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On Nico Muhly's discussions of practicality in collaboration

This past Monday’s guest was American composer Nico Muhly, who has written in a variety of genres, including opera, scores for TV and film, and contemporary concert works. He’s also collaborated with some incredible artists . I was really interested in his orchestration and harmonic techniques, and how great pacing works together with these elements to create engaging compositions, regardless of genre. The discussions also led to more practical concerns regarding collaboration and orchestration. Nico first showed us excerpts from his opera, Marnie , during which he discussed some ideas for staging and orchestration, as well as some of the practical things to keep in mind in bigger collaborations. I really appreciated some of the staging decisions that he and the director came up with, including using dancers to represent men always looking at Marnie, rather than having the men sing outright (I hope that this is written in the score, so that it wil...
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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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John Zorn

John Zorn is the quintessential New Yorker. His unabashed sense of self is apparent in every part of his persona–the way he talks, dresses, walks–it's so distinctive and so east village that I feel like I'm watching a movie. And it's awesome. There's an intense of amount of character and experience that seems to emanate behind every sentiment he shared that I'd rather get a beer with the guy as opposed to having him sit in a stuffy classroom. Either way though, it was a talk I thoroughly enjoyed, even though I disagreed with parts of it. Firstly though, let's start with the parts I liked, which were a lot. I think there is something to be said about how intensely focused is on humanity. I've been in this place recently where I've been looking at my work as a tool of expression, rather than a "goal". In other words, I think it's important to think of art as a ways to expand the mind, expand the ways we see the world, which when you're i...
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