The Left Eye

I just got back from the Music08 festival at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, which featured many guest composers and performers, including Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, Jack Body, Gao Ping, Emanuele Arcuili. Duccio and Vittorio Ceccanti, and others. The pierrot ensemble eighth blackbird has been in residence for the festival (in its 13th year) and was there conducting master classes and coaching performances. About 30 young composers like myself had pieces performed by about 30 young performers, all of whom were invited to the festival.

This was an intensive week! Two master classes per day of 2 1/2 hours each, plus two concerts per day, one of the young composers’ pieces (brilliantly played by the young performers from out of town and others who are students at CCM), then a second concert featuring the guest composer and performer’s music.

The whole festival is run by Joel Hoffman, who is a professor of composition at CCM, and he got help from two other great young composers and CCM students, Kyle Werner and Michael Ippolito.

They played my sextet “Twilight for Adored and Breathless Moments,” beautifully. Many people seemed to love the piece, and I got some great comments, including Kyle’s that my sense of harmony seems to be very well gelled with my sense of orchestration. This is intriguing and I have been chewing on that comment since he said it.

This was an incredibly inspiring exchange of musical ideas, and it was a truly profound experience for me to meet so many excellent young composers and to hear what they are doing. The discussions that began in the master classes carried on to lunch, dinner, and late-night to Christie’s - a rathskeller where the beer flows freely, and the locals play a game called “Cornhole” - something similar to horseshoes but played with bean bags thrown into holes on boards. After drinks, folks needing late night culinary fulfillment (Cincinnati closes early) head to Skyline Chili - a local dive chain which features chili and a pile of cheddar cheese on very soft spaghetti...mmm. I got to taste my first bite with Michael, Tim, and Nick from eighth blackbird...I knew most of these folks from Oberlin and was friends with Matt Duvall, the percussionist. We mixed sound together in the Oberlin Concert Sound Department, and I trained his future wife, Margie how to mix!

I had a very interesting lesson with Steve Reich...he loved my piece but hated the title. It is making me think about titles and programs in music - the very idea of titling concert music at all seems to old fashioned. I’m taking his comment to heart...my recent pieces do have less poetic titles. It is an interesting discussion.

The week was almost overwhelming...hearing so much music and having so much social activity with so many people with whom I felt artistically and aesthetically aligned in many ways. I think I felt my brain literally grow...and this seemed to have manifested in an identity with my left eye. Before the festival, I felt right eye oriented, and would often only converse with people by looking at the left side of their face. Now I feel a bolt of energy through my left eye - perhaps connected to the right hemisphere of my brain - and now when I talk to people I look in both eyes. This may seem hoaky - I’m not trying to make more if it than it is...it just seems like some kind of metaphysical epiphany. I’ve realized I’ve been missing half of things.

So this quartet I am writing will be called “Left Eye.” No one has to understand...it means enough to me.

-md