NPR had a piece on playwright and actor Wallace Shawn yesterday (you know him… he played Fezzini in The Princess Bride). He made a comment about “active art” and “passive art.” Passive art is art that tells us how to think, and is everywhere. Active art, on the other hand, is a wake-up call, a glimpse into a greater reality. I immediately tried to think of pieces of music that might fit into these categories. As obvious as it might be this year, I have no doubt that Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps is active art–after 100 years, it still feels fresh, it still challenges us; it makes us question just what a piece of music is, and just what it means to be modern. Perhaps Mahler falls into the category of “active art” as well. I’ve been at work on my piano concerto this summer, and I think this term “active art” is what I’m trying to accomplish with it (I’ve tried to be deliberate in my work rather than the kind of “white heat” composing that I’ve been prone to over the last couple of years… I just want to give the piece time to be what it will be). Have I written music that is “active” in this way? One or two of my recent works may approach this: Moriarty’s Necktie and my Piano Sonata.
Otherwise, it’s been a busy-but-not-busy summer. Getting used to the new house (oh yeah, we bought a house), spending time with Becky and Noah, teaching. I’ve been teaching counterpoint to a private composition student, which has got me going back through the species and thinking about contrapuntal approaches in my music; also, I brought home my well-worn Well-Tempered Clavier and have spent some time with that, although the Beethoven quartets are still mostly unopened on the piano. And letting the concerto gestate. And in that last couple of weeks, score study for the upcoming season with the Lakeland Civic Orchestra–Verdi, Mendelssohn, Milhaud, and Rimsky-Korsakov.
Last week, I had lunch with my graduate adviser Donald Harris and his wife Marilyn. After a lovely lunch at his home in Columbus, we went to his study and played CDs of our recent work for each other. I had the privilege to hear his Symphony No. 2, which received a strong performance by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in April 2012. It was interesting to see the similarities in our work, although when I was his student, he never had me study his scores intensively, and rarely gave comments that led me in his own stylistic direction. Don seemed pleased with my recent work as well, which makes me realize that the recently-ended “Oklahoma Period” was not in vain.
That said–more blogging in the future, hopefully. I’ve missed several months, but hopefully I can put that to rest.
Tags: active art, Columbus, Donald Harris, Lakeland Civic Orchestra, passive art, Piano Concerto, Wallace Shawn