Composition Matters

Excuse my rambling today. I write these after a 14 mile night bike ride with 3 hours in an Opera pit in the middle. The conversation has certainly became freewheeling and all encompassing.

First, what wonderful insights from Tony Christie, Assistant Principal Cello in the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.

I wanted to add something more on emotion: it has been reported that in persons who have lost physical feeling in their bodies (paralysis), emotions often become quite flat. It’s been my experience in meditation and in playing that physical feelings in the body are not only necessary in emotion, they actually are the emotion. A deep experience of the Brahms Requiem is so powerful because it is so physical. By luck or by design, Brahms has hit upon the principles of composition that cause our glands to do their thing. Maybe there is a spiritual aspect that kicks it off. But the emotion itself is a total body experience.

On this line, I consider Rock and Roll a potentially very powerful medium, with pedal points or big bass, a driving ostinato rhythm, and close link in melody to natural speech rhythms. What for me has been missing in Rock and Roll is a Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, or Rachmaninoff ability to manipulate all the parameters of music toward a climax. Each parameter adds a certain amount of power, each delay of final resolution increases the power and tension. The high point of the piece, when reached, is supremely physical, try as we might in the classical realm to think of it as spiritual. I’m still waiting for that Beethoven of Rock.

To “CMcNutt ” on finding a composer inside himself/herself, it sounds to me like there is one in this percussionist, with the statement: “The thing I bet I would like most about being a composer is releasing it into the wild to be interpreted by others, without my input. I have yet to hear a real life composer echo this sentiment.” That’s how it’s meant to work. That’s why we take such pains in getting the notation right! I certainly don’t want to attend all those rehearsals of pieces I’m through with.

To “Garthtrinkl ” on well-rounded-repertoire conductors: I’ve played with most of the conductors you mentioned, in both contemporary and classical/romantic works. There are at least 3 whom myself and my colleagues would not consider good on Brahms, but could conduct new works quite effectively. I’ll let you figure out which conductors I mean, since I may very well need to play under them again.

To “lanemirh ” on balanced programming: I attended a meeting today (I guess it’s yesterday now), in which just this scenario was happening. Ticket sales between different seasons were being compared, with the drop blamed on the new music director’s modern music programming, and the implied threat of intervention to save the bottom line. It was alarming to hear the conclusions jumped at, true or not. Since the music director still had all the power, however, I doubt if anything would happen. I loved “lanemirh’s” list of suggestions in writing new music for orchestra. They duplicate my own, locked as I am into the practicalities of American orchestra finances.

Molly Sheridan’s observation on the absolute necessity of getting a recording of a premiere in order to have any hope of a future life for the piece is of course right on the button in this day and age. I am hoping that, as the new AFM Internet Agreement is ratified and put into place in American orchestras, this will begin to be a non-issue. Orchestras are voting this summer, it comes recommended by the Union (correct me Robert!), and promises to open up a whole new world of opportunity and flexibility.

I must brag here about my own band: St. Louis has never in my memory denied a request for a tape (each request is voted on by the orchestra), and is in general generous to composers, perhaps influenced by so many player/composers in their midst. Once again, getting rid of the separation is key. Thanks for listening. Must Sleep.