Another Primitive YouTube Video

This is a digital demo performance of my recent work for orchestra, completed in early 2013. It is an eight minute piece in one movement. Samsara is a concept common to Hinduism and Buddhism; it is the realm or cycle of suffering in which all beings in the universe participate and which can be escaped only through enlightenment. Samsara is presided over by Yama, the wrathful god of death. Beings are driven by the three poisons: delusion (ignorance of their true nature, represented by a pig), attachment (desire or greed, represented by a bird), and aversion (anger or hatred, represented by a snake).

There are seventeen photos used in the video. As far as I can determine most are in the public domain and appear in numerous sites on the internet without attribution. Here is the list of exceptions, which are used under the indicated Creative Commons licenses:

Photos 5 & 6: BY-NC 3.0 by RigpaWiki.org, site of Rigpa Shedra  -- Nepal
Photo 7: BY-NC-ND 2.5 AU by ccdoh1 (Flickr name... can't determine the actual name) -- Australia
Photo 8: BY-NC 2.0 UK by Wllcome Library -- England
Photo 9: BY-NC-SA 2.0 by Maren Yumi Motamura -- Brazil

If anyone can demonstrate that a photo has been used improperly please contact me via my web site (johnnewellmusic.com). I will be happy to make any necessary changes.

A very insightful article by composer Robert Beaser

I highly recommend Beaser's article on the NY Times web site, at:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/the-reconstruction-of-rome/?hp

Roughly a contemporary of mine, he discusses his training, the evolution of his thoughts as a composer, and the world that composers live in today.

Edgard Varese & Morton Feldman: What did I learn?

I studied with Morton Feldman at SUNY Buffalo (1975 - 77) as the first holder of the Edgard Varese Fellowship in composition. I'm sure that Feldman named the fellowship himself, and know that he regarded Varese very highly.

How can I express the essence of what I learned in those years? A few years ago I came across this passage by Paul Griffiths in the program notes for the CD Boulez Conducts Varese (on the Deutsche Grammophon label). Griffiths sums it up beautifully:

"After the explosion of Ameriques Varese honed his technique in pieces for smaller groupings - Hyperprism, Octandre, Integrales - before returning to the large orchestra to create Arcana (1925-27). This was a closer approach to his ideal of music in which the sounds themselves, by virtue of their force and energy, would create structural demands - for repetition, calming, change, recollection - quite independently of any pre-ordained scheme: music as a play of sheer, vital sonority."

Many thanks.

New Work: Devotional Chants and Mantras

I recently finished the score of a collection of fifty short chants and mantras that have "come to" me at various times over a period of years, from about 1992 to last month. Sample pages of the score and a link to audio clips of some of the selections are at posted at:  


http://www.johnnewellmusic.com/Vocal.html

It was quite a challenge to collect them from various pieces of paper lying about; often a chant would come to me at a time when I was not had no music paper handy, so I would quickly jot it down on whatever piece of paper I could put my hands on. I expect that the collection will continue to grow.  

I composed the texts, unless otherwise indicated. These chants are appropriate for personal devotion; many of them will work also in a group worship setting. Accompaniment is optional, and may be helpful in some cases. In a few of the chants I couldn't resist writing out simple chordal accompaniments; but again, these are not necessary. One may find it helpful to use a one or two note drone; a two note drone should be tonic and dominant notes (e.g. C and G). 

I notated the chants in a voice register that is comfortable for me. You should pitch them wherever it is comfortable for yourself.

My training in composition

What was my training as a composer? I've tended to think that it was pretty traditional (I mean, traditional for the time). Was that true? Actually, no. Was I self taught? In some ways, yes.

The most traditional academic part of my training was as an undergraduate at Duke, where I studied theory, history, piano; but with only a semester of orchestration and two semesters of conducting. I really don't remember if I formally studied composition with Iain Hamilton. Upon reflection, I think that the answer is no. I was on my own, and completed a couple of pieces as an undergraduate, a piano solo work and a piece for brass quintet, inspired by Stockhausen's Momente.

Instead of pursuing the Ivy League (Yale, Columbia, Princeton -- post-Webern) or the Conservatory (Eastman, Juilliard -- more traditional craft-oriented) paths, I went to CalArts, then in its second year of existence. California… that was a different experience. Interestingly, my composition teacher was Mel Powell, from Yale and a member of the Ivy League school. I rarely had lessons. Mel was too involved as Dean of the School of Music in organizational issues. I have great respect for him, but remember mostly his classes in analyzing Webern works. I do remember hearing for the first time music of Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Phillip Glass at CalArts. "California" composers Harold Budd and Jim Tenney were also on the faculty, but I didn't formally work with them. In fact, I didn't formally work with anyone -- just absorbed a lot. Students were pretty much on our own. It was tough for the undergrads, but having gained the basics in theory, piano, etc. it was much easier for me as a grad student, especially as I was fairly self-directed. I have always felt that, at its heart, education is about growth, exploration and learning, not about preparation for a career.

Then SUNY at Buffalo. Mel was evidently a friend of Morton Feldman, one of the ultimate non-academic composers. Morty had just been named Edgard Varese professor at SUNY. The piece that got me into SUNY, I believe, was what one might term a "minimalist" piano piece - it was a study in changes of register and density, based on a simple scale and chord set. Morty was what I consider my only real teacher. What I learned from him:

listen, and trust your ear. (The "urgency of now." I'm not sure where that phrase comes from, but it is on my mind this morning.) One of the very profound things I remember him saying about composition: "choose your poison."

I had lessons at his apartment. My strongest memory is of him hunched over the piano (his eyesight was very poor), looking at the music paper in front of him, playing and listening intently to chords and single notes at the piano. He lived in the world of each piece as it unfolded. As he completed a page of score he would tape it to a bedroom wall, in sequence with the previously completed pages, so that he so he could stand and "walk through" the piece, looking at it closely, to see it unfolding. His trust in himself was terrific. As he completed composing a page of music he would immediately copy it (in ink and on vellum). Actually, I now do somewhat the same in many works. When I trust what I have done, which is usually pretty quickly, I begin "copying" it. Today that means putting it into my notation software. And yes, I still have my ink pens and black ink, even many pages of blank vellum that I will probably never use (never say never).

I have never belonged to any "school" of composition. There are so many these days. In our world it is almost impossible to escape the multiplicity of styles and approaches. Yes, I was influenced by Morty's style for awhile; my own style evolved, though I think that my works still reflect his intuitive approach, of using the ear. It may be hard to pin down my "style" if you listen to more than one of my works, or even more than one movement of a given work. There might appear to be different styles being used in the same work. But it is always a question of my intent, my inspiration, and using what I need in order to accomplish my intent at a given moment. The variety in my works displays different aspects of my sensibility, identity and experience.

If one asked, I would say that these are the composers who have made the greatest impression on me:

Stravinsky

Debussy

Schoenberg

Feldman

Hildegard von Bingen

Beethoven

And now Schubert

There are of course many more.