Am I the only composer who obsesses over titles? The more personal a new composition is, the harder it can be to title. Why the stress? The music speaks for itself, right? As the saying goes, music takes over where words stop. What words can possibly suggest the journey of the music? The truth is, the title is likely to be the first thing your listeners or viewers experience. Instantly and inevitably, a title triggers impressions and expectations, which color the experience of the work itself. Forever after, the music will be thought to convey that image perceived in the title.
Read more →The first rehearsal of a new orchestra piece is often painful. Conductor and players need time to sort out what they are dealing with, and a composer who is foolish enough to be present can easily panic: what have I done? Now imagine doing all that in public. My Music Alive residency with the South Dakota Symphony mandates finding a way to open up the creative process to the public. What we came up with in Sioux Falls was an open rehearsal on my new work in progress.
Read more →Could we be turning a corner? Is the newest music becoming the hottest thing – in “classical” music of all places? Let’s not get carried away with our metaphors, but, even recognizing that I’m an optimist, I’d say there are signs of a sea change taking place.
Read more →I’ll call her Emily. A junior at Pine Ridge High School, on the Lakota Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation, Emily came into the Composition Academy with dark glasses on and hood up, silent except to say that she was not a creative person. She participated in group warm-ups and games only grudgingly. And yet she would sit at the piano before each day’s workshops, playing Chopin and Beethoven by ear – note-perfect melodies and accompaniments almost exactly as written. She only ever had two piano lessons. The instrument came to her naturally, and she was clearly a close listener.
Read more →Sometime around 2010, for some reason, I began to become infatuated with gugak–Korean traditional music. Doubtless it began with visits to Seoul and its enchanting old palaces, folk festivals, and mountains. Friends I made among traditional musicians are part of it too. But gugak is an acquired taste. To many Western ears, some kinds of gugak are difficult to listen to. Somehow, for me it has an ever-deepening appeal, even though the more I delve into it, the stranger it becomes.
Read more →
