Composer/keyboardist/producer Elodie Lauten creates operas, music for dance and theatre, orchestral, chamber and instrumental music. Not a household name, she is however widely recognized by historians as a leading figure of post-minimalism and a force on the new music scene, with 20 releases on a number of labels.
Her opera Waking in New York, Portrait of Allen Ginsberg was presented by the New York City Opera (2004 VOX and Friends) in May 2004, after being released on 4Tay, following three well-received productions. OrfReo, a new opera for Baroque ensemble was premiered at Merkin Hall by the Queen's Chamber Band, whose New Music Alive CD (released on Capstone in 2004) includes Lauten's The Architect. The Orfreo CD was released in December 2004 on Studio 21. In September 2004 Lauten was composer-in-residence at Hope College, MI. Lauten's Symphony 2001, was premiered in February 2003 by the SEM Orchestra in New York. In 1999, Lauten's Deus ex Machina Cycle for voices and Baroque ensemble (4Tay) received strong critical acclaim in the US and Europe. Lauten's Variations On The Orange Cycle (Lovely Music, 1998) was included in Chamber Music America's list of 100 best works of the 20th century.
Born in Paris, France, she was classically trained as a pianist since age 7. She received a Master's in composition from New York University where she studied Western composition with Dinu Ghezzo and Indian classical music with Ahkmal Parwez. Daughter of jazz pianist/drummer Errol Parker, she is also a fluent improviser. She became an American citizen in 1984 and has lived in New York since the early seventies
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Friday, May 06, 2005
Music Underground’s Oldie Top 13
This is my short list of old favorite classics – Western music only, ethnic belongs to its own other category. In alphabetical order by composer:
J.S. Bach: entire works for keyboard
Claude Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande
John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
John Coltrane: Ascension
Morton Feldman: For John Cage
Philip Glass: Einstein on the Beach
Claudio Motenverdi: Orfeo
Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
Terry Riley: In C
Arthur Russell: Tower of Meaning
The Stooges: Funhouse
The Velvet Underground: White Light/White Heat
La Monte Young: The Well-Tuned Piano
posted by Elodie Lauten
8:48 AM
Exploding music: do and don’ts of the musical anarchist
Don’t:
Let other people i.e. performers, choreographers, institutions, programs, other more established composers, tell you what to write, whether it is instrumentation or subject matter or style. This may mean having to turn down a commission once in a while, but it is best for peace of mind and individuality. Any kind of interference with the composer’s creative process is wrong. Don't even be afraid to write in C major. As Kyle Gann points out in his most recent blog, there is a ridiculous misconception that the key of C is unsophisticated. How about Terry Riley's in C? Bach's Well Tempered Klavier?
Write for any other reasons than musical or spiritual ones. If the work is geared towards a particular response or result, having to do with ego satisfaction or outward success, these extraneous factors will corrupt the process, somehow, however sneakily and subtly.
Work under pressure. Unless the creative flow is a quick and easy one, which may happen on occasion, writing too fast is a sure way to superficiality and irrelevance.
Compose too many pieces at once – there is a quantity versus quality equation. It is better to focus on a piece that is really meaningful and let it simmer slowly like stew.
Worry about dry spells. No one can be inspired all the time – then it wouldn’t be inspiration, would it! If it is not happening, don’t force it. It will come back in its own time. My dry spells have more to do with time and availability – if I have to spend a lot of time on survival activities, it’s like there is no room in my head for a new piece. The moment I have free time it springs up again. I like this story about a film composer who, upon receiving the commission, took a two-week vacation… that’s what he needed in order to start writing.
Try to enjoy your work all the time. What’s fun is the new idea. But it is short-lived. Whereas some parts of the process may be enjoyable, there is always some hard work involved especially if you use the computer. Enjoying it is for amateurs. Most non-artists have the impression that we just goof around and there it is, a new piece of work; they don’t understand that composing is like a scientific experiment that requires a lot of patience, time and dedication. It is actual work that makes you tired.
Do:
Unblock yourself. Do whatever it takes to free your consciousness from mental junk.
Explode music – actually I mean this literally as there a command in Finale that allows you to write a chord and ‘explode’ it automatically into parts, which is a great time saver.
Use different ways of creating music, with and without an instrument. I wrote some of the best parts of Waking in New York on the subway to work (not that I enjoyed it… but it was in my head). I don’t mean to recommend this method to anyone. But do try to compose in miscellaneous ways, on paper, with an instrument, on the computer, with midi, in an improv setting, with a matrix, with different tunings, with a tape recorder, with found sounds, or with anything exciting and unusual.
Connect with reality and beyond reality. Have a responsibility to the audience you are writing for.
Take the music out of the drawer and go out to present/produce it yourself. After all, it is meant to be heard.
Hang out… at least some of the time. We are not machines.
posted by Elodie Lauten
6:47 AM
Monday, May 02, 2005
Orchestral Maneuvers
Is the standard orchestra a form of the past? Does the unchangeable arrangement of the instruments perpetrate its own convention ad infinitum? It seems that if the piece strays from what is expected, i.e. complicated, hypermarked music for a required set, it will never get read. We are faced with a conundrum: the more creative we are with the orchestra, the chances of the piece getting played get fewer to none. Also, the required know-how, i.e. how to get a melody/harmony to work within the standard array of instruments, pushes the music towards old tried and true recipes.
On occasion, some pieces stretch the envelope but they are rare and quickly dismissed. Once the S.E.M. Orchestra performed a 5 minute free improv conceptualized by a composer who names himself mr. dorgon (sic). On the other hand, even famous jazz improvisers write orchestral music that is strangely close to sounding like fifties serialism. The most creative event I have seen involving an orchestra was in 1996, a performance of Charles Ives’ Universe Symphony by the American Festival of Microtonal Music – with two conductors to render the simultaneous different tempos. I have heard about pieces with musicians walking around with their instruments… extreme minimalist scores with the orchestra staying on one note for a long time, and this not going over too well.
If orchestra presenters continue to perform classical repertoire that has been heard too many times, or so-called modern pieces from the early 20th century – nearly a hundred years ago – or more recent difficult pieces that turn the audiences off, there is not hope for the survival of the orchestra as the audiences will most certainly lose interest and turn to other forms of music. I believe it is very important that we write creative orchestral pieces – negotiating what is acceptable and what will never get played… so as to co-opt the old form for our own creative purposes and for the future of classical music. This is possibly the greatest challenge we are facing as 21st century composers.
posted by Elodie Lauten
7:33 AM
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