 Blue
Skies and Balmy
Composer
Lisa Bielawa discusses the evolution of The Right Weather
By Molly
Sheridan
We have
heard the tale of a traveler making his way home a thousand ways since
Homer, and still the story speaks to us. There is a passage in Eugene
Onegin, (Pushkin's poem, not the opera) in which the narrator briefly
leaves his tale to recall his own longing as he waited for a break in
a storm to start his journey home from exile.
I roam
above the sea,
I wait for the right weather,
I beckon to the sails of ships.
Under the cope of storms, with waves disputing,
On the free crossway of the sea
When shall I start on my free course?
 The
lines so spoke to composer Lisa Bielawa that they became the foundation
for The Right Weather, a large-scale work for solo piano and
chamber orchestra that opens ACO’s inaugural “Orchestra
Underground” concert at Zankel Hall on February 27.
Her discovery
and study of the somewhat obscure lines betray an overarching curiosity
in her character that touches much of her work and art. Fascinated by
the disparities in several English translations of Pushkin's poem, she
started studying Russian with a private tutor to better understand the
author's original intentions. That the process of getting so close to
a piece of text led to musical inspiration is not an unusual situation
for Bielawa, who was a literature major at Yale. "I read all the
time," she explains. "Composers all have different inspirations.
Some have a muse, some have collaborators that get them going, but for
me it's almost always reading. That's the case even in a piece like
this where no one is actually singing."
Taking
the four verbs in the text as her starting point, she originally intended
to create a four-part symphonic work, but when she finished Roam
in 2001, it was a complete piece that stood on its own. Bielawa submitted
Roam to ACO’s annual new music
readings, winning the orchestra’s coveted Whitaker
Commission. Later the Minnesota Orchestra also read Roam.
Wait for piano and drone, was completed the following year
and premiered in January 2003 by the Contrasts Quartet.
When Bielawa
and ACO Executive Director Michael Geller first started talking about
the work she would write for this program, he asked if she planned to
write another part of The Right Weather set for the occasion.
He also showed her photographs of the still-under-construction Zankel
Hall. Bielawa credits Geller for finally pushing the commission to include
the performance of all four parts of the piece, allowing them to tell
their complete story for the first time.
 As
it turns out, the Russian study was time well spent. Bielawa had the
opportunity to try out her new language skills and finish the piece
in a hotel room in Moscow while on tour with the Philip
Glass Ensemble (she's been the ensemble's vocalist since 1992),
penning a sort of prologue scored for two solo flutes based on the carillon
that rang in Red Square. "I used the fact that this trip was right
at the end of my writing this piece to sort of finish a few things on
purpose in Russia," Bielawa confesses. "It was a really inspiring
place to be."
For as
adventurous as ACO is, the complete performance of this work will be
no small feat considering the logistical challenges inherent in the
sound world Bielawa hopes to create. In the course of the 35-minute
piece, the orchestra players move on and off the stage and station themselves
all around the hall, enveloping the audience in the experience. After
the opening flute prelude, Roam calls on the forces of the
entire chamber ensemble on stage, whose members depart as piano soloist
Andrew Armstrong takes over.
He holds the stage for Wait, with musicians creating a drone effect
by playing unseen just outside the auditorium's walls. Groups of players
re-enter the hall during Beckon, and they all regain the stage
for the sort of one-movement piano concerto, Start, that concludes
the work.
Trying
to finish up the details of the piece last December, Bielawa was on
her way over to Zankel for the third time with Daniel Brodney, the ACO's
director of programs and operations, in tow. "Daniel knows as much
about the details of this piece as I do," she admits with a laugh.
"I was on the phone with him for an hour yesterday trying to figure
out exactly where the trombones could stand in this one section. Now
I'm going to go over to Zankel and bringing my little stop watch to
time how long it takes to walk from one place to another so there's
enough time for everyone to get where they need to be." While preparing
the score she's also been working closely with ACO assistant conductor
Jeffrey Milarsky and music director
Steven Sloane, who will lead the performance,
to make sure the choreographically complicated piece in her head is
transferred clearly to the page.
After her
first hard hat visit to the space last February, Bielawa began to conceptualize
the piece as a way to show off Zankel Hall acoustically and spatially.
She remembers, "I went in there with [piano soloist] Andy Armstrong
and Daniel Brodney and I actually had them walk around the hall while
I sang from different places trying to figure out where I would put
people and I really got a sense for how incredibly intimate this space
is."
After hearing
several of the Boulez concerts in the halls since its opening this season,
she says she has a deeper understanding of level of detail that can
be heard even in a larger ensemble context and has incorporated that
aspect into her work as well.
Though
the production notes run on for pages, Bielawa won’t be back stage
directing traffic the night of the premiere. "I want to write the
piece so I can sit [in the audience], not just for me but also because
I want the piece to be able to move forward organically." The action
of the piece does seem to follow the very simple instructions of the
text at hand. In Roam, the musicians work their way on and
off the stage. Wait has many of them just outside the hall's
doors anticipating their entrance in the next movement. In Beckon,
the first group of players moves into the hall and musically "calls"
the others inside.
"[The
movement] was always organic to the piece," Bielawa explains. "I
like the idea that the feeling the audience will be able to share is
that all of the music making in happening right there. I don't want
to have to have anyone on head set—there's nothing behind the
curtain. The second group is entering because they hear the first group's
cue. I'm a little bit of a luddite that way maybe, but I like it. It's
exciting as live performance. It can be very moving to see that kind
of collaborative process, of having a piece unfold like that. "
Though
it seems very site specific, with tweaking the piece can (and likely
will) be performed elsewhere as a whole and in part. But Bielawa is
pleased to have it heard in Zankel first. "The way that it feels
to hear music in there reflects a new philosophy of coming together
to hear music. It's the perfect space for rituals of intimate listening
but with a grandeur as well."
Despite
her success to date, it's evident in her voice how much this performance
at this hall and with this orchestra means to her. "That Carnegie
Hall is actually opening its arms to a whole new fresh world of music
making is incredible," she says. "I feel like our community
has been really revitalized through this wonderful loud gesture of openness,
of having this hall and having it programmed as it has been. It's been
an incredible success and it's a huge honor to be a part of that."
Molly Sheridan is the managing editor of NewMusicBox, the ASCAP
Deems Taylor Award-winning Web magazine from the American Music Center
(www.newmusicbox.org)
and writes a weekly column on music for the New
York Press.
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