Several of the 27 consortium ensembles who commissioned This World Alive have scheduled premiere performances of the piece in the coming days.
Best wishes to these ensembles and their directors!
The new winds & film consortium piece that I have mentioned many times before is complete! The music and film are done and everything is about to be sent out to the 27 consortium members. We are thrilled with the response and support that this project has received, and we thank all of the consortium members for helping make this work possible! You can view the full list of schools and read the new program note for the piece here. In the program note I explain the inspiration for the title that we chose - This World Alive.
In the coming months, I will be providing updates here as the performances of this new piece are scheduled. After seeing the beautiful film produced by Cuyler Bryant on my little computer screen, I can't wait to experience the complete work with live film projection and wind ensemble. Stay tuned for more!
It has been a few weeks since I last posted here - things have been busy! I have been working hard on the new piece for winds and film, and the consortium has been growing! We now have a wonderful group of 22 schools signed up (see the list here)! Thank you to those supporters who are making this exciting project possible! There are still a few spots left if you or someone you know is interested.
Distant Moons is a work inspired by the photography of Ansel Adams. As I was sketching out the piece, I wanted to learn more about Adams, his life, and his work. I have been an admirer of his photography for some time, although I have never known all that much about him. (One fascinating tidbit - Adams was actually a very gifted pianist and for much of his youth, planned to become a professional musician.)
So, a few months ago I decided I would read a biography of the great American artist.
I walked down the street to my town library, but unfortunately the only two "Ansel Adams" records they had on the shelves were a book of his color photographs and a DVD about his life. So, I asked if I could request a biography from another library. Indeed, a few nearby libraries had biographies, and through a inter-library loan agreement, they "ordered" the Mary Street Alinder biography of Ansel Adams. It arrived a couple of weeks later and I began reading a chunk of pages each night before bed.
One night, I was reading steadily through page 153 and suddenly came upon a sentence that stopped me dead in my tracks. I literally read it about 10 times, finding it profound and refreshing:
"Ansel, in contrast, felt that art must be created free from any intention other than the creation of beauty."
The "in contrast" refers to the work of László Moholy-Nagy, a European contemporary of Adams who was a leader in the avant-garde movement. Moholy-Nagy believed that "art should be used for social change." Adams disagreed, professing that the creation of beauty should be the only artistic intention - the sole reason for creating a work of art.
As a composer, I have always felt like I am on a quest to find beauty, and reading this quote over and over solidifies that idea in my mind. Surely what I am searching for most when writing music is beauty - bringing beauty to life and sharing it with others. Many intentions get in the way - what we "want" the piece to do, how we want it to unfold, how we want others to react to it.
There are undoubtedly many intentions and considerations floating around in our heads as we attempt to create a work of art. What I think I love so much about Adams' idea is that it reassures my desire to wipe all that excess intention and clutter away and simply create beauty.
Thanks, Ansel.
