tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-98962072009-08-12T13:32:46.500-04:00Lawrence DillonLAWRENCE DILLON BLOG: a space where new music serves as a catalyst for wide-ranging excursions on culture, politics, history, art, marketing, psychology and possibly even the weather. There are many things to say on all of these topics; your feedback will fuel the progress. Hopefully the journey will give all of us much to savor, react to and reflect on.
Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.comBlogger440125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-40301328434735342052009-08-12T09:12:00.002-04:002009-08-12T13:32:46.637-04:00go thither<div style="text-align: justify;">If you are reading this, you are on the old address for my blog. My blog has moved to http://www.sequenza21.com/dillon/ with a splashy new design by Elliot Cole.<br /></div><br />See you there!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-4030132843473534205?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-72821179687396390882009-08-08T15:30:00.008-04:002009-08-09T09:31:05.046-04:00Questions<blockquote>Is new music just old music recycled?<br /><br />What makes water surprised?<br /><br />When new trains grow into old trains, do they grow steam stacks?<br /><br />When people bloom, do the blooms on the people hurt?<br /><br />Do you know where hotels are born?<br /><br />Does water float?<br /><br />Why do Easter eggs have to dye?</blockquote> <div style="text-align: justify;">Happy fourth birthday, big guy. I know I still have a lot to look forward to, but I want to stop for a moment to thank you for some of my favorite questions from the past year.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/Photo-195-741718.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/Photo-195-741714.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/IMG_3086_2-751958.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/IMG_3086_2-751684.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-7282117968739639088?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-85661662259081478352009-08-04T06:42:00.001-04:002009-08-04T06:42:00.356-04:00scary place to be<div style="text-align: justify;">As I noted <a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/2009/07/cool-night.html">earlier</a>, I took the second half of July off from working on my fifth quartet to start sketching my <span style="font-style: italic;">Schumann Trilogy</span>. In 12 days, I made a good draft of the third piece, a few healthy sketches of the first piece, and batted my head hopelessly against the second. More on that later.<br /><br />Now I’m back on the home stretch of the fifth quartet. This is when I try to find the weakest passage in the piece and see if I can improve it, on the assumption that a chain is only as strong as its least durable link.<br /><br />In the case of the fifth quartet, the weakest passage is very obvious to me: it’s a little more than halfway through the last movement. I wanted this passage to be an abrupt detour from the path of the piece, but I’m not convinced I’ve got it right. So, with five weeks to go before score and parts have to be delivered, I’m completely tearing down the last movement and rethinking it from the ground up.<br /><br />And that’s a scary place to be – but a place I’ve been often enough before.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-8566166225908147835?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-37909418777894968562009-07-31T07:11:00.000-04:002009-07-31T07:43:45.758-04:00Project Timeline<div style="text-align: justify;">For anyone who is curious about releasing a recording on a major label, here is the timeline for my violin disk on Naxos:<br /><blockquote>Four days of recording sessions: February 2009<br /> <div style="text-align: justify;">Editing and mixing completed: July 2009<br /> </div> Release: <span style="font-style: italic;">April 2011</span></blockquote> That’s right – more than two years from recording sessions to release. And we were given just one week to submit our feedback on the edits.<br /><br />When I asked about the delay, I found out it was because they have <span style="font-style: italic;">680 recordings in the pipeline.</span> Amazing how well they are able to do what they do, with such a backlog.<br /><br />As I frequently tell my students, music is a sublime art form, but a preposterous profession.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-3790941877789496856?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-57743858428683334022009-07-27T06:44:00.001-04:002009-07-27T06:44:00.320-04:00Ar hyd y nos<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/3055-769047.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 189px; height: 320px;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/3055-769042.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Holl amrantau'r sêr ddywedant<br />Ar hyd y nos<br />Dyma'r ffordd i fro gogoniant<br />Ar hyd y nos.<br />Golau arall yw tywyllwch<br />I arddangos gwir prydferthwch<br />Teulu'r nefoedd mewn tawelwch<br />Ar hyd y nos.<br /><br />O mor siriol, gwena seren<br />Ar hyd y nos<br />I oleuo'i chwaer ddaearen<br />Ar hyd y nos.<br />Nos yw henaint pan ddaw cystudd<br />Ond i harddu dyn a'i hwyrddydd<br />Rhown ein golau gwan da'n gilydd<br />Ar hyd y nos.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-5774385842868333402?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-8213503180086132242009-07-23T06:49:00.003-04:002009-07-23T06:49:00.187-04:00Cool Night<div style="text-align: justify;">I’ve just about finished my fifth quartet, so now I’m taking a couple of weeks off from it to begin sketching <span style="font-style: italic;">Cool Night</span>, the third installment of my <span style="font-style: italic;">Schumann Trilogy</span>. I love doing this – getting a piece just about done, then setting it aside for a while to work on something else. When I come back to the quartet in August, I will be ruthless. Time away gives me the distance I need to make sure I haven’t become so familiar with every aspect of the piece that I’ve lost sight of the parts that don’t quite fit.<br /><br />Writing <span style="font-style: italic;">Cool Night</span> is a bit of an adventure for me. One of the characters is voiced by two people – a tenor and an actor. I’ve always known this would be the case, from when I first conceived of the Trilogy, but I was never sure why I needed a singer and an actor, or how exactly they would share the text.<br /><br />Now I’m discovering how to make it happen, phrase by phrase. It’s a strange puzzle, to be sure. Just to give a sense of what I’m up against, here’s an excerpt of the text, a dialogue between Florestan and Eusebius over Robert Schumann’s deathbed:<br /><blockquote>F: When the dance concludes, I will remove my mask and reveal who I really am.<br /><br />E: Who you are! You will remove one mask and find another.<br /><br />F: That may be so. But the mask will come off, and then another, and another.<br /><br />E: You have more masks than time.<br /><br />F: Yes, I have more masks than time. But they will come off, not to reveal, but to revel in the removal. I will be verb, not noun. I will be action. I will be masks removing, one by one.<br /><br />E: You will be masks removing. You will be me.<br /><br />F: You? No, we are not the same. I am verb, you are noun.<br /><br />E: I am noun, you are verb. But we are the same. We shed the chrysalis, only to find another.<br /><br />F: And another.<br /><br />E: And another. Together, we are half as much.<br /><br />F: Yes, together, we are half as much. And yet, apart, we are nothing. We hear nothing in the cool night.</blockquote>To make things stranger, although <span style="font-style: italic;">Cool Night</span> is the third part of the trilogy, I’m sketching it first. Don’t know why, just seems like the right thing to do.<br /><br />Of course, if it turns out to be the wrong thing to do, I can always start over. About the only thing I love more than starting a new piece is starting over.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-821350318008613224?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-70904878978322078762009-07-19T06:39:00.001-04:002009-07-19T06:39:00.818-04:00Listening to Yourself<div style="text-align: justify;">Composers, how much time to you spend listening to recordings of your music? I find my answer to that question fluctuates dramatically. <br /><br />Sometimes, when I am feeling particularly self-critical, I can’t listen to a minute of my music without cringing. Most of the time, I don’t want to listen to older pieces because I’m too focused on what’s coming next.<br /><br />But occasionally, for one reason or another, I find myself listening to the same piece or pieces over and over. I’m in that place right now, as I get the proofs for the Naxos recording of my violin music and walk around with 25 years’ worth of compositions in my ear. And I’m surprised at how pleasant it is. Life is full of anxieties, big and small – it’s nice to lose touch with the moment as my mind scans back over the decades, hearing old things from new angles, hearing different places I’ve been, different avenues explored – all preserved so magnificently by such wonderful artists. <br /><br />I find myself smiling privately at the oddest moments.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-7090487897832207876?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-63740344358550640702009-07-15T06:35:00.003-04:002009-07-15T07:00:54.894-04:00Economic downturn<div style="text-align: justify;">Had an interesting meeting with my boss the other day to discuss the restructuring of my position in the wake of substantial budget cuts. He offered me two options, which I can summarize as follows: pay cut or demotion.<br /><br />In other words, I could have my job reclassified in a way that most people would find very impressive while taking a pay cut, or I could keep the same pay but have my responsibilities reconfigured into more of a clerical position.<br /><br />I don’t blame him for offering these options – he’s doing his best to manage a tough situation – it’s just funny to me that this is my choice: worse work or worse pay. You’d assume a better job would translate into better pay. But these are not typical times.<br /><br />And I’m not feeling sorry for myself, because all of us who are employed right now have to count ourselves fortunate.<br /><br />So which will I choose? Right now, it’s a tossup for me. But he wants an answer asap, of course, because my answer will affect a number of other decisions he has to make.<br /><br />Which way will I go? Or is there another option we haven’t thought of?<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-6374034435855064070?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-79105519862869835342009-07-11T06:38:00.001-04:002009-07-11T06:38:00.650-04:00Shaggy Dog<div style="text-align: justify;">For my post-midlife crisis, I’m growing my first beard since the 20th century. I figure if I’m going to <a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/2009/07/350th-anniversary.html">calculate my age in dog years</a> a more hirsute visage is called for.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"> <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/Photo-352-702657.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/Photo-352-702654.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br />So far, so good.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-7910551986286983534?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-70078220193578925912009-07-07T06:26:00.000-04:002009-07-07T06:26:01.100-04:00Track Order<div style="text-align: justify;">Just got a question from Danielle Belén about her upcoming CD of my violin music: what order should the pieces be in? <br /><br />Seven pieces, composed over the course of 25 years, ranging from 3 to 17 minutes in length. Two unaccompanied, three with piano, one with viola and one with marimba. <br /><br />Of course, this doesn’t matter quite as much as it used to – people just don’t listen in prearranged orders so often anymore. But still, an order will exist, and as long as it exists it may as well have some intention to it. <br /><br />In this case, chronological order doesn’t make much sense, since only 3 of the pieces were written between 1983 and 2005 – the other 4 are from the last three years. I’m leaning toward breaking up the tracks that will include piano, and framing the disk with two brief -- but very different -- miniatures:<br /><blockquote>1. <span style="font-style: italic;">Mister Blister</span> (2006) 3:00 unaccompanied <br />2. <span style="font-style: italic;">Facade</span> (1983) 7:00 with piano <br />3. <span style="font-style: italic;">Bacchus Chaconne</span> (1990) 5:00 with viola <br />4. <span style="font-style: italic;">Sonata: Motion </span>(2008) 17:00 with piano <br />5. <span style="font-style: italic;">Spring passing</span> (1997) 8:00 with piano <br />6. <span style="font-style: italic;">Fifteen Minutes </span>(2006) 16:00 unaccompanied<br />7. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Voice</span> (2008) 4:00 with piano <br /></blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">Mister Blister</span> is fast and furious; <span style="font-style: italic;">The Voice</span> is moderate and contemplative. <br /><br />And now I’m realizing I never blogged about <span style="font-style: italic;">The Voice</span>, which has kind of an interesting backstory. It’s an arrangement of an aria from an opera I wrote almost ten years ago. In the opera, a soprano is being pressured to sell out her art for commercial gain. She responds by trying to explain the peculiar relationship she has with her instrument – she is the servant, rather than the master:<br /><blockquote>The Voice<br />Within me<br />Has a life of its own.<br />It hovers in my heart,<br />It shivers in my bones.<br /> <br />A will of its own<br />Within me.<br />A turning, trembling tone<br />Tearing me in two,<br />Piercing my vision,<br />Decision,<br />My choice.<br /> <br />A soul of its own.<br /> <br />And when it’s gone,<br />When it’s done with me,<br />I am here,<br />I am alone:<br />a moist and<br />momentary home<br />for the Voice.<br /> <br /></blockquote></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-7007822019357892591?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-58004977896830552542009-07-03T06:22:00.004-04:002009-07-03T06:28:43.586-04:00350th Anniversary<div style="text-align: justify;">There have been a number of auspicious anniversaries in the past year, Carter’s and Messiaen’s centennials being the most widely noted. But today trumps them all in my book.<br /><br />Today I am 350 years old.<br /><br />In dog years.<br /><br />That’s not so impressive by many people’s standards, but it’s a lot longer than this old dog expected to live.<br /><br />I’m celebrating big time all year. In January, the Daedalus Quartet will premiere my <a href="http://www.lawrencedillon.com/the-infinite-sphere.php">fourth quartet</a> at Wolf Trap. In February, the nu ensemble will premiere a work I haven’t even begun to dream up yet. In March, the Emerson Quartet will premiere my <a href="http://www.lawrencedillon.com/through-the-night.php">fifth quartet</a> in Köln. In May, the Idyllwild Symphony will premiere my <a href="http://www.lawrencedillon.com/consortium-commission.php">Schumann Trilogy</a> in California, with followup performances by orchestras in Utah, Idaho and Ohio.<br /><br />I have three disks of my music coming out this year. Naxos will issue a CD of my complete violin works played by the ultimate Sphinx, Danielle Belén. Albany has a disk of my vocal music in the works. And Bridge will release a disk containing my piano quartet and three string quartets.<br /><br />But before all of that comes about, this is an appropriate occasion on which to pass along a few observations on becoming 350:<br /><blockquote>• One morning I looked at my ratty socks and thought they must be older than I am. Then I realized they’re not -- and I don’t look so hot either.<br /><br />• Stubbly jaws look better than stubbly jowls.<br /><br />• I used to smile at strangers in the grocery store, and sometimes they would smile back. Now I smile at them and they almost always smile back – at my kids. And I’d do the same, if I were in their sandals.<br /><br />• It’s amazing how quickly the passionate opinions of your youth can start sounding like the cranky whinings of old age.<br /></blockquote>Keeping that passionate crankiness to myself will be an ongoing challenge for my next semi-centennial.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-5800497789683055254?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-11797584258688614602009-06-19T06:56:00.000-04:002009-06-19T06:57:41.896-04:00Incredibly fun<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/vierk-766837.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 252px;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/vierk-766836.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I like to get together with players face to face and improvise sounds. For example, even though I’ve written two string quartets, I know that when I write my third I’ll schedule a session with players so that I can hear and feel the string sounds afresh. Fine players often show me qualities of the instrument and playing techniques that I couldn’t come up with on my own, because they work with the instruments and live with them, day in, day out.<br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br />After that, when I take pencil and paper, the physical sounds will still be ringing through me. I’ll sketch maybe 100 pages or so, depending on the piece. I try not to censor anything I write. I look at what I’ve put down on paper and let myself feel how the sounds flow – their energy and their direction. When I feel the sounds in this way I want to work on them to make them more beautiful, or clearer or stronger or more dynamic or dramatic – in other words, I want them to flow as much as possible. It’s incredibly fun to do this.<br /><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;"> - Lois V Vierk</span><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-1179758425868861460?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-51423777751105102022009-06-15T10:23:00.001-04:002009-06-15T10:29:16.896-04:00Flattening out the back of my head<div style="text-align: justify;">Back to my <a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/2009_04_11_ldarchive.html">fifth quartet</a>, after a two-month hiatus. While I was focused on <a href="http://www.sequenza21.com/2009_05_09_ldarchive.html">other things,</a> the back of my mind was squinching up in discomfort over the final movement of quartet no. 5. Got to get rid of that squinch -- it was having a nasty impact on my hairstyle. Here was the problem:<br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br />The fifth quartet is obsessed with that most obsessive of forms, Variation. The first movement is a straightforward theme and variations. The second movement is a chaconne, or variations on a harmonic progression. The third movement is a passacaglia, or variations over a repeated 8-note figure.<br /><br />The fourth and final movement, like the first, is a theme and variations. The version I left off with two months ago was good, but a little too well-behaved, I’m afraid. I’ve come to realize that this movement needs to both reflect and transcend the theme it is based on. To do that, I need to push the pedal down more on the fantasy side of fantasy-variations. This was the movement, after all, that immediately precedes the predawn twilight. Logic needs to take a back seat to something wilder.<br /><br />Something wilder – I’ve been listening all this week to <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crwth_rem.jpg">crwth</a> music. It seems that the fantastical predawn is going to transform my Welsh tune into a haunted hybrid.<br /><br />And so, inadvertently, this movement is providing a link to the as-yet-unwritten sixth quartet, which is going to be obsessed with fantasy. It will be the last quartet of <a href="http://www.lawrencedillon.com/invisible.php">this cycle,</a> and it has always worried me the most, because from the beginning (1998) I have had a less clear notion of how number 6 was going to play out. Maybe the new direction my fifth quartet is taking will point the way.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-5142377775110510202?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-52422317652735157712009-06-11T06:09:00.000-04:002009-06-11T06:09:02.103-04:00Personal GPS<div style="text-align: justify;">While I was buried in recording sessions last week, representatives for a festival I’ll be attending in September were furiously trying to get in touch with me. We finally caught up with one another and worked out some logistics. Afterwards, I told my manager, Jeffrey James, if he ever needs to find me he should check my blog – that’s a good indicator of what I’m up to. “So your blog is your personal GPS, eh?” he replied.<br /><br />I like that. Here I am, wherever I am.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-5242231765273515771?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-19756668668542358842009-06-07T06:29:00.001-04:002009-06-07T07:09:18.554-04:00how fast is it?<div style="text-align: justify;">Happy to be home again, as always. I love traveling, but one of the best parts is getting back home, getting back to the familiar routines, the comfortable environs, and most of all the people who still love me even when I am a pain in the ass.<br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br />At this point, having participated in a bunch of professional recording sessions, I’m feeling like an old veteran. I’ve learned a thing or two about the process, and what better purpose could this blog serve than to share what I’ve learned? So here is my cardinal rule for composers in recording sessions:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Take responsibility for the tempos.</span><br /></div><br />I’ve always liked to believe that there is a generous bandwidth of tempos in which my music can communicate successfully. That may or may not be true, but there are few things more annoying than ending up with a recording that sounds a hair too fast or a hair too slow. Don’t let them play more than two notes in the recording session at the wrong tempo -- stop them immediately – because a take in the wrong tempo is unusable, regardless of how beautiful it may be in every other way. Conversely, if a take is in the right tempo, even if it has other problems, the recording engineer may be able to use some of it.<br /><br />And that reminds me of the most excruciating performance of a piece of mine I’ve ever experienced – or almost experienced. I was a guest at a new music festival put on at a well-regarded university I had never been to before. I arrived for the dress rehearsal, which took place immediately before the performance. As I walked through the backstage area, I could hear the musicians rehearsing, but because of the labyrinthic design of the school I couldn’t find them.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">They were playing my piece at exactly half tempo. </span><br /><br />In a frenzied state, I ran up and down the hallways, opening every door, trying to figure out where they were. Then I heard them stop. The performance began a few minutes later.<br /><br />I couldn’t bring myself to go into the concert hall. I left the building as quickly as I could, headed to the closest bar and got myself good and drunk.<br /><br />What did I learn? At half tempo, not only is every moment in the piece in the wrong place -- every wrong note lasts twice as long.<br /><br />But that was a long time ago. Back to more pleasant, recent experiences.<br /><br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;">This past week’s recording sessions reminded me that composers and performers listen differently, and though I’ve done a fair amount of performing, I definitely don’t listen the way a real performer does. I’m pretty good at spending hours imagining sounds, imagining note combinations, twisting and turning them in different directions. But I don’t have nearly the stamina for listening to actual music that performers have. By the end of an eight-hour recording session, I’m pretty numb, but the performers are still listening critically, still trying to get every note in tune and in place, even though they’ve been working much harder than I have.<br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br />One more reminder of how grateful I am that there are people who have different interests and skill sets from mine.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-1975666866854235884?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-76444198046364774542009-06-04T06:17:00.002-04:002009-06-04T08:22:40.334-04:00Wisdom of Perle<div style="text-align: justify;">Caught Da Capo Chamber Players Monday night in Merkin Hall. The program was called Direct Current and featured pieces that blend electronic sound and acoustic instruments. Very different atmosphere from the Bang on a Can marathon the day before – much smaller audience, but everyone was there to listen. Which do I prefer? I’m glad to have both. Keeps my ears on their toes.<br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br />The following morning, Merkin was packed for a tribute to the late George Perle. I never knew Perle personally, and I’ve had only had passing acquaintance with his music, which occupies a tonal landscape that had little attraction for me in my student days. I could only stay for the first half, but the highlights were frequent and very high. Particularly potent: Leon Fleisher ascending to the stage from the audience to play Brahms’s arrangement for left hand of the Bach <span style="font-style: italic;">Chaconne in D Minor</span>. It’s a version I’ve enjoyed picking at with two hands, but apart from the superior technical facility Fleisher brought to bear, the sound he was getting from the instrument was just spectacular.<br /><br />Of the three spoken tributes I heard, Paul Lansky’s memories of an undergraduate theory class at Queens taught by the young Perle were the most amusing and touching.<br /><br />And the discovery of the program was Perle’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Six Celebratory Inventions,</span> performed by pianist Michael Brown. Clever, understated, witty – top-drawer stuff.<br /><br />Aside from that, it was bracing to look around the audience and see a roll-call of new music’s old guard. They’ve been kicked around a lot for the last thirty years, so I was happy to see them having a well-deserved moment to share with one another. And I was thankful that the remarkable man George Perle seems to have been made it possible for me to see them gathered.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/holl-600-745077.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 176px;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/holl-600-745070.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br />I was sorry, though, that I had to miss the Daedalus Quartet performance, which came last. But I made up for it by rehearsing with them, along with Benjamin Hochman, yesterday afternoon. I got soaked walking in a downpour from the A-train to the rehearsal, but their preparation and enthusiasm quickly made me feel all warm and cozy. Tomorrow we’ll head to the Academy to record, before I catch a late-night flight back to North Carolina.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-7644419804636477454?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-69941320558161633112009-06-01T06:24:00.003-04:002009-06-01T08:06:17.702-04:00Who's in the Band?<div style="text-align: justify;">Six hours of rehearsal down. Four hours of recording tomorrow, four more hours on Tuesday. I managed to sneak down to the Winter Garden for the Bang on a Can Marathon, just long enough to catch Brad Lubman conducting <span style="font-weight: bold;">Signal</span> in Michael Gordon’s hour-long <span style="font-style: italic;">Trance</span>. The experience wasn’t much to <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=bangonacan">tweet home about, </a>though – there’s far more going on in that piece than the Winter Garden could report. But there were a lot of enthusiastic listeners, scattered among the cell-phone users and baby strollers.<br /><br />Zipped out when the tabla player began. Sad to say, I’ve pretty much burned out on tabla playing. Partly because I was a little too enthusiastic about it ten years ago. Besides, it was time for me to get back to the hotel so I could Sing in the Can.<br /><br />I tried to get into the Guggenheim to hear <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124277733367437141.html">Nico Muhly’s new scent opera</a>, but arrived a tad late – sold out. So I can’t speak for the opera, but my attempt to witness it really stank.<br /><br />Meanwhile, I have neglected to credit the remarkable musicians I’m working with right now. Time to make amends:<br /><blockquote><a href="http://www.seattleopera.org/bios/index.aspx?name=lauren_flanigan">Lauren Flanigan, soprano</a><br /><a href="http://www.bcmf.org/concert-season/artist-bios/stephen-williamson-clarinet/">Stephen Williamson, clarinet</a><br /><a href="http://www.taimursullivan.com/">Taimur Sullivan, tenor saxophone</a><br /><a href="http://www.chambermusicsociety.org/artistDetail/44/artistID=352">Arnaud Sussmann, violin</a><br /><a href="http://www.music.ucla.edu/People/Faculty%20bios/RONeill.htm">Richard O’Neill, viola</a><br /><a href="http://www.marblecliffchamberplayers.org/clancynewman.htm">Clancy Newman, cello</a><br /><a href="http://www.melvinchen.com/bio">Melvin Chen, piano</a><br /><a href="http://www.ransomwilson.com/">Ransom Wilson, conductor</a><br /></blockquote>It's a monster roster, and Ransom sets just the right tone in rehearsal, giving guidance where needed, allowing everyone enough room to let their musicianship fly. This afternoon we’ll gather at the Academy and nail this piece down, bar by bar.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-6994132055816163311?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-45836433109644519172009-05-29T06:21:00.000-04:002009-06-06T14:23:03.366-04:00making nyce<div style="text-align: justify;">I’m off to New York again tomorrow – this time for three rehearsals and three recording sessions over the course of a week. Saturday and Sunday we rehearse <span style="font-style: italic;">Appendage</span>, then Monday and Tuesday we record it. Wednesday is a rehearsal of <span style="font-style: italic;">What Happened,</span> Friday another recording session from 10 am until we collapse from exhaustion or get enough good takes, whichever comes first. Thursday I’ll sneak off to visit with family I see far too infrequently.<br /></div><br />Keep an eye out for me – I may show up in some unexpected places.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-4583643310964451917?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-16614329458980478462009-05-25T06:21:00.004-04:002009-05-25T06:21:01.170-04:00MemorialMy undergraduate counterpoint class was taught by a fiftyish, alcoholic composer. <br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />He had written the textbook for the class, which we all dutifully purchased. It was a cheaply bound collection of single-sided, typewritten pages, many words crossed out and corrected with scribbles in the margin -- and many others that should have received the same treatment.<br /><br />Some mornings he showed up late for class, mumbled something like, “do chapter six,” then put his head down on the desk, moaned softly for a while and began snoring loudly.<br /><br />A few years later, when I was in grad school, I heard that he had died in London. The person he specified should be notified in the event of his death – I assume he had no living relatives – was his former teacher, Milton Babbitt.<br /><br />The guy had gotten off to a pretty good start, winning a BMI Young Composers Award, and having a piece released on a CRI recording.<br /><br />I remember one time when he had the whole composition department over to his house for dinner. He made a huge pot of chili, and was as happy as I’d ever seen him, scurrying back and forth with steaming bowls. But as the evening drew to a close and we all started saying our goodbyes, I thought he was going to cry.<br /><br />I’m thinking about him now, as I prepare to take a sabbatical from teaching. Burned out and beat up, he represents for me everything that can go wrong with an artist’s dreams.<br /><br />On this day when we remember the men and women who have died for our country, here is a quiet toast for all of the Americans who have given their lives to anonymous pursuit of the muse.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-1661432945898047846?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-18368522502598784622009-05-21T06:18:00.000-04:002009-05-21T06:18:01.087-04:00Bolts of Lightning<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/Stucky_Steven_Hoebermann948-284-778652.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 133px; height: 200px;" src="http://www.sequenza21.com/uploaded_images/Stucky_Steven_Hoebermann948-284-778650.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I think I experienced more lightning bolts when I was a kid, but that was before I developed a strong sense of taste. It’s easy to be flooded with ideas when your standards are low. In fact, the ideas I get through bolts of lightning are not very good. For me, the Thomas Edison formula – 95 percent perspiration and 5 percent inspiration – is right. You have to create the conditions for inspiration by working really hard at ideas that might at first seem unpromising. Maybe you have to prepare the synapses for something to happen. Without work, “it” doesn’t just come.<br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">-- Steven Stucky</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-1836852250259878462?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-26720969309188317642009-05-17T06:28:00.003-04:002009-05-17T06:28:02.103-04:00pentatonic - the american style?<div style="text-align: justify;">This week, I received the following lovely email:<br /><blockquote>Dear Mr. Dillon,<br /><br />i am a music-education-student of the music-consevatory of cologne. in March 2010 the emerson quartett will play your 5. Quartett "Through the nights".<br /><br />In a seminar we prepar worksheets for pupils. These pupils are going to visit the concert. They will prepare the pieces in their music-lessons at school. We are not sure what the central theme of these music-lessons will be. In the moment we think about the theme "pentatonic-the american style?- What was, and what IS the american Style?" The whole programm of the concert contains of american pieces of Dvorak, Barbe, Ives and Dillon.<br />http://www.koelner-philharmonie.de/veranstaltung/103504/<br /><br />The question "What is the american Style?" should be the central theme of an interdisciplinary circle of lessons in a few subjects. Is it possible, that you wright us some informations about your piece? Could you send me a few pages of the score? It is very difficult to prepar pupils for the concert, when we do not know something about the piece. I swear, that these informations would not come into the public before the premiere was. Please help us to create "high qualitiy lessons" and give the pupils a better understanding of "new music" ;-)<br /><br />Thanks a lot<br /><br />Best regards from Bonn, Germany<br />Martin Kirchharz</blockquote> The quest to understand new music continues, and seems to be in intrepid hands, as always.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-2672096930918831764?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-38741095091803177182009-05-13T06:19:00.001-04:002009-05-13T06:19:01.330-04:00Stealing recipes<div style="text-align: justify;">There’s a certain kind of concert that can have a bracing place in the new music world. I’m thinking of the performance organized by and for composers, for which the audience is primarily composers and their friends (sometimes I wonder how composers ever find the time or the social skills to make friends, but it does happen). These sparsely attended performances can be wonderful opportunities to try out ideas that may not be ready for general consumption.<br /><br />Need I add that many of these performances take place in university or conservatory environs? Need I also add that they can occasionally become toxic events, fostering in-bred, mutual-admiration societies, or vicious, politicized back-stabbing?<br /><br />Such is not always the case but, as in any arena, good intentions have the potential to turn sour. Thankfully, I’ve had more experience with the beneficial aspects of these performances, and just enough of a taste of the negatives to keep me cautious.<br /><br />I’m reminded of a comment one of my teachers, <a href="http://www.hogrivermusic.com/">James Sellars</a>, made years ago. He compared these concerts to the bake sales his aunts had when he was growing up in Arkansas. “Composers come to these concerts to see what everyone else is putting in their pies this year,” he chortled.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-3874109509180317718?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-50917769072189331362009-05-09T06:23:00.002-04:002009-05-09T08:21:33.617-04:00Appendage 2.0<div style="text-align: justify;">Finally finished the score and parts to <span style="font-style: italic;">Appendage</span>, three weeks before rehearsals begin. What a relief. This is the song cycle that was composed in 1993. Since then, various elements of different versions of the piece had been misplaced, so I had to re-do the entire, 1000-measure piece. Basically a month of data-entry, with very little composing. Total drudgery.<br /><br />I did make a few adjustments, though. I don’t think I changed more than a handful of notes, but I revised some articulations and refined some of the French poetry – there are passages where the soprano shifts back and forth between singing in English and French. (You can ask me why I chose to have some passages in French, rather than doing the whole thing in English, but I’m not sure I could give you a good answer – it just seemed like the right thing to do for this piece. I blame Bernard Rands’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Canti del sole</span>, a wonderful piece I heard the NY Philharmonic premiere in 1983, for my habit of disregarding language consistency in a number of my vocal works.)<br /><br />Now I’m finally getting back to work on <span style="font-style: italic;">String Quartet No. 4: The Infinite Sphere</span>. The deadline for this piece is July 1st, but I really need to have it finished by May 29th, for reasons that I may have an opportunity to explain in a later post. Not having a chance to look at it since mid-March was a bit nerve-racking, but it was also wonderfully clarifying: it was great to discover that the piece is 90% right, and that I know exactly what to do in order to bring the other 10% into focus.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-5091776907218933136?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-57770934954793744582009-05-05T07:02:00.002-04:002009-05-05T07:15:56.299-04:00end-of-the-year progeny pride<div style="text-align: justify;">I’m in a very gratifying place right now – last Tuesday night, I got to hear Alicia Willard, a freshman comp student, play vibes in the premiere of her subtle and lovely <span style="font-style: italic;">Irony of the Sentiments</span> on our Percussion Ensemble concert. Saturday night I heard the premiere of her <span style="font-style: italic;">Ganache</span> for piano duo, on the same concert in which the nu contemporary ensemble performed music by students Michael Ahrens (<span style="font-style: italic;">Mutations</span>), Jesse Blair (<span style="font-style: italic;">One of Many Factors</span>), Tom Brennan (<span style="font-style: italic;">Sketches</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Rock Creek Bucolic</span>), Lucas Hausrath (<span style="font-style: italic;">Quartet for Piano and Brass</span>), Ted Oliver (<span style="font-style: italic;">Childhood Antics</span>) and Jeremy Phillips (<span style="font-style: italic;">Fire and Ice</span>). Next Monday a student woodwind quintet will top off a program of Fine, Carter and Nielsen with the premiere of Leo Hurley’s new quintet – as yet untitled, I believe.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">It’s very satisfying to see all of the hard work that has gone into these compositions pay off, and to see all of these instrumentalists rallying behind their compositional colleagues with some edge-of-your-seat performances.<br /></div><br />Makes me very glad I got into this line of work.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-5777093495479374458?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9896207.post-30365053820162870192009-05-01T19:29:00.002-04:002009-05-02T06:08:31.926-04:00In C Cures Shingles<div style="text-align: justify;">Heard from <a href="http://www.banffcentre.ca/faculty/faculty_member.aspx?facId=3541">Judith Sherman</a>, who took part in the historic Carnegie Hall performance of Terry Riley’s <span style="font-style: italic;">In C</span> last Friday night. Judy is, as anyone knows who is familiar with these things, one of the top recording producers in the Classical arena, with a particular expertise in new music. Ten Grammy nominations, with Top Classical Producer wins in 1993 and 2007 etc., etc. Here’s her report:<br /><blockquote>A mountaintop experience. I hadn't sung in public since 1978, so it took some time to get flexibility back into the voice, etc. But my, what fun!</blockquote>She went on to tell me that <a href="http://issueprojectroom.org/2009/03/04/mark-stewart/">Mark Stewart</a>, who was playing home-made instruments in the performance, was suffering from shingles. “By the end of the evening, the pain was gone and hasn’t really come back – some itch, but not much pain. So <span style="font-style: italic;">In C </span>cures shingles.”<br /><br />So you heard it here: drop your anti-viral drugs, gather your friends, get a pulse going and start wailing away on your modules.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9896207-3036505382016287019?l=www.sequenza21.com%2Fdillon.html'/></div>Lawrence Dillonnoreply@blogger.com0