Communicating
In the 1980s and 90s my approach to composition changed profoundly. I began to compose both for my own pleasure and to communicate persuasively with my anticipated listeners.
Because I was exploring musical materials that I connected with deeply, I was finding composing ever more rewarding in itself. And because I was focusing on the genres that I most enjoyed as a listener, I felt a sense of connection with listeners whose preferences resembled mine. Just as the music of past composers had given me rewarding experiences as a listener, I wanted my music to offer similarly rewarding experiences. To do that I felt I needed to learn how to better experience my music from a listener’s perspective.
I began to closely study the scores of numerous past composers (Monteverdi, Mozart, Verdi, Berlioz, Bizet, and many others) with a new focus. I wanted to gain insights into their rhetorical skills, their ability to convey emotions to audiences through music, something that the methods of analysis I had been taught seldom considered. I studied books on rhetoric, and began to study music scores with a similar attitude, searching for even the smallest details that had an expressive effect.
I apprenticed myself to studying scores written by composers who had unquestionably mastered the art of making passion audible, and I began to appreciate scores such as Verdi’s Otello and Bizet’s Carmen in a whole new way. Just as our inflections and tone of voice convey much of the meaning when we speak, I gained new understanding of how various performance details can project meaning in music. The knowledge I was gaining allowed me to look at my own work from a similar perspective. Looking back at my earlier compositions I often found myself thinking “if only I had done this or that, then this passage would have projected more eloquently.”
I have been lucky enough stand on stage and hear hundreds of concert or opera goers applauding and shouting their approval of a performance of one of my compositions. The first time this happened I found it overwhelming. A fine performance by gifted vocal soloists, choral singers, and orchestral musicians can have stunning power to move a responsive audience. As I thought about my contribution to evoking such a response, I felt an immediate need to work even harder to give musicians performance vehicles that would be even more eloquent, even more worthy of their skills, for the reward and enjoyment of everyone involved.