Via pulchritudinis

On November 22, 2009, in the Sistine Chapel, Benedict XVI delivered an address to an audience of 250 singers, musicians, writers, painters, architects, sculptors, actors and film producers. The address, "You Are the Custodians of Beauty," suggested the possibility of "a via pulchritudinis, a path of beauty which is at the same time an artistic and aesthetic journey, a journey of faith, of theological enquiry."

Not surprisingly, the pontiff affirmed the work of artists in bringing beauty into the world and elevating our gaze above its negative elements, combating the decline into resignation and despair. He emphasized the importance of the arts in the realm of faith and vice versa.

As I began to read the address (in translation), I admit that I braced myself for a reduction of art to the attractive and pleasant.

I am thankful to say that I was pleasantly surprised. While Benedict XVI did use the word "beauty" or "beautiful" forty-four times in the short speech, and while his only mention of music was "in the service of the liturgy," it is to his credit that he affirmed even more art's power to challenge and shock, using this quote from painter Georges Braque: "Art is meant to disturb, science reassures."

He went on to say that art "pulls us up short, but in so doing it reminds us of our final destiny, it sets us back on our path," and stated explicitly that he is not promoting easy, escapist art. This acknowledgment of difficult art was balanced by a rejection of "gratuitous provocation" and of "seductive but hypocritical beauty that rekindles desire, the will to power, to possess, and to dominate others."

I wonder how many artists feel, as I do, a constant struggle to find what it can possibly mean for me to make art that could lead hearts toward the infinite. Perhaps there is some help to be found in Benedict XVI's words: "The way of beauty leads us, then, to grasp the Whole in the fragment, the Infinite in the finite, God in the history of humanity."

Could it be in the nature of art itself, the effort to create something meaningful and share something about the nature of being alive--could it be intrinsic to making art? Surely not, or all art would draw us deeper in faith. Is it some mysterious transference of my struggle toward faith that finds its way into my work without any direct intention on my part?

No, I think artists make decisions. Not always--there are surely many mysteries, many happy accidents. But I think it is possible for me to choose to make a destructive work, a work that discourages, that incites rage, and so on. Likewise, I think it is possible for me to make a positive work, not merely "happy" but a work that engages with the nature of life and meaning in some small but beneficial way.

To whatever degree I make these choices, I want to make good ones.

Shane Prine, eximposition.
Michael O'Brien, You Sought Me.
Anonymous, Jesus graffiti on a pier.

Kodak (Hall) Moment: the world premiere of OCTOBER SUNRISE

I am very happy to report that the Eastman Wind Orchestra gave a beautiful world premiere performance of my October Sunrise on the 21st of October, 2009.

Conductor Mark Davis Scatterday programmed the work for the Eastman Wind Orchestra, the first- and second- year students at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, rather than the Eastman Wind Ensemble because the work is less challenging than the repertoire typically studied by his student musicians in later years of their undergraduate studies. Mark Scatterday said he would consider October Sunrise a work of difficulty level 4, meaning that it would be appropriate for the stronger high school wind ensembles. He had very complimentary things to say about the work and had clearly bought into it long before putting it on stage, as the group sounded very well prepared when I was invited to eavesdrop on their rehearsal.

On the morning of the performance I had a couple of free hours. I wandered into the music library at Eastman and discovered a large display of ephemera from the early history of the wind program at Eastman. The idea of a virtuoso Wind Ensemble, as distinct from a large military-style band, was pioneered by Frederick Fennell, starting with his establishment of a band program during his student days in the late 1930s and evolving into the first modern Wind Ensemble by the early 1950s. (Continued after the jump.)

If I wasn't already excited about the EWO performing my music, I was certainly moved when I stopped to reflect on the group's history, to read letters from Fennell outlining his goals for a wind program at Eastman School of Music, to see early photos from rehearsals, and to see commercial recordings of the group from the 1950s onward.

I admit it: the placement of the word OCTOBER on this large banner near the entrance to the hall was not, in fact, to announce the performance of my OCTOBER SUNRISE. The Eastman Theatre, built in 1922 by Kodak founder George Eastman as a concert hall and movie palace, had its grand reopening just a couple of weeks prior to my performance there. The restored hall, renamed Kodak Hall, is breathtaking. The acoustics are a bit bright for wind ensemble, favoring the percussion more than might be ideal, but of course the hall is also home to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra whose complement of strings is probably very well served by the rich high-frequency reverberation. Still, the Eastman Wind Orchestra are settling into their remodeled home and I very much enjoyed the beautiful, rich sound palette they create in that space.

Ironically, there are signs prohibiting photography in Kodak Hall! No one seemed to mind my taking a few snapshots of the group, the conductor, and myself before and after the event, so I will assume that is intended to discourage photography during performances. I will post a few small interior images here. In any case, my blurry snapshots could not do justice to the space. For better photos, I would refer the reader here.

I express my thanks to Mark Scatterday and every member of the Eastman Wind Orchestra for an excellent performance of October Sunrise, and to a very gracious Rochester audience for welcoming the piece into the world.

I also want to thank Dr. Harlan Parker and the Peabody Wind Ensemble for reading through the work in rehearsal shortly after I wrote it; your reading gave me a better sense of scale that led me to clarify the pulse at the beginning, and was very musical and rewarding in its own right.

October Sunrise is friendly, accessible music; my friend and fellow composer Samuel Burt teasingly accuses me of being a populist. Perhaps it is telling that my least experimental composition to date has also earned the highest-profile performance to date, and I have no complaints about that. I built a series of unfolding musical ideas into this little piece that I find interesting, and wrapped them in what I consider an appealingly honest, straightforward sound. I am very grateful to have heard that sound realized in a public performance.

And, for the record, I am slightly taller than Maestro Scatterday; he stood on his toes just before the photo was taken.

(More snapshots can be seen on flickr.)

I'm in! Walden School NY Composers Forum

It appears my name has been added--in facebook posts, anyway--to the list of "featured composers" on the upcoming Walden School Alumni Composers Forum in New York.

The Walden School is an amazing program, connecting musicianship pedagogy with the nurturing of creativity. I am an alumnus only second-hand, having attended two Teacher Training Institute sessions, but Walden has a very fond place in my heart and I am deeply grateful to be included.

If you are in New York City on the afternoon of November 15, please join us, 3 to 5 p.m. at The Gershwin Hotel, 7 East 27th St.

American Consumers Orchestra?

It isn't often as a composer that I feel that I am faced with an ethical dilemma over multinational corporate sponsorship.

But american composers orchestra has managed to give me pause, with this new partnership with LVMH - the French holding company for Louis Vuitton (luxury leather goods and accessories), Moët (mass producer of champagne) and Hennessy (favorite cognac of rappers and of Kim Jong-Il).

It's not that I think any of these storied products is inherently wrong. But these companies sell a "livin' large" consumerist lifestyle image that is the opposite of thoughtful new music. Of course, from their bottom-line perspective, we avant-nerds are just a gap in their market share. I'm debating whether I should bother to voice my disappointment to ACO.

Facebook your way out of any problem!

Huh?

Two girls in Australia posted their facebook status as "trapped in a storm drain" and they were rescued? Wow, fb is the solution to everything!

Status: "is late for work" - and someone will come along with a helicopter!

Status: "is not yet finished grading those papers" and all my students would skip class! (Actually, that might work too well.)

Obama should post "is battling unemployment and trying to provide health care," and the Oval Office would be overrun by brilliant economists and investors with viable solutions! (I wonder how much help he could marshal with "is battling intransigently partisan politicians"?)

Tsvangirai should post that he won a democratic election but his economy is dysfunctional and a dictator refuses to abdicate and the military is a vast mafia. Maybe the west would notice if he posted it on fb.

Maybe Christ's followers need to post, "struggling with lukewarmness." I know I do.

~m