What is it about Emerson’s poem that you find so compelling, and what do you enjoy most about setting a text to music? In looking at Emerson’s “Boston Hymn,” an example of Transcendentalist poetry at its best, my composer’s eye already finds attractive its lofty calls for freedom and self-determination welded to specific, even humble, im- agery familiar to the farmers who built our nation. My challenge will be how to capture something that I find so essentially American — that an ordinary existence can be tied to extraordinary aspirations — in sound. I love writing for the voice, the original instrument! This transcends all cultures and while it is our oldest form of expression, no one can deny its modernity either, its continued relevance for newly created songs. It’s a truly timeless vehicle. Many people in the music world identify you as a composer comfort- able working in different musical traditions. Your family heritage, after all, is Peruvian, Jewish, and Chinese. To what extent does this polyglot background inform your music? This is a really great question, and I honestly think that Bela Bartók of Hungary, Benjamin Britten of England, and Chou Wen Chung (originally of China, now lives in New York) are the truest kindred spirits in terms of how my polyglot background informs my work. Although Bartók was a champion arranger, these composers mostly created completely orig- inal material that was inspired by their knowledge and careful study of other cultures. So, by becoming very familiar with traditions, they can add to it authentically yet with a completely original and personal voice. This inspires me because I’m not sure imitation and/or assembling H+H has a long and distinguished history of premiering new works. In 1823, it even approached Beethoven to write a grand oratorio in the style of Handel. (Beethoven, who in his later years was preoccupied with his final string quartets, never got to the project.) In more recent decades, H+H has commissioned new works by Daniel Pinkham, Randall Thompson, and John Tavener. On June 18, 2015, as part of the concert program Handel and Haydn Sings, award-winning American composer Gabriela Lena Frank will get her turn in the spotlight: a world premiere work based on the poem Boston Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson, arranged for chorus and chamber ensemble. The work is a co-commission with the Library of Congress. GABRIELA H+H FIRSTS LENA FRANK Q+A WITH COMPOSER already existing material is the greatest flattery! Rather, meeting the essence of a culture head-on and grappling with it in lieu of keeping it self-con- tained, unfiltered through the blender of your craft and imagination, is my preferred way to pay tribute. And paying tribute can come in many forms. For instance, inspired by a particularly wobbly vocal vi- brato enacted by high-voiced Quechua women from the sierras of Peru, I might ask members of a classical string quartet to not only create a similar vibrato as i HANDEL + HAYDN BICENTENNIAL
Transcript
What is it about Emerson’s poem that you find so compelling, and what do you enjoy most about setting a text to music?
In looking at Emerson’s “Boston Hymn,” an example of Transcendentalist poetry at its best, my composer’s eye already finds attractive its lofty calls for freedom and self-determination welded to specific, even humble, im-agery familiar to the farmers who built our nation. My challenge will be how to capture something that I find so essentially American — that an ordinary existence can be tied to extraordinary aspirations — in sound.
I love writing for the voice, the original instrument! This transcends all cultures and while it is our oldest form of expression, no one can deny its modernity either, its continued relevance for newly created songs. It’s a truly timeless vehicle.
Many people in the music world identify you as a composer comfort-able working in different musical traditions. Your family heritage, after all, is Peruvian, Jewish, and Chinese. To what extent does this polyglot background inform your music?
This is a really great question, and I honestly think that Bela Bartók of Hungary, Benjamin Britten of England, and Chou Wen Chung (originally of China, now lives in New York) are the truest kindred spirits in terms of how my polyglot background informs my work. Although Bartók was a champion arranger, these composers mostly created completely orig-inal material that was inspired by their knowledge and careful study of other cultures. So, by becoming very familiar with traditions, they can add to it authentically yet with a completely original and personal voice. This inspires me because I’m not sure imitation and/or assembling
H+H has a long and distinguished history of premiering new works. In 1823, it even approached Beethoven to write a grand oratorio in the style of Handel. (Beethoven, who in his later years was preoccupied with his final string quartets, never got to the project.) In more recent decades, H+H has commissioned new works by Daniel Pinkham, Randall Thompson, and John Tavener.
On June 18, 2015, as part of the concert program Handel and Haydn Sings, award-winning American composer Gabriela Lena Frank will get her turn in the spotlight: a world premiere work based on the poem Boston Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson, arranged for chorus and chamber ensemble.
The work is a co-commission with the Library of Congress.
GABRIELA
H+H FIRSTS
LENAFRANK
Q+A WITH COMPOSER
already existing material is the greatest flattery! Rather, meeting the essence of a culture head-on and grappling with it in lieu of keeping it self-con-tained, unfiltered through the blender of your craft and imagination, is my preferred way to pay tribute.
And paying tribute can come in many forms. For instance, inspired by a particularly wobbly vocal vi-brato enacted by high-voiced Quechua women from the sierras of Peru, I might ask members of a classical string quartet to not only create a similar vibrato as
i HANDEL + HAYDN BICENTENNIAL
Meeting the essence of a culture head-on and grappling with it in lieu of keeping it self-contained, unfiltered through the blender of your craft and imagination, is my preferred way to pay tribute.
AMERICAN PREMIERES
DECEMBER 25, 1818 Messiah by George Frideric Handel (complete)
FEBRUARY 16, 1819 The Creation by Joseph Haydn (complete)
APRIL 13, 1829 Missa longa in C Major by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart
JANUARY 26, 1845 Samson by George Frideric Handel
NOVEMBER 15, 1855 Solomon by George Frideric Handel
FEBRUARY 17, 1867 Jephtha by George Frideric Handel
MAY 5, 1878 Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi
APRIL 11, 1879 Saint Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach (complete)
DECEMBER 8, 1967 Messiah by George Frideric Handel (Mozart arrangement)
OCTOBER 28, 1971 Le diable boiteux by Jean Françaix
MARCH 2001 Hymn of Thanks and Friendship by C.P.E. Bach
BOSTON PREMIERES
JANUARY 22, 1843 St. Paul by Felix Mendelssohn
FEBRUARY 26, 1843 Stabat Mater by Gioachino Rossini
DECEMBER 5, 1847 Judas Maccabaeus by George Frideric Handel
FEBRUARY 13, 1848 Elijah by Felix Mendelssohn
FEBRUARY 5, 1853 Symphony No. 9 in D Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven
JANUARY 18, 1857 Requiem in D Minor by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart
FEBRUARY 13, 1859 Israel in Egypt by George Frideric Handel
APRIL 6, 1930 Psalmus Hungaricus by Zoltan Kodaly
FEBRUARY 8, 1969 Le dit des jeux du monde (The Story of the World at Play) by Arthur Honegger
DECEMBER 12, 1975 Il ritorno di Tobia by Joseph Haydn
JANUARY 31, 2002 Lamentations and Praises by John Tavener
WORLD PREMIERES
MARCH 28, 1965 Passion According to St. Luke by Randall Thompson
APRIL 27, 1973 Daniel in the Lion’s Den by Daniel Pinkham
MARCH 25, 1977 Garden Party by Daniel Pinkham
MARCH 1999 JFK: The Voice of Peace by Dan Welcher
SEPTEMBER 11, 2011 Illuminessence: prayers for peace by Silvio Amato
IMPORTANT H+H PREMIERES
their bow draws across the string, but will help them highlight this irreg-ular sound by giving them melodies and harmonies that are curiously dissonant and, well, wobbly! This brings the idea of “wobble” in areas beyond just the technical act of playing the music (the vibrato) but leaps into the deeper levels of the piece itself.
I’m also a firm believer that connections can be made between any cock-tail of cultures if one has the ingenuity to suss it out. I’ve sometimes felt that my job was to be a matchmaker… I can introduce a viola to an Andean pan pipe, find the overlap between the two, and then compose a piece from that place. And if I do my job right, I’ll create a piece of music that makes the overlap even larger.
For this upcoming Bicentennial Season at H+H, we have a running theme of composers influenced by others, i.e., Vivaldi influencing Bach, Mendelssohn and Haydn influenced by Handel's oratorios. Which composers have most influenced you?
Oh, the list is long: Bach, my original jazz musician and contrapuntalist, recalibrates me every time I listen or play his music; punk rocker Peter Pan Mozart brightens me when my energy flags; late moody Beethoven makes me take myself and my music more seriously; Britten shocks me with his inventiveness and lyricism; Ravel’s luminosity of orchestration makes me clean my own sonic paintbrushes; Stravinsky and Prokofiev remind me to draw on the rugged insistent rhythms of my own South American forebears; Shostakovich asks that I not be afraid to stare down life’s bleakly ironic moments. And Bartók! To me, Bartók embraces all of these qualities of the aforementioned composers with an eye to cultural brotherhood. My influences are many and I'm indeed standing on the shoulders of giants, as they say.
Gabriela Lena Frank’s new piece receives its world premiere on Thursday, June 18 at 7.30pm in Symphony Hall. The performance is being present-ed in conjunction with the Chorus America National Conference, held in Boston from June 17–20, 2015.
