As a composer, are you inspired by other art forms? If so which ones?
I’m most often inspired by literature – many of my instrumental works center around some element of a novel or short story. Several years ago I wrote a 26-minute Pierrot-plus piece, Songs of Love & Madness, where each movement was a meditation on some piece of literature that had affected me in some way: Jean Cocteau’s Les Enfants Terribles, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Pauline Reage’s The Story of O, the story of Ganymede from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. I also have a duo for cello and piano titled Letter from a Young Poet – a play on the Rilke title – which takes as its inspiration a letter from the young Paul Bowles to Gertrude Stein during one of his early trips to Tangiers.
The visual arts, while I have a great affinity to them, inspire me less in a musical sense. I think it has something to do with the lack of the temporal element. Music is something that has to be experienced in time – a piece moves straight through from beginning to end, and to interrupt it is to lose the effect of the work. The plastic arts can’t be interrupted – they can be obscured or damaged, but barring disaster a painting is the same now as it was five minutes ago. Literature has elements of the temporal to it – while it can be interrupted by putting down a book and picking it up again later, the stories told take place in their own time – in or out of sequence – and the actual reading of a novel or a poem takes place in time. I think that it’s this element of time and – particularly – development that makes literature so much more assimilable for me, musically.
Dennis Tobenski
Do you use a computer for your work? When did you start?
I do. Mostly, I do my actual writing either at the piano, or sitting at a table, and use Sibelius to engrave my scores and check that I’ve notated rhythms properly. I also do my final editing and rounds of revisions at the computer. However, I’ve been known to hunker down in a café or at the New York Public Library with my laptop and do some heavy-duty composing directly into the computer (using the computer keyboard and mouse – I’ve never been comfortable using a MIDI keyboard for input).
I started using the computer as a compositional tool very early on. My first real piece, which I wrote at 14, was done entirely on paper; but shortly afterward, I got Finale Notepad, and spent hours clicking notes onto the staves and writing tons and tons of music – none of which, of course, I’d let anyone see today!
The computer has definitely been a great tool for me – especially since I’m not the world’s greatest pianist and consequently can have difficulty playing through some of my works on my own.
Sibelius really does two things for me: It allows me to hear what I’ve written as a way to a) make sure I’ve notated everything properly, and b) make sure that I’m on the right track musically since I can’t always bang it out on my own at the piano; and it allows me to create scores that are engraved at a professional level, which is so important in this day and age.
Do you still use paper? What for?
I love the act of writing out notes, so all of my sketches are on paper. My art song sketches tend to bewilder people who look at them: strings of stemless noteheads with bits of text scribbled here and there – road signs for myself for when I put everything together in the end – and seemingly random barlines to tell me where a line of text ends. Maybe a couple of chord symbols (*gasp!*) peppered throughout to remind me of a particular harmonization that I’ve worked out and don’t want to have to remember on my own or write out in full quite yet. I know I shocked my boyfriend (who is also a composer) when I sat down with staff paper at the dining room table in his parents’ summer house and composed several pages of one of the more intense sections of Songs of Love & Madness without reference to a piano or my computer.
I also print out drafts of pieces that I’m working on and carry them around with me to dive into in any spare moment. I’ve missed many a subway stop doing revisions on my way home from various day jobs over the years.
Does working on a computer affect the way you compose?
Definitely. I think that the ability to move notes around easily and make revisions and edits at the drop of a hat makes me much more open to try different things with a piece. I think that my works are much more rhythmically interesting because I’m able to drop in a beat here or drop out half a beat there without difficulty or the danger of ruining the page with smudgy erasures. With my vocal and choral music, I’m always toying with bar length well into the revision stage, and it makes a huge difference that I’m able to make and undo changes easily.
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Are you concerned with a possible loss of craftsmanship because of technology?
Not in any significant way. Artists have always faced change in the form of technological advance, but they are in no way obligated to make use of these advances. Lots of young composers use computers and various technological means to create their works, and many use them well. Those who don’t typically use technology to be lazy – and these composers will always find a way to be lazy, no matter what. Every generation sees advances in technology and grows accustomed to those changes; then with the next wave of advances, that generation forgets how they successfully weathered sweeping improvements and decries the next generation’s supposed reliance on a technology that wasn’t around “in their day”; rinse; repeat.
Technology, along with an increased access to musical instruction, has allowed more young people than ever before to become composers. Most won’t “make it”, and that’s how it’s always been; however, those that atrophy as composers still appreciate music at a high level, which can only be good for concert music since the flourishing of an art form requires an educated audience base, and the greater the size of that educated base, the more concert music will flourish.
Active composers, though, will find a way to make new technologies their own, and will create new standards of craftsmanship. I foresee a rise in engraving quality in the coming years as composers eschew the default settings in Finale and Sibelius, and learn to use their software to create professional-level scores as more and more composers turn toward self-publishing, which I think is the future of the concert music business.
Dennis Tobenski is a composer, vocalist, and fierce advocate of self-publishing and educating composers about the business of concert music. He is the founder of New Music Shelf.com, an online digital distributor of scores by self-published composers. http://www.dennistobenski.com
I have been setting a lot of text to music recently, in order to finish the two song cycles that will be premiered on Sat. April 2nd at the Estonian House, in Manhattan. In parallel, I’m also setting the computer-generated poetry that I will use for my cantata, as well as a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. All this to say that I’ve been in text setting mode for weeks now and I really enjoy the acute attention to text, pronunciation, meter, etc.
One of the reasons most “art song” (for want of a better term) is unsatisfying to me is the dutiful teleology of it— here’s the poem, set it to music, and when you get to the end, you’re done. Poetic form is almost always different from musical form, and letting one dictate the other seems to me like a huge cop-out.
I can really see what he means, but it is currently what I find fascinating and relieving in text setting: the text provides another constraint (remember Igor? The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self…), and helps to shape the entire form of a song. Yes, it can seem like a huge cop-out, but for a less experienced composer this kind of suggestion of form is truly welcomed.
Beyond considerations of pure music writing, I am still very inspired by Peter Sellars’s approach to text/libretto:
“You collect all this material and at a certain moment passages start speaking with other passages, … A conversation that goes along with individual source material just takes off, and things start ricocheting and having surprising connections or counterbalances. You’re always looking for yin and yang so the drama thrives on contrasts and contradictions.”
This is what I tried to do at a microscopical level in my cantata, and will still try to do in the future (a postmodern drift?).
And for people that never dabbled at text setting, here is a sonnet by John Donne that was set both by Benjamin Britten and John Adams, 60 years apart. I like how different they sound and how differently they were read by the composers, and by read I mean that the text projected an entirely different sound image in the composer’s mind…
HOLY SONNETS.
XIV.
Batter my heart, three-person’d God ; for you As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ; That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurp’d town, to another due, Labour to admit you, but O, to no end. Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, But is captived, and proves weak or untrue. Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain, But am betroth’d unto your enemy ; Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again, Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Source: Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I. E. K. Chambers, ed. London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 165.
Britten: Holy Sonnets of John Donne- "Batter my heart"
Britten: Holy Sonnets of John Donne -No.II ” Batter my heart” (1945) Paul Austin Kelly, tenor Michael Recchiuti, piano
"Batter, my heart", from Doctor Atomic
John Adams: Doctor Atomic, end of Act I, “Batter, my heart” (2005) Gerald Finley, baritone
What does text setting mean for you? A cop-out? A chore? The only music you’d ever want to write? Feel free to react in the comments section, or find me on Twitter: @tonalfreak.
As a composer, are you inspired by other art forms? If so which ones?
My first response to this thought provoking question is, architecture. There is an immediacy in the similarities to the tangible structures and music’s emotional realm of the invisible. After a bit of thought, I am happy to announce that the world itself is a great work of art. It sounds cliche already, right? Seriously though, what can be more inspirational than being in the midst of a cultural redefining of art itself? Artists today in all mediums work with the knowledge that what they do will be shaping the future. With that knowledge, many have taken it upon themselves to delight in the arbitrary. Experimenting with any number of novelties to ultimately prove what? That in the end there is no reason beyond beauty, yet no beauty beyond reason. And that idea in itself is enough to inspire my personal contemporary viewpoint of art’s purpose. Pointillist painting is also nice.
Do you use a computer for your work? When did you start?
I’ve used a computer with Sibelius notation software since 1999.
Jeremiah Bornfield
Do you still use paper? What for?
I still use paper because I don’t carry my laptop around too much. The paper is a great way to work out early ideas because it forces your imagination to realize your ideal sounds. Sometimes your imagination is better than any realization.
Does working on a computer affect the way you compose?
The computer interface does not necessarily effect the way I compose, however I find that working on the computer is good for a number of reasons related to ear training and notation. Initially the older orchestral midi sounds required me to develop a thorough awareness of melodic accenting, phrasing and articulations. You really have to exaggerate your score to have a “computer playback” which is musical. Likewise, it is advisable to have a score in which a musician can understand your purpose quickly. Since notation software requires the same musical indications that are standard throughout the world, the computer is a great place to cut your teeth on understanding basic markings, and even more elementary things. On the other hand, what single musician could execute the impossible combinations that a computer will simply hand over like yesterday’s meatloaf?
Hunter College Symphony plays Jeremiah Bornfield's "Famished Traipse Upon Reverie's Precipice"
Are you concerned with a possible loss of craftsmanship because of technology?
I think technology is a tool, and as such will be rendered on par with the mastery of its facilitator.
Jeremiah Bornfield is a composer based in New York City that is fluent in many styles and distinct in formal treatments. Some of his work has been presented at Lincoln Center, SVA Theater, Alvin Ailey Center, Galapagos Art Space, Tenri Cultural Institute and the National Theater Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. http://www.plrcounterpoint.com
I can’t really tell how famous this week’s composer is in the US. In almost 5 years in New York, I haven’t heard his name uttered once… Dusapin studied with Messiaen and Xenakis, and is one of the most successful living French composers.
A French u and a nasal (-in) could potentially make this name hard to pronounce. If you’ve followed this series, you know by now how to pronounce a French u (check Tristan Murail). The third syllable in Dusapin is pronounced as the French word for bread, pain (yes, just like in the Pain Quotidien).
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Was this helpful? Is there any other name (composer, piece, instrument, etc.) that you would like to see on these pages? Just post a comment or find me on Twitter: @tonalfreak.
Of course, I’m very interested in fake composers, and my #1 fake composer profile is a fake Beethoven: @DroppinTheBeet
I love the (fake) broken English (or is it broken German?), the inebriated tweets, and a constant reference to John Philip Sousa’s supposedly small genitalia. Others worth mentioning include: @FakeArvoPart
and the very recent@FakePhilipGlass (created 22 hours ago as I write)
Shostakovich tweets from Japan, Prokofiev from Edinburgh
While this is all very funny, I started to be annoyed by some other profiles that are just “parked”, or people who secured famous composers’ names for their personal tweets. I would love to hear about recordings, new editions, and interesting articles on Ravel, Debussy, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Lully, Fauré, Brahms, etc. but the profiles are just owned by people who don’t seem to use them.
Really?! Really?! That’s all you have to say @MauriceRavel?
Is it some Twitter form of Cybersquatting? I’m not really sure but I would love to see musical societies around the world claim these profiles and start using them for the sake of spreading the great music these composers wrote.
In a ridiculous attempt to counteract this phenomenon, I have “rescued” @SainteColombe, @Boismortier, and @CharlesKoechlin from a potential lame future on Twitter. I will be glad to transfer the ownership of these profiles to people that really love their music and will use Twitter to spread news about them. Who would you save if you could? And why not do it now?
Feel free to post your reactions in the comment section or find me on Twitter: @tonalfreak.
As a composer, are you inspired by other art forms? If so which ones?
Absolutely! I find inspiration all around me, but especially in the arts. One of my biggest inspirations artistically is the performance artist Marina Abramovic. Her art seems to ask big, challenging questions in a very direct and visceral way.
I also seem to find myself obsessed with the use of color- not just in the visual arts like painting and photography, but in the advertising of big corporations. I love the different way a color will look next to another color, and I think this directly relates to my use with timbre and harmony in my compositions.
I’m also drawn to literature. Often this has nothing to do with the stories themselves, but the way an author can twist the english language to make such evocative prose. There’s a definite logic behind sentence structure, and when that logic is just right, a good sentence can get under my skin and live there for a while. I think it’s the same with melody. A good melody has logic in its construction and can be quite powerful.
Michael Mranti
Do you use a computer for your work? When did you start?
Typically, my writing starts far away from the computer. I like to think about my pieces in abstract terms until I feel strongly that the piece deserves to be written. Usually I know that’s the case when a title seems to show up and I can’t get rid of it. At that point I know I have a definite concept. Once the concept is there, musical materials seem to form and I’ll dig them out at the piano. With these ideas on my scratch pad and the idea for the piece organized, I then go to finale and set to work!
Do you still use paper? What for?
Paper still plays an important part of the process for me. Sometimes I’ll map out the piece on paper using colored pencils to represent different aspects. But also, I’m trained as a jazz pianist and improvising comes easily to me. So I often sketch down parts of improvisation I like so that I can develop them later on.
Does working on a computer affect the way you compose?
Definitely! Playback is a wonderful tool. Composition is so weird, because there are no right answers a lot of the time. So in lessons and in text books, rarely do you get advice on how to space a chord or how to pace your material. The great thing about playback is that it instantly gives me, the composer, that information. Then it’s up to me to decide if it works or not.
The dangers for me in using my computer usually come from the internet. I’ll be writing something and be reminded of this great flute passage in Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony. Without thinking I’ll suddenly be listening to Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic performing it on youtube and five minutes later I’m watching videos of cute and cuddly kittens being cute with cute babies who are laughing so dang cutely at the cute kittens who are just too darn cute for their own good….
oh wait! i was composing something. *harumph* kittens…
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Are you concerned with a possible loss of craftsmanship because of technology?
I’ve heard a lot about this lately, but I really don’t buy into that way of thinking. What we’re really talking about here is technique and that’s something that is completely reliant on the practice and training of the composer. I don’t think having music or midi software takes away from the technique involved in composing any more than the computer (or typewriter for that matter) took away technique of crafting a good sentence from authors. Theoretically, your technique should be the same on a computer screen as with a manuscript pad so long as your brain is engaged in the creative process.
Also, I love the fact that there are a lot more “amateur” composers out there using the software available. My younger brother loves getting on finale and garageband and just messing around. He’s not musically trained, but sometimes his ear leads him to some pretty great material! This can only help our music community. Many of those “amateurs” will become inspired and want to become “professionals.” (And we all know this will increase our classical concert ticket sales). But besides that, imagine if music audiences were full of people who had tried their hand at composing on software. Instead of passive listeners, our audiences would be active, enthusiastic, and full of appreciation for this art form.
I think this technology lends itself to a bright future for classical music.
Michael Mranti is a freelance composer living in Kansas City, MO. As always, he is looking for an assistant willing to work on a wage of compliments and tootsie rolls. (Un)Interested applicants should add him on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/michaelmranti.
