Anna Clyne Lecture
I
thoroughly enjoyed Anna Clyne’s talk and found it to be enlightening both in
terms of the compositions she shared as well as in understanding Clyne’s
creative process as an artist, and her appreciation of multisensory creation
and exploration.
Clyne
began the lecture by discussing her piece “Night Ferry” which was commissioned
as a 25-minute piece for full orchestra. Because the piece was long, she made a
timeline consisting of 7 pages, each page of which was supposed to represent 3
minutes of the piece. She then illustrated the timeline as she composed, each
work gradually informing the other. This amalgamation of mediums to together
inform the larger artistic whole was a fascinating approach to hear about, and
I love the total artistic saturation in an idea that this implies. I also found
it interesting to then see a movie based on the music and illustrations, which
brought the art and music to life through animation, as though there are no
limits on how far or through which mechanism an idea can be transferred and
conveyed.
Although
I very much enjoyed “Night Ferry,” Clyne’s “Abstraction,” a 5-movement piece,
was my favorite work of the evening. Each
movement is inspired by a different piece of contemporary art. The first
movement, entitled “Marble Moon,” is based on a piece of artwork that combines
two different images which are connected along the central vertical axis of the
page. When I first saw the image, I didn’t have much of a response to it. The
image is simple and pleasant, but not something that would have stood out from
the background to me. To Clyne however, the image evoked a quality of
peacefulness and gentleness, which I completely understood and saw for myself
after hearing her describe it. The music she wrote based on this image was
incredible. It began with a low pedal in the basses which was nicely offset by
extremely high tones coming from bowed crotales. The piece was very calm and
still, with lightly shifting textures. Aspects of the composition seemed almost
spectral. Later in the piece a gentle melody unfolded in the brass section. The
overall mood of the piece was indeed very gentle and peaceful, but in a
complex, organic and rich way.
The 2nd piece, entitled
“Auguries,” was inspired by a work by an Ethiopian artist named Julie Mehretu.
The piece, which looked like an explosion of black lines, was meant to express
instability, specifically in the context of a political environment on the
brink of collapse. Clyne once again tried her timeline approach here as the
painting was made up of several smaller panels and she sought to address each
one separately. Ultimately though, she found that trying to tackle each panel
independently did not serve the work as a whole, since the viewer absorbs the
combined effect of the panels rather than any individual effect. The piece was built upon a cannon of fast
triplet flurries spread across the strings. It felt very chaotic, and moved
through many different colors in a short span of time. It recalled several
varied musical associations for me – jazz, tango, film score, the Sorcerer’s
Apprentice by Dukas – and seemed to move effortlessly through them all. The
energy of the piece was completely different from the first movement and paired
nicely with it.
The last movement Clyne showed us
was the 3rd movement of the piece, based on a photograph of the
horizon taken by a Japanese photographer named Hiroshi Sugimoto. This image
supplied visual continuity to the overall work as it had much in common with
the first work of art, Marble Moon, involving colors of blue and white, and
splitting the frame in half, only in this work the picture was divided
horizontally (following the horizon) as opposed to vertically as in the earlier
work. This movement was my favorite. It was beautiful, mysterious, intriguing
and unfolded as if the world were slowly blooming. It felt organic and wholly connected
with nature (and recalled impressionist music in that sense, such as Daphnis et
Chloe by Ravel - especially the way the flute was used and how a totally
seamless recreation of nature was conveyed - or Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un
faune by Debussy). Another favorite moment in the
piece was that beautiful section featuring the harp and the oboe, which
reminded of the 2nd movement of Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto (no.2
op. 18). I loved every minute of it.
It's funny, I remember myself listening to her pieces and some elements of the speech, portrayed conventionally instead of timbrically, (like the 7dim chords, the tonal progressions even with the descending bass) were pulling me out of the general context (in musical terms).
ReplyDeleteHowever, she seemed to have a solid process and her scores looked really nice by the way...
Great post, Kat! I agree that "Abstraction" was a really cool piece. I was also reminded of the Debussy piece you were referring to, as we were listening: the flute, but also her voicings and orchestration. My personal favorite was actually the one with 5 violins.
ReplyDeleteSomething your post keeps brushing up against is that Clyne is very good at talking about her work. She's a strong presenter, her ideas are clear, and she obviously has a passion for exchanging ideas with other artists. I think in the 21st century, part of the newfound power that we have as artists is also a responsibility to "sell" ourselves: we have to not only be able to make the art, but write the grants, pitch the work, contextualize it, convince NYU students on Facebook that its worth their attention. This is not a duty that artists have historically been saddled with. I took inspiration from Clyne that it makes a difference how adept and available we are when it comes to selling ourselves.
There are obvious tensions behind what I'm saying, though. One that comes up a lot among my friends and colleagues is the whether the art should just speak for itself. Shouldn't the art be built to stand alone? Shouldn't it contain its own explanation? If it isn't clear enough as it is, then isn't that a failure of the artist and not the audience? Don't we risk ruining the "magic" of the art by talking it to death? For me, the answers to questions like these are completely context-dependent. There's no golden bullet approach - it depends on the artist, the medium/format, the concept of the piece, the artist's audience, and so forth.
But anyway, it seems like you and I both enjoyed Clyne's talk, and actually found ourselves enjoying her work even more than we would have in the absence of it. Hooray!
P.S. - For the record, the concept of "write the reverb" is my main takeaway from Clyne's lecture.
Hey Mike and Kat!
DeleteI too had a lot of thoughts during Clyne's presentation re: how she pitches and explains her work. For me, it raised a lot of questions of how we, as musicians, can lean on other media to help people gain access into the emotions and colors of the music. Over all the forum speakers so far, we've seen a ton of artists use video to add dimensions to their work, and it was fascinating to see the same done with her painting.
Mike, I would poke a little bit at a suggestion that the idea of needing to commodify your work is at all new! Certainly we know that artists of all kinds have made their livings for hundreds of years writing commissions for wealthy patrons. The method in which art is commissioned these days has changed, for sure, but in many ways it does feel like a continuity of that lineage!
Anyway! Thanks for your thoughts you two!
Hey J -- yes, I actually think we agree here. Artists have always had to grapple with commodifcation, absolutely. What I was attempting to touch on is the PR/self-advocacy aspect of it. I'm thinking about Mozart's dad as his agent/manager. I'm thinking about Gesualdo and Ives self-funding their careers. I'm thinking about Bach not having to do a world tour of interviews after composing a piece. (It wasn't until Dickens in the mid-1800's that the idea of a celebrity writer going on a speaking tour became a thing at all. Sure, there were professional orators constantly on tour, but I'm referring specifically to artists and PR.) None of these cats had to spend as much time as modern artists do on explaining/contextualizing/justifying themselves. These are all European examples, so I will just zoom out... I'm just thinking about conservatories/ equivalent institutions and monarchs/equivalently wealthy patrons being the sole arbiters of celebrated art in societies all over the world - for centuries and centuries. In a more recent context, there was also the traditional infrastructure of record labels, radio DJs, music critics, and so forth in the second half of the 20th century; an infrastructure that curated and dictated not only which artists we became acquainted with, but framed them for us as well. My point is, artists weren't doing the bulk of that public-facing self-advocacy work in the past. With gatekeepers, patrons, and other traditional structures dissolving, and the internet opening more doors for artists who aren't taking traditional paths, I would say there is a co-requisite increase in responsibility for us to have to explain ourselves while we make our art. We can't just sit back and let the institutions take care of that, anymore. Clyne for me is an example of someone who has grabbed the reins of artistic self-explanation - something she probably didn't sign up for when she first got into it - and does a great job. Artists like Frank Ocean and Adele are so wildly successful they barely even need to do interviews or explain their work, retaining their mystique; but for the rest of us mere mortals, I think Clyne is an inspiring example in this respect.
DeleteMike, completely understand, and agree. I want to add my thoughts to yours! for example in the world of composers, new music, and sharing your work, there is nothing quite as important as actively trying to place your art in front of potential consumers. there is so much noise, especially in the world of music, that people have to wade through to find material they are interested in. which means unless you are the louder composer, you will simply be over looked. its sad, but that hard truth of today. We cannot just rely on composing, but also selling our art. When she showed us the video made for her composition i scoffed a little and said to myself... this is a little over the top isn't it. BUT then i thought about it... and I would do the EXACT same thing if i were given the chance. The fact that she is a composer who actively works to share her art is inspiring and a lesson to me in how to find success in the field.
Deletedallin burns (signing because my email is being weird)
reposting, email fixed.
DeleteMike, completely understand, and agree. I want to add my thoughts to yours! for example in the world of composers, new music, and sharing your work, there is nothing quite as important as actively trying to place your art in front of potential consumers. there is so much noise, especially in the world of music, that people have to wade through to find material they are interested in. which means unless you are the louder composer, you will simply be over looked. its sad, but that hard truth of today. We cannot just rely on composing, but also selling our art. When she showed us the video made for her composition i scoffed a little and said to myself... this is a little over the top isn't it. BUT then i thought about it... and I would do the EXACT same thing if i were given the chance. The fact that she is a composer who actively works to share her art is inspiring and a lesson to me in how to find success in the field.
I really liked how much Anna Clyne's work was inspired by other works of art. Even to the point of where she painted her own visual representation of her work to draw inspiration from. I think it's a great way to work because it makes the whole process much more artistic. I think in my case whenever I write I often obsess over the harmonic and formal structure. Perhaps my pieces end up being less organic because of this. Anna's process and music itself reminded me a lot of Debussy; flowing orchestral textures and drawing inspiration from art rather than reality. I've always been a fan of Debussy and Ravel's writing and I'm pleased to hear of a composer that's carrying on their sound.
ReplyDeleteI like your use of the word "multisensory" to describe her work - in the midst of lots of rather busy "new music," I found myself pretty happy to be listening to Clyne's somewhat ethereal music paired with the simple and beautiful art she worked with. Even the more intense musical gestures felt very specific and organic when paired with the mural. Her music hung in the air, and even at times felt like a painting - I was happy that I got to hear her speak.
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts Kat!! She was a fun speaker.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rick in that I like how Clyne's performances were inspired by other works of art, especially that of visual art. Her inspiration is similar to the inspiration of several Impressionistic composers, although she has a different more contemporary approach to sonifying visual art.
ReplyDeleteI am a big advocate of drawing inspiration from other art, especially when done as tastefully as Clyne. Her compositions offer more of a commentary of the visual pieces, rather than a direct regurgitation of the original artist's perspectives. I love how she uses cultural touchstones to show something the audience might be familiar with in a different light.
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ReplyDeleteYour post brings to light an interesting question: Are there any limits to how an artistic mechanism can be transferred or conveyed. I don't know that there are. Seeing the film based on music was certainly a fascinating instance of this.
ReplyDeleteHey i very much enjoyed this composer, very innovated with the things that she was doing. To comment off of you first favorite piece, i love the idea of composers hoping over art boundaries and how anna incorporated art pieces into her work, i feel like that should be done more since they are closely related
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed seeing how Clyne went from art to art. Namely, how she began with a visual media and then turned that into music. I also found it interesting how I would have differed in interpretation, or how I would have agreed or disagreed at her perception of the music.
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