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Bora Yoon - Sound Architect

The idea that resonated most with me from Bora Yoon was her interest in imbuing her music with a sense of transport, where the music can take the listener into a different space and/or time. When I hear new music and I’m alone (and my goal is to listen with an open mind), I often close my eyes – which places me in an inexorably individual and simultaneously infinite space: the space inside my imagination. Whatever memories, ideas, sounds, images, etc. that come up while hearing the song I tend to associate with the song and vice versa. Since Yoon’s goal is to write pieces that evoke specific imagery, she must have a strong understanding of this for herself. Yoon conceives of music as tangible, which motivates her to create pieces that employ imagery of the human experience, nature, and other facets of real life. There can be a tendency for many composers of a certain kind (a kind I believe to be myself) to really lean into the complexity of their musical ideas and they can end up with...
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Nico Muhly - Marnie and the Adaptation of Operatic Form

I found Nico Muhly’s presentation to be very transparent and informative on many fronts, but the one that interested me the most was his dive into the process behind his new opera, Marnie. New opera fascinates me particularly in how composers deal with writing within a form and standard practice that has stayed relatively consistent for hundreds of years. Muhly’s approach to form on both large and small scales seems to emphasize the function of the aria. He mentioned that he wanted to avoid “objectification through music” and rather attempted to delve into more philosophical elements of Marnie’s predicaments, rendered particularly legible by the chorus of “past-Marnies” that accompanies her during her ostensibly “private” moments. Through manipulations of standard operatic norms such as the aria and the role of the chorus, Muhly finds room for innovation and transcendence of typical form while working comfortably within the norms of opera. Muhly’s definition of the role o...
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Luke DuBois

Last Monday, Composer’s Forum had the pleasure of hearing Luke DuBois speak. It’s difficult to pin down exactly what he does because his art goes beyond music into the visual, and interactive mediums. As soon as he walked in, questioned the weird podium that no one else seemed to notice, and immediately ask the class if we’ve seen a 1985 movie starring Madonna, I knew this was going to be an unusual class. I can’t quite pick out a favorite aspect of his presentation, because all of his pieces and installations were so different. However, all of his pieces were unified in that they based themselves on data, and presented information in a powerful and creative manner, and demanded audience engagement. For example, the first piece he explained to us was the matchmaking service he developed from the “Missed Connections” posts on Craigslist, in which he engaged hopeful romantics and used technology to creatively (and hilariously) assist them in their search. The second example he showed ...
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