consider the acoustic concert hall and its living, breathing, taco-eating musicians: suddenly, the composer isn’t a direct part of the process; he or she only has control by way of what dynamics and phrasing have been notated on the page, or through his or her interaction (suggesting, begging, bribing…) with the players to interpret a passage a certain way. Among other things, I think electronics teach us about control, and about the need to release some of it when we work with human beings with no MIDI cables running out of their…. whatever.

When we met in Bowling Green (Ohio) at the New Music and Art Festival we talked a bit about self-publishing.  Could you briefly describe the steps you took to start the process?

Step one: I joined ASCAP as both a writer and a publisher member.  It’s very inexpensive and easy to do, and if you get live or broadcast performances of your pieces, joining a performing rights organization such as ASCAP, BMI or SESAC is essential for getting paid.  Step two:  I wrote a lot of chamber music and built up my catalog.  I copyrighted everything with the Library of Congress and registered each work with ASCAP so that it could be tracked each time it was performed.  Step three: I created a distribution deal for my published (read: proofed, bound and ready to be performed) scores and parts, which helped to get my works into many libraries and universities around the country, as well as featured at various music library conventions, etc.

Additionally, I created a website that’s as interactive as the geek side of my brain can make it, with lots of audio files and program notes on each piece, and a page from which score orders can easily be placed. PayPal set up a very simple (and free) shopping cart plug-in for Dreamweaver that makes it easy to sell scores and CDs.  There’s nothing like getting up in the morning and clicking open an email that says so-and-so has just deposited X amount of dollars into your PayPal (bank) account, for such-and-such score(s).  Plus, I get a large number of performances via my presence on the internet, and that results in more royalties, more commissions, and more score sales, etc., all of which is a part of the business of being a self published composer.  Publishing really means “to make public,” and that’s essentially what a career composer has to do: make themselves “public.”

This is the outline of what I’ve done; there’s much more, and in short I can say that if one is trying as I am to make a living solely as a composer (I’m not on faculty anywhere, and I don’t have a “day job”), administrating the publishing/business side of things– copying, proofing and reproducing scores, fulfilling and following up on orders, tracking and reporting new pieces and performances, contacting ensembles, etc. etc.– will easily take up at least half of a composer’s time, with the other half, one hopes, being jealously reserved for… uh, actually creating new music.  Oh yeah, and then there’s that “life” thing that’s important to try to squeeze in!  I work very long hours, beginning around noon and very often going until five in the morning or later.  But I also try to take a day or two off every weekend if I’m not on a ridiculously tight deadline, and have some fun that’s unrelated to work.  Balance is essential.

The role of the critic has been a hot bed of discussion among composers I know over the last month or two.  How do you deal with public or private criticism of your works?

It would be a very dull world if everyone had the same taste, and I never expect everyone to love everything I write.  And hey, some folks might not care for any of it.  So far I’ve been pretty lucky and have yet to get a review that makes me cringe, but I have no doubt that it will indeed happen if I persist in this music making thing (!).  Hopefully, I’ll react gracefully.  Then I’ll just track down the critic who maligned my fabulous new piece and break his kneecaps.

Just kidding. 

You can find out more about Alex Shapiro and her upcoming performances from her web site: http://www.alexshapiro.org.  Brian Bice is the co-owner and content manager of New Music Forum.

We hope to see all of you again soon!