Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music ... - NewMusicBox
Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music ... - NewMusicBox
Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music ... - NewMusicBox
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New<strong>Music</strong>Box May 2003<br />
really best sung without a c<strong>on</strong>ductor and with your eyes closed. I'm sorry. I know that hurts, but<br />
to me <strong>on</strong>e of the challenges to compositi<strong>on</strong>—because I think you also asked how you preserve it<br />
as a composer—is very difficult. Because if the language is to be sung as it is meant to be sung,<br />
we have very little training in how to do that in our field. We train our voices in a very specific<br />
way, to sing in a very specific way and <strong>on</strong>e of the w<strong>on</strong>derful things about this symposium is that<br />
I am hearing so many other ways of singing, and I keep thinking, "How can I use those ways?<br />
What can I do? How could I put that <strong>on</strong> the page so that it w<strong>on</strong>'t come out, "Dies. Irae." With<br />
that rounded bass t<strong>on</strong>e…. Now you know…. I keep w<strong>on</strong>dering. We composers are trained to be<br />
able to capture what we hear and put it <strong>on</strong> the page as best we can, and in the way that we hear<br />
it. However, if we are going to set "Gullah" for instance, it just wouldn't be in 6/8 or 4/4 or 3/4 or<br />
duple. It wouldn't look like exact pitches <strong>on</strong> systems of spaces and lines. And there is the<br />
challenge for us.<br />
MOSES HOGAN: There must be a guide. Again I go back to the documentati<strong>on</strong>. If there is no<br />
effort to document in an effort to preserve, you may hear something different and ph<strong>on</strong>etically<br />
when you come down, it may sound different to you than it sounds to me. Even my singers who<br />
come from all over the country—guys from Mississippi sound different from guys from New<br />
York. And so you are going to always run into that. So, if there were a master recording, or<br />
something to aim for…so that what you hear and how it comes out are two different things,<br />
sometimes.<br />
LINDA HOESCHLER: Well, I think <strong>on</strong>e of the questi<strong>on</strong>s is should we be writing in that idiom,<br />
or should we be leaving it to the Smiths<strong>on</strong>ian records? Seriously, because there is a big debate in<br />
this country. Should western composers be writing with eastern sounds? Whereas, we do accept<br />
that many Asian immigrants here are adapting western music to create their sounds? I think that<br />
is an issue too.<br />
AUDIENCE QUESTION: My questi<strong>on</strong> follows right al<strong>on</strong>g with that. As choristers with this<br />
whole text issue—as choristers we sing in a lot of different languages. We learn to sing in different<br />
languages, and we should learn to sing in different languages. As composers, should you be<br />
writing in anything except your native t<strong>on</strong>gue?<br />
LINDA HOESCHLER: Well, you can hear Libby's piece tomorrow, and answer that questi<strong>on</strong>!<br />
Libby, why d<strong>on</strong>'t you start?<br />
LIBBY LARSEN: It frightens me to death to write in a language other than my t<strong>on</strong>gue—which is<br />
American English, not British English—because I cannot feel the word. I can't feel them. I d<strong>on</strong>'t<br />
know how much we have talked about feeling words, but I need to feel the words.<br />
MOSES HOGAN: I will write what is comfortable for me, because I d<strong>on</strong>'t write in foreign<br />
language doesn't mean that I'm dumb or I cannot grasp it, but I think in order to best show what I<br />
am able to do, I would like for my compositi<strong>on</strong>s to be in the language that I am most comfortable<br />
with. And I have not had the opportunity, or I am not sure if I would accept a commissi<strong>on</strong>, to do<br />
Composers’ Dialogue #1, 08/06/2002