  |
|
June 7, 2007
|
Old art form, new music In the ?you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile? category of life, last week I found myself speaking to an orchestra at rehearsal. The group was the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra, a civic ensemble made up mostly of non-professionals that performs out in the seacoast area. They were preparing for their annual pops concert, a movie-themed program that was performed last weekend at the Rochester Opera House. The conductor, Phil Lauriat, had chosen to include some music I wrote ? a suite for strings and piano distilled from the score to Dangerous Crosswinds, a feature film shot here in New Hampshire a few years ago by local filmmaker Bill Millios. So I went out to hear a run-through and weigh in as appropriate. I thought they did a great job playing through the five sections of the piece, and the next thing I knew I was standing on the podium. And with local classical music in something of a funk with the demise of the New Hampshire Symphony, I had this to say: that I didn?t make a living from composing, but I did it for the same reason they got together to make it. I simply love the kind of music an orchestra plays, and listening to it on recordings or whatever just isn?t enough. Like them, I am compelled to get involved with somehow making it. And their willingness to take a chance on new music written today, as opposed to sticking solely to the great masterworks written by people who are longer with us, was one way they could keep a symphony orchestra from becoming solely a showcase for museum pieces, and thus slowly drifting into irrelevance. Sure, the stuff I wrote can?t compete with the great masters. My immediate goal is mere competence. But for a person with a compulsion to create new music, it?s kind of a pointless activity if there?s little chance for it to be played and heard. However, knowing that there are local ensembles and music directors out there willing to bring a new score to life is tremendously encouraging for anyone who hankers to create new music ? music that can?t help but reflect our time and place. And that can only lead to more and better new music, which I think will help keep orchestras vital and a part of the real cultural life of their sustaining communities. So my own reaction is not just gratitude to conductor Phil Lauriat and the musicians of Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra, but a renewed eagerness to do more ? to use what I?ve learned from the experience, and to do a better job in everything from part-writing to putting page turns in easier places for the performers. And I think that?s at least a small part of keeping local classical music alive and well here in the 21st century. |
5/31/2007 Let's get classical, classical 5/24/2007 New music, new life
|
Navigation
