Thoughts

Last week I had the opportunity to be a part of an Elder Hostel program that is held in conjunction with Utah Festival Opera by Utah State University faculty on the USU campus in Logan. In the program seniors come and stay the week and attend various cultural events and classes.

Lynn Jemison-Keisker, director of their Opera Theatre program invited me. She, on piano, and soprano Venicia Wilson performed my song cycle "All Heaven and it was One Hour Old" as the subject of the lecture/panel discussion for the hour and a half class. It was a great experience.

First Lynn and Venicia would talk a little about each of the songs and then perform them one at a time. Then they’d ask me for comments and open it up for questions from the class participants.

It’s always interesting to me what normal non-musician music lovers are interested in. What are they interested in? Stories, confilct and resolution: I talked briefly about a certain group (not named of course) that had recently butchered one of my new works and how nice it was to have such excellent performers take up your work to present (specifically the performers that day). Later, one of the ladies asked me about this during the questions and how I reacted and what I said to them. I was a little surprised by this question, but I told them that I had said, "Thank you." What else can you do? If you pay someone to do a job and they don’t do it, you just say thanks and then move on to someone else. Anyway, this same lady that asked the question came up to me afterward and told me what a sweet man I was. So, being gracious to people does pay off long afterward it seems.

Anyway, it was a good little class and I enjoyed doing it. It really is wonderful when good performers take up and champion your work. I’m really grateful to these two for showcasing it and bringing it to an audience who probably would have never heard it otherwise.

What meaning can music have? Can a tune portray a specific event or storyline? There are many pieces and works that are definately associated with stories and events, but is it really the music that tells the story? or is it the title of the piece, words and images that go along with music (as in songs or movies), or even the program notes at a concert?

I definately think music can and does tell stories, but only in the most broad of terms. Music is like a mythology, which in itself is a time-dilated metaphor for our own lives. We’ve been taught the stock characters: the hero, the villain, the quest, the true love, etc. . . . all we need is a few clues for how to relate the music to our own life (such as a title) and then we fill in the blanks, providing the imagery within our own mind to tell the story of the music.

Even ‘pure’ music, like Bach’s famous ‘Toccata and Fugue in d-minor’ has it’s heroes, trials, upward slopes, deep vales, conflicts and resolutions. It is wonderful that we can feel these things as the music progresses. Even if there is no specific story we are in a way living through a drama as we listen. Hopes are raised, conflicts ensue, we are surprised by unforeseen turns . . . I think this is at least one of the reasons that music moves us on such a deep emotional level. I think there are other reasons, but the innate drama of music is a major one.

Music: a constant stuggle between harmony and dissonance that passes through time . . .
Life: a constant stuggle between harmony and dissonance that passes through time . . .