What A Rush!

After Esprit’s opening concert on October 4, as is our routine, Alex and I joined our friends and composer colleagues for a post-concert celebration, after which we arrived home past midnight. I then prepared for my Vancouver-bound flight departing early the next morning. Somehow the days prior to the Esprit concert were swallowed up by all the responsibilities of managing the many details related to the Esprit concert (including my pre-concert talk), as well as preparing university lectures for the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University.

I managed to pack and catch my plane, and immediately upon arrival in Vancouver, I rushed to my double rehearsal with Turning Point Ensemble —a double rehearsal because Owen Underhill, Turning Point’s music director and conductor, had done me the honour of bookending their season opening concerts with two of my compositions: Music For A Thousand Autumns (1983) and A Curious Passerby At Fu’s Funeral (2015) — yes, that is a difference of 32 years!

Composing a new work can take several months or even a year or two depending on the size of the commission and the detail of the new work. For the duration of the compositional process, I am always weighing my musical ideas and constantly refining them. Often an idea that seems very creative makes me wonder, “What was I thinking?” in the clear light of the following day. Many ‘good ideas’ end up on the other side of the pencil. It is tiring work, but as the months move forward, excitement begins to build. By the time I put the double bar (signaling the end) on A Curious Passerby, I felt I had written a piece that satisfied my creative instincts.

For a composer, the routine of the performers preparing your composition for a premiere is filled with anticipation and sometimes dread. Why dread? Because those sounds that you have been living within your head are not fully heard or realized until you get to your first rehearsal. Is the musical material worthy? Did some sections go on too long? Did you balance the dynamics (louds and softs) of the ensemble well? Did you develop the musical idea skillfully enough or did you approach the material in too haphazard a fashion? Or did that development take too long? Did the apex of your piece reach its mark? These are a small handful of some of the larger overall issues that might plague you and cause you some anxiety.

The first rehearsal is often a nightmare. In a short amount of time you have to catch mistakes in the copying, answer many questions from the musicians (How loud do you want this? Is the tempo correct? Does the bassoon have the lead line here? Is this the correct sound you want from the gong? Do you need a different one? etc.). Since the musicians come to ‘read’ the score together for the first time, the first rehearsal is usually a surprise event for everyone!

The number of rehearsals you receive for your new piece depends on the performing organization, but if you ask any composer, you never have enough rehearsals! The day of the performance there is the dress rehearsal, which is a run through of the entire concert. At this point there is usually, but not always, time for last minute touchups. Then you have to trust the musicians to pull all the stops out at the concert (usually that evening). The ‘dress’ most often lacks a bit of zip and may be a little disappointing because the players often pace themselves in order to save their biggest effort for the performance. If they are committed to your piece, they will put their full energy and skill on the line at the concert.

A Curious Passerby At Fu’s Funeral had a rousing reception – Owen was pleased, the musicians were enthusiastic, and the audience was overwhelmingly responsive. After all, they had been there to witness and to participate in an exciting event – the first time a newly created composition was to be publicly performed. It’s a bit of a risk for all of us: Would the piece succeed or would it fall short of its goal?

It was wonderful to have been welcomed home with terrific performances of two compositions. (I was born and raised in Vancouver. I studied piano privately with the most supportive teacher, Jean Lyons, and went on to attend UBC.) Several friends and colleagues whom I hadn’t seen in several years attended the premiere. As well, a number of university students who were at my lectures came to the second performance.

That Owen and TPE took most of those concert pieces to several cities across Canada was so unusual for a brand new composition. What a privilege to have it heard in several centres just after its world premiere.

The long months of work resulted in an energetic, fast-paced, and exciting composition. The new work had an impact. When my husband, Esprit’s conductor Alex Pauk, heard the piece for the first time at the performance sponsored by New Music Concerts in Toronto on October 17, he turned to me and said, “That’s a wild piece! You had the audience on the edge of their seats!”

To succeed in creating a work that excites people, given the very unusual nature of the world of contemporary composition, is truly satisfying. The long days, nights, and months of difficult work culminated in several committed performances. That it was received with such enthusiasm was a thrill.What a rush!

– Alexina