Here’s a quote for your consideration:
“Art can’t just press your pleasure buttons and sell itself to you. It can’t need to care whether you like it—that’s the space where new ideas are born.”
I love those words. I would love to live them, not just in all the art that I make, but in every gesture I make in real life. Worrying about being liked just distracts from things that really matter, such as authenticity in one’s creative voice. And when making art, I would never want to pander, or to condescend to my audience.
But on the other hand, there are practical concerns. A composer is not flying solo. He or she is writing music not only “for” listeners, but also “for” the performers. It’s the musicians who bring the work off the page and into the concert hall (or studio or iPod or wherever the listeners are). And if the work has a lot of integrity but is unperformable, that’s a problem.
So I spend a lot of time writing vocal music that conforms to certain rules. For your benefit and mine, here’s a few things that make music more singable:
Rule 1: Voices like to move (thank you, Dave Bieri). With all due respect to certain Minimalist colleagues, long sustained chords or repeated figures that all stay on the same note are very tiring and wear out the voice the same way that pacing on a rug wears out the pile. Check out Steve Reich’s Tehillim for a great example of Minimalist writing that works for singers. Because the voices move.
Rule 2: Voices like to hang out in an easy tessitura. Visit the extreme highs and lows for drama, but don’t make the voices live there.
Rule 3: The higher they go, the harder it is for voices to make recognizable words. Keep rapid text confined to the middle and low register, and in high registers, use melismas to allow voices to soar freely. Melismas, by the way, work best on open vowels such as “ah”, “aw”, and “uh” (and the “o” in the word “hot”). You can read all about this in Caccini’s preface to “Le Nuove Musiche” of, oh, some year in the first decade of the 1600s. If you read Italian.
Rule 4: Voices need a little rest now and then. Make sure all voices get multimeasure rests at regular intervals throughout the piece. Bonus: it helps you vary your texture.
Rule 5: When writing fast passages, try to choose notes that fit into a recognizable diatonic scale (thank you, Nathaniel Lew). Of the two measures shown below, the first is sightreadable, because it fits neatly into the key of D major. The second? Well, I can’t read it. Not fast, anyway. You have fun trying.
Basic rules aside, here's the question: can I write music that is performable but still fresh, engaging, and challenging when it needs to be? The more I write, the more the answer seems to be yes. But it is always a precarious balance.
The quote I started with, by the way, comes from Cintra Wilson, the Times’ Critical Shopper, who shops at cool stores and then writes about them in the Thursday Styles section. The quote appeared in the paper on 10 September 2009, in her review of the Comme des Garçons boutique at 520 W. 22nd St. (near 10th Ave.). The full quote is more colloquial, funnier, more of its context, but the ideas, fleshed out, are important:
“America hasn’t quite grocked the idea that civilization is desirable; that culture is the cornerstone of civilization, and that a thriving culture supports unfettered—read: occasionally offensive—art.
“Art can’t just press your pleasure buttons and sell itself to you. It can’t need to care whether you like it—that’s the space where new ideas are born. It can’t just ‘think outside the box.’ For art to do its job, it has to fill the box with yak dung and get as far away from it as humanly possible.”
I’m not writing anything involving yak dung for my current piece with the MCE. It’s for Christmas, so I’m planning to use beauty. But sometimes I feel guilty for going too far in that direction.
I will be writing new music soon, with strange sounds and the occasional moments of ugliness. Stay tuned. And thanks for reading!
The first blog. I. Have. Ever. Written.Please read and leave comments about carol texts! :-)So Tom and Dave and I head to the one diner in all of Manhattan that plays no background music (Morning Star, on 9th, not far from Columbus Circle; I give thanks for their existence at least once a week b/c silence on this island is usually a nonstarter) and we talk about how better to make this commission (a piece for the Manhattan Choral Ensemble's winter/holiday/it's-got-plenty-of-Xmas-music-on-it concert) more interactive. Other composers who've worked with the MCE have done many creative things, such as writing music based on members' answers to questions like "What's on your iPod?" I'm not sure I can reconcile the breadth of answers I would get if I did that—this is a ridiculously smart and curious group of singers, after all—with writing what will be, in the end, a fresh set of carols, compatible with holiday concert programming.
So I am really really really relieved when Tom and Dave tell me that what they would really like me to do is start a blog.
Well, what they said is that they would like me to share the process of composing with the group, and since I'd rather write than be interviewed for a podcast, with all the ums and ahs and ohs that might entail, a blog's definitely the way to go.
Sooooooo ...
To complete this project, I need to do a bunch of things, not necessarily in the following order:
-select texts
-think of thematic links
-make sure that texts provide variety in the types of music they generate (i.e., we don't want 5 uptempo numbers OR 5 slow but exquisite ones)
-decide whether I am still writing this for harp and chorus, or for some other instrument and chorus, or a cappella
-make up some melodies that go with some of the texts (by randomly singing, or by imagining notes in my head, or by sketching out twelve-tone rows while riding the A train)
-make up some evocative chord progressions (usually done at the piano, she confesses with a tinge of guilt)
That's enough to start with. Hmm. I should of course also post a few of the texts I am considering, for your consideration too! Do write back and let me know what you think. I will buy a beer for the first person who correctly tells me the thematic link among the following texts:
Text #1
Omnes gentes plaudite,
I saw many birds sitting on a tree;
They took their flight and flew away,
With, Ego dixi, have good day!
Many white feathers hath the pie --
I may no more sing, my lips are so dry.
Many white feathers hath the swan --
The more that I drink, the less I can.
Lay sticks on the fire, well may it burn;1
Give us once to drink ere away we turn.2
Notes:
1. Text: wyl mot is brenne.
2. Text: ere we gon henne.
Rickert gives the following translations:
Omnes gentes plaudite is translated as "All ye nations, rejoice."
Ego dixi is translated as "I have said."
Text #2
Bring us in good ale, and bring us in good ale;
For our Blessed Lady's sake, bring us in good ale.
1. Bring us in no brown bread, for that is made of bran,
Nor bring us in no white bread, there therein is no game;
But bring us in good ale.
2. Bring us in no beef, for there is many bones,
But bring us in good ale, for that goes down at once;
And bring us in good ale.
3. Bring us in no bacon, for that is passing fat,
But bring us in good ale, and give us enough of that;
And bring us in good ale.
4. Bring us in no mutton, for that is often lean,
Nor bring us in no tripes, for they be seldom clean;
And bring us in good ale.
5. Bring us in no eggs, for there are many shells,
But bring us in good ale, and give us nothing else;
And bring us in good ale.
6. Bring us in no butter, for therein are many hairs;
Nor bring us in no pig's flesh, for that will make us boars;
And bring us in good ale.
7. Bring us in no puddings, for therein is all God's good;
Nor bring us in no venison, for that is not for our blood;
And bring us in good ale.
8. Bring us in no capon's flesh, for that is often dear;
Nor bring us in no duck's flesh, for they slobber in the mere;
And bring us in good ale.
Text #3:
Wassail, wassail, wassail, sing we
In worship of Christ’s nativity.
1. Now joy be to the Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
That one God is in Trinity,
Father of heaven, of mightes most.
2. And joy to the Virgin pure
That ever kept her undefiled
Grounded in grace, in heart full sure,
And bare a child as maiden mild.
3. Bethlehem and the star so shen,
That shone three kinges for to guide,
Bear witness of this maiden clean;
The kinges three offered that tide.
4. And shepherds heard, as written is,
The joyful song that there was sung:
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS!
With angel’s voice it was out rung.
5. Now joy be to the blessful child,
And joy be to his mother dear;
Joy we all of that maiden mild,
And joy have they that make good cheer.
Wassail, wassail, wassail, sing we
In worship of Christ’s nativity.
That's all for tonight! Have fun; I look forward to seeing you again soon.
