|
Libby Larsen Interview (2/99)
7. Music and Spoken American English
RK: In describing your music, you were once quoted as saying that, "It can be recognized by its rhythm more than anything else." You also described how music in general can be derived from the rhythms and pitches of spoken American English. How does this play out in your process, and eventually in your work?
LL: Let me discuss the piece I'm composing right now. These questions are in the front of my mind. I'm working on a string symphony, a piece I've wanted to compose for a long time. The Minnesota Orchestra commissioned it.
I believe that the music that grows over time in a culture grows out of the language those people speak. Instruments evolve out of a culture in order to express the culture through sound.
With the exception of the violin becoming a fiddle and the contrabass becoming a plucked bass, I see that the core of the orchestra (the strings) are instruments which have not naturally, found their way into the ensembles that have developed American Musics (...ragtime, gospel, big-band, country-western, rock-and-roll...). And these are the ensembles that accompany the singing of words in American English. And so I'm wondering what, if anything, a string orchestra has to do with American English? American English is more rhythmic than melodic. It's truncated and full of body language punctuation. I'm not sure that we have a sense of what is lyrical in this culture we're forming other than moments of nostalgia.
My string symphony asks the question: What is the lyricism of American life and American English, and what, if anything, does this have to do with a European evolved string section?
RK: I've often wondered about contemporary opera, and its lack of that sort of "killer aria." I went to see Emmeline, which I enjoyed very much. I walked away from it thinking that it had, certainly in the story itself, very dramatic moments where the story almost brought down the house, where there were just tremendous moments. But when you compare that to Tosca, there isn't the moment for the audience to stop and break out into applause and say "Aaahh!" and embrace the performers or throw things at the performers if they didn't like what they did. And you're exactly right. You do hear works that try to reach for melodic high points -- "killer arias" -- and they wind up sounding like Hollywood, or old-fashioned. What does that mean? What impact does that have on the form itself? What does that say about the form? You've articulated that in a very different way. What are you finding about writing the piece, from this being one of the questions about the lyricism of strings in our age?
LL: I've been finding that it's very difficult to find an original lyricism for orchestral strings that flows naturally out of American English. You know, I was thinking, where in our concerts do we wildly break out into applause? Where the music starts, and everybody breaks out into applause? Where is it for you?
RK: Well, it happens in jazz concerts all the time. I mean, they don't break out wildly, but sometimes it's polite applause for a performer.
LL: A really great solo, and everybody's just going crazy...
RK: It happened at the end of Joseph Schwantner's Percussion Concerto. There's no doubt that the audience went crazy. It's an incredible piece of music. When I was in Vienna for a conference, I went to see Tosca, and people burst out. There was this incredible reaction when they sing particular arias. And it happens at rock concerts, absolutely -- the popular form has retained that.
LL: Yes, they have retained it. I was thinking of Springsteen concerts. You know, the band strikes up and everybody just goes, "YES!" But it's not about words; it's about something else. Schwantner's Concerto is not about words.
RK: Although rap music is about words. It's about words and rhythm and not about lyricism.
LL: Isn't that curious?
RK: So why is it, you can have a popular piece (...these questions apply to other forms as well, I think, to a certain extent, they apply to musical theater...) that there are all sorts of questions about. You know, people say, well, why don't they write something like Guys and Dolls? Well, if you try to write something like Guys and Dolls, it sounds like it's completely out of place and corny. But a lot of the popular forms are able to retain this. They're able to retain soaring melodies.
LL: Well a lot of the popular composers (Hank Williams, for instance) create from instruments that aren't approached through classical performance tradition. When Hank Williams sings "Your Cheatin' Heart," the guitars accompanying him speak and enhance the language that he sings, the way he sings it. So, in his songs, the instruments, the language, and the melodies evolved symbiotically. It's worth talking about.
RK: It is, it's actually another very complicated and deep discussion, and we'll have to do a "Part Two" one day.
Larsen Interview
Supporting Materials
Biography
Links
Archive Home
|
