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 Orchestra
Underground…Beyond the Surface
Orchestra
Underground, conducted by music director Steven Sloane on Friday,
February 27, 2004 at 7:30pm, marks American Composers Orchestra’s
(ACO) debut at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. This unconventional, multimedia
event is a milestone for ACO, the first concert in an ongoing, ambitious
new initiative that will take full advantage of Zankel’s state-of-the-art
facilities. Two world premieres have been commissioned especially for
this event by important and distinctive young composers: The Right Weather
for chamber orchestra and piano by Lisa Bielawa, with pianist Andrew
Armstrong; and Gotham, a multimedia collaborative work being created
by Michael Gordon with Ridge Theater artists, filmmaker Bill Morrison,
visual artist Laurie Olinder, and director Bob McGrath. Frank
J. Oteri recently spoke with artistic director Robert Beaser and music
Director Steven Sloane about ACO's upcoming debut at Zankel Hall, "Orchestra
Underground"…
FRANK
J. OTERI: For years, American Composers Orchestra has established
itself as an entity that plays at Carnegie Hall, a place that has a
lot of associations with people: musical associations, cultural associations,
associations that go beyond the venue just in terms of the context,
the social milieu… Carnegie Hall is redefining itself this year
with Zankel Hall, and the fact that you folks are now going to be part
of that redefinition, so what does playing at Zankel mean to ACO?
STEVEN
SLOANE: Of course, you're correct, there's been a long association
with Carnegie Hall. The additional venue of Zankel Hall is crucial in
the future of our orchestra. Twenty-five years ago when the orchestra
was established, there was a great gap in the American orchestral literature.
Since that time, many orchestras, including large ones, play American
music on a regular basis. And now, the challenge for ACO is to see what
can we do to help redefine what American orchestras are doing, and help
to define what American music will mean for orchestras and ensembles
in the future…and I think Zankel being a smaller venue, and one
that encompasses practical possibilities, multi-media possibilities,
smaller, larger, different kinds of ensembles, maybe even different
kinds of instrumentations, will go a long way to help us to achieve
that goal.
ROBERT
BEASER: I echo that. In America, there's a serious gap of repertoire
for an ensemble that's neither fish nor fowl, neither chamber music
nor full-blown orchestral music… This is a repertoire which is
very importantly championed by European ensembles, like Ensemble
Modern, the London
Sinfonietta, and many others. In America, I think we have a real
opportunity to find and to encourage composers who haven't had the opportunity
to write music which is basically for this type of ensemble, and really
fill the gap, which I think is quite glaring. This is really a critical
area which we can focus on and really contribute to.
FRANK J.
OTERI: It's true that a lot of orchestras are doing more American repertoire
now than they ever had done before ACO was around, and we all like to
think, and I believe it's true, that it's in good part to the efforts
of ACO. But most of the American works orchestras have been doing fit
in with the standard plan of what an orchestra is. It's music that is
tailor-made to go along with the program of Brahms and Beethoven. And
the kinds of repertoire we're talking about here really don't fit in
with what's gone on before. They're doing something completely new within
the context of a large ensemble. So how do you see this repertoire having
an ongoing life beyond ACO?
STEVEN
SLOANE: We attempt to redefine by choosing pieces that will also make
an impact on the literature for the future. A perfect example is this
program coming up in Zankel on February 27, where we have 2 composers
for the whole evening. Same as last year when we did Samuel
Barber's Anthony and Cleopatra. The idea is to broaden
the spectrum of the repertoire that will include pieces that are not
just between 5 and 15 minutes of length in the American orchestra circuit.
The second part of your question is how would pieces live on after they've
been composed… This is an issue that pertains not only to American
composers, but pertains to composers worldwide. There is always the
desire to hear what's new and there's that so-called "world premiere"
stigma. They get one hearing and are never heard again. One of the things
that ACO also is doing is not only presenting premieres but also presenting
pieces that have been performed in the past, and giving them a further
avenue and venue within which to shine as individual compositions. And
I think that is also very important for ACO to continue to explore repertoire
that is not being heard for the first time, pieces that had had hearings
elsewhere before, not by ACO and not in New York.
FRANK J.
OTERI: Certainly over the years ACO has been the greatest champion of
Roger Sessions' symphonies, which had all been done before but really
were largely forgotten by a lot of people. They still haven't reached
all of the orchestras we hope they'll eventually reach but they're definitely
in the consciousness of a lot more people because of ACO. I'm wondering
though, in terms of redefining the orchestra… Typically a composer
will come in, a piece will be done, there'll be a couple of rehearsals,
and it's just a part of a larger program, a larger season. The kinds
of works like the two that are being done--The Right Weather
by Lisa Bielawa and Gotham by Michael Gordon--really require
some rethinking, thinking out of the box, which is a much different
process. Before we talk about getting other orchestras to do them, it
would be very interesting to find out how ACO is engaging in this process.
What kind of rehearsal time is required? How are these rehearsals different
than rehearsals for a standard piece?
ROBERT
BEASER: Well, we approach them as they come. The exciting thing about
doing premieres is obviously the challenge that we need to be flexible;
we love that. But in terms of defining the repertoire, which was your
previous question, I think that composers are pragmatic. There are reasons
that a lot of people haven't written for orchestras. A lot of composers
haven't written for orchestras because there haven't been great opportunities
in the orchestral world for many kinds of music being written today,
so they migrated to other ways of writings, smaller ways, more pragmatic
ways, more practical ways. I think one of the great things that ACO
can do is to continue to provide new opportunities for composers…who
maybe wouldn't normally have the opportunity to write for a larger orchestra,
to give opportunities to the composers who never would have considered
writing in a way that is less than traditional. We can fill all of these
things quite beautifully in the Zankel venue. I think that there are
so many ways that Zankel Hall can enhance the repertoire, to create
opportunities for composers on a lot of different levels; it's really
quite exciting!
FRANK J.
OTERI: Last August, Lisa Bielawa was telling me about her first visit
to Zankel Hall. It was before the opening and people were still wearing
hard hats. She was so excited about the differences in acoustics from
different locations in the hall. I don't know how The Right Weather
has evolved since then, but at the time she was talking to me about
wanting to have musicians scattered all over the venue. Now, in terms
of rehearsing such a piece and the logistics of that, how does it work?
STEVEN
SLOANE: In dealing with Lisa, and also Michael, we really wanted them
to do something that was written for the hall. So we asked both composers
to look very carefully at the hall, and see in what way could they integrate
in all aspects of it since it is an inaugural event. As for how we're
rehearsing it, there's a saying that in contemporary music, there's
as much organization as there is art, I think this is a case in point
that, where, as a composer, the technical side of realizing a piece
like hers is that one needs a lot of careful thoughts and planning.
We approach it as we approach every other technical musical issue, in
that it needs a technical solution, and we see these kinds of issues
from many other contemporary composers whether they are writing for
large orchestras, small orchestras, ensembles, etc.
FRANK J.
OTERI: Are you being offered a good deal of rehearsal time in the space?
STEVEN
SLOANE: Not particularly, but again with good planning I think it is
adequate. And…we don't know, this is our first time in the hall,
so we're learning it, like as much as they are learning about what we
need, we are learning about what we need. It might actually be more
appropriate for you to re-ask this question in a few months because
we'd be able to give you a number of anecdotal responses to what happened...
FRANK J.
OTERI: Michael Gordon, of course, has already written spatially unconventional
pieces where you'd have members of the ensemble on different levels.
His piece Gotham looks like a 3-dimensional orchestra…
ROBERT
BEASER: He was an ideal choice to write for this venue, and we're really
excited to have Ridge Theater involved because there're really quite
unique and extraordinary and we thought it'd be a great opportunity
to see all this come together visually and musically.
FRANK J.
OTERI: When a composer studies orchestration, he or she learns various
techniques, and then acquires experience from working with musicians
and picks up other techniques, and eventually develops a personal sound
world that should come across no matter who is playing the music. But,
with pieces like this, which are so much about these specific players
in a very specific setting, it seems much harder to predict the result.
How can someone write such a piece without working intimately with the
ensemble in order to figure out what those sounds are?
ROBERT
BEASER: I agree with you that the more experience one has with an ensemble
the better one knows it. Obviously, people like Steve
Reich created his own ensemble, and Paul
Dresher works with his own ensemble on a daily basis. The music
evolves slowly over time and they have a very intimate knowledge of
their players. I think this is a wonderful and fantastic way to work.
But, in any endeavor, when it comes to creating, whether it be writing
for traditional orchestra and making orchestral sound that's never been
heard before in that particular way, you are really inventing something
out of whole cloth and trying to imagine what it might sound like. I
don't particularly see the challenge of writing for this particular
acoustic setting as much different than just trying to figure out whether
if you put the clarinet over the flute in this particular tessitura,
in this particular range, and combine it with a pizzicato in the strings,
what that's going to sound like when you combine it with a voice. I
mean in other words there are all these alchemy sorts of issues that
come up in orchestration even when you're writing for a traditional
orchestra, or when you're trying to deal with whatever may happen in
the venue you're working for, and I see this is a logical extension…
It's all a little bit scary, but it's exciting and you do your best
to try to come up with what you imagine it might be, and of course reality
has a way of taking over.
FRANK J.
OTERI: Now will the composers have an opportunity to work with the ensemble
to try to flesh out some of the stuff before, during the rehearsal process?
STEVEN
SLOANE: Certainly they will. Not all the rehearsals will be in the hall
itself, but we have a rehearsal process where I try to encourage the
composers to be there as much as possible from the beginning, particularly
for pieces like this… I'm sure they will have a lot to say and
a lot to add during the process.
FRANK J.
OTERI: I want to take us back to the beginning of this discussion. This
concert is called "Orchestra Underground," and obviously Zankel
Hall is underground. Carnegie's spin on the new hall has been "Carnegie
goes underground." But not just because it's geographically underground.
Underground has all these other connotations of being sort of rebellious:
"underground music," "underground currents," etc.
What does the word "underground" mean for both of you when
you put it together with the word "orchestra"? What do you
feel it will mean to the larger orchestral community, to the people
who attend the American
Symphony Orchestra League conferences, to other orchestras around
the country and around the world?
STEVEN
SLOANE: I think the connotations that you've brought up are ones that
are similar to my own, and very appealing. It's about cutting-edge repertoire.
And the idea of underground being rebellious or against the norm, unconventional…
All of those connotations really fit the bill of what we're hoping to
develop in Zankel Hall. And as you say, geographically it is underground;
so it helps people to identify… Our audience identifies themselves
with what we're doing as opposed to the larger Stern Auditorium where
we also perform.
ROBERT
BEASER: I think it counters the traditional notion that the orchestra
has boundaries… There's a long history and there are lots of rules,
and there are things that you can and can't do and certainly Stern Hall
reflects that on just about every angle. We love the idea of feeling
like some of those rigid rules and expectations have been lifted, and
there's an opportunity for people to really spin out in other directions
and imagine new worlds, whether they'd be subversive or benign or somewhere
in between.
Frank
J. Oteri is a New York-based composer and the editor of NewMusicBox,
the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award-winning Web magazine from the American
Music Center (www.newmusicbox.org).
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