Time Past, Time Future
Alvin Singleton
October 1, 2020
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Dear Alvin,
How are you doing these day? What about your writing schedule, has it changed in recent months? Ha! With this virus, shutting everybody in, actually, my writing has been going surprisingly well. I finished a new piece recently, at the beginning of June. It is for solo piano and string orchestra. The pianist is Awadagin Pratt and the string orchestra is from the New World Symphony in Miami. The Art of Piano Foundation commissioned the work entitled Time Past, Time Future. Its premiere is scheduled for April 2021 in Miami. |
Photo: courtesy of the artist |
What kind of vibes did you intend to create and share through your new work titled Time Past, Time Future?
I enjoyed very much writing this piece, knowing that it will be performed by the fantastic pianist Awadagin Pratt and the New World Symphony. I just enjoy creating a new work, new ideas. I start from scratch and have no idea what I am going to put down on paper. I just keep working at it at the piano and on paper, after a while, an idea emerges.
So, are you satisfied with the end result in this case?
I don’t know. I’m hesitant to say I’m satisfied. I’m satisfied with having completed a piece. The question is, as always when you create something, does the intention and results equal. That’s the difficult part. When you hear something you’ve just composed, you always find something that you should’ve done differently. I’ll hear something and think “Ah, my God, I wish I’d done it differently.” Self criticism is an important form of analysis.
You’ll probably have more to say about it when you hear the work being performed, right?
Oh, yeah. You know, the piece I wrote before this, Hallelujah Anyhow was premiered by the Momenta Quartet at Americas Society in New York on October 15, 2019. I was really satisfied with that piece. I was more satisfied with it than I first thought. It was a complete mystery to me what I was creating, lost in my thoughts. I’d just continue and wonder “Why are you doing this?” Then I stopped asking myself questions, I stopped asking that question and it worked out all right. It was for a string quartet.
I worked with the Momenta Quartet which is a wonderful group of very nice people. They worked very hard. And this piece was written for them. Now this was my fourth string quartet. We’re trying to get all four quartets recorded.
Are you in communication with the musicians who premiere or perform your works like Awadagin Pratt or the New World Symphony for Time Past, Time Future or the Momenta Quartet for Hallelujah Anyhow?
No, communication with the musician is not necessarily part of the process. I’ve met Awadagin Pratt but I do not have a personal relationship. I met him when he played in Atlanta with the Atlanta Symphony but that’s all. I know him by reputation, of course. He is a great musician. That’s all I need to know.
Momenta Quartet performed an entire evening concert of my music at Roulette. It was in celebration of my 75th birthday. They played two of my quartets as well as a string trio plus my solo viola piece. The viola piece had never been played in The States before. It had only been played in Germany. I was happy about that. So, that’s how I met them.
When you write your music, do you think of the musicians who will perform it?
Well, in the case of the Momenta Quartet, once I knew how well they played and how hard they rehearsed, that was good enough for me. I’m not concerned about anything else. I know they can play anything I put down on paper.
I enjoyed very much writing this piece, knowing that it will be performed by the fantastic pianist Awadagin Pratt and the New World Symphony. I just enjoy creating a new work, new ideas. I start from scratch and have no idea what I am going to put down on paper. I just keep working at it at the piano and on paper, after a while, an idea emerges.
So, are you satisfied with the end result in this case?
I don’t know. I’m hesitant to say I’m satisfied. I’m satisfied with having completed a piece. The question is, as always when you create something, does the intention and results equal. That’s the difficult part. When you hear something you’ve just composed, you always find something that you should’ve done differently. I’ll hear something and think “Ah, my God, I wish I’d done it differently.” Self criticism is an important form of analysis.
You’ll probably have more to say about it when you hear the work being performed, right?
Oh, yeah. You know, the piece I wrote before this, Hallelujah Anyhow was premiered by the Momenta Quartet at Americas Society in New York on October 15, 2019. I was really satisfied with that piece. I was more satisfied with it than I first thought. It was a complete mystery to me what I was creating, lost in my thoughts. I’d just continue and wonder “Why are you doing this?” Then I stopped asking myself questions, I stopped asking that question and it worked out all right. It was for a string quartet.
I worked with the Momenta Quartet which is a wonderful group of very nice people. They worked very hard. And this piece was written for them. Now this was my fourth string quartet. We’re trying to get all four quartets recorded.
Are you in communication with the musicians who premiere or perform your works like Awadagin Pratt or the New World Symphony for Time Past, Time Future or the Momenta Quartet for Hallelujah Anyhow?
No, communication with the musician is not necessarily part of the process. I’ve met Awadagin Pratt but I do not have a personal relationship. I met him when he played in Atlanta with the Atlanta Symphony but that’s all. I know him by reputation, of course. He is a great musician. That’s all I need to know.
Momenta Quartet performed an entire evening concert of my music at Roulette. It was in celebration of my 75th birthday. They played two of my quartets as well as a string trio plus my solo viola piece. The viola piece had never been played in The States before. It had only been played in Germany. I was happy about that. So, that’s how I met them.
When you write your music, do you think of the musicians who will perform it?
Well, in the case of the Momenta Quartet, once I knew how well they played and how hard they rehearsed, that was good enough for me. I’m not concerned about anything else. I know they can play anything I put down on paper.
During the pandemic lockdown have you concentrated solely on composing or have you talked to friends about upcoming music projects?
I’m in touch with musician friends of mine. As far as projects, no. They have their own projects and I have my own projects. I’ve been thinking and working on the next piece that’s coming up for me to write. It is a piece for Tuba and Piano. It’s commissioned by a consortium of many tuba players. Each of them will perform it. It’ll be a lot of performances. I haven’t begun the piece yet. But I’m doing my research.
Does your research process involve learning about the musicians who initiate the commission and then the instrument or just the instrument?
Mainly the instrument. In this case, I looked to see who has composed successfully for the tuba. I then study that music.
Do you have a favorite instrument? Is tuba among your favorites?
When I’m asked “what’s your favorite instrument?” I always say it’s the one I’m currently writing for.
Yeah! You make it your favorite. Tuba in this case. That’s cool.
Well, it’s a duo: piano and tuba.
No title for that one yet, right?
I sort of thought of a title but I don’t want to give it out now. I don’t know if I want to keep it. The tuba plays very low, right. I thought of naming the piece Topless.
Getting back to the stages of your creative process: first the research phase, then writing and that’s it?
Well, I listen to works that have been written for that instrument. For instance, in doing research for the piano solo and string orchestra I only found one other composer who had written for that combination. It was a work by Alfred Schnittke, the Russian German composer. I found it pretty interesting, especially how the work is structured. I listened to his work to get an idea of how I would approach my Time Past, Time Future. Then, I took it from there and began to think long about what I would do, since I could not find any other samples of composers who had written for piano solo and string orchestra. This didn’t make it easier for me to write for that combination. In fact, I chose this combination because the commissioning party, The Art of Piano Foundation, commissioned a few composers and they had a series of different combinations of instruments that could be used. I think each composer had to choose his or her ensemble combination from the instruments that were available. And I chose to write for piano and string orchestra.
Just the thought of attending the premiere of your Time Past , Time Future is a treat in and of itself, after such a long time of no live performances. That brings us to the next question, have you made any changes to your works given the number of virtual performances and the social distancing requirement in today’s reality?
No, not at all. You saw the article* in The Times about my piece Again. When they wrote about it in the context of social distancing, I was surprised. It requires at least fourteen musicians on stage. I was happy to see it mentioned in the article though. Then the next Times article** about the big piece. I found that interesting because both pieces were from the ‘70s. Again was from 1979 and Mestizo II was from 1970. When I listened to that, I was like, “Wow, I was really wild back then.” I got a lot of comments from people regarding that piece. “That’s a great piece,” they said. I’m thinking it was from 1970. Wow!
If you define the works that you wrote in the '70s as wild how do you define the works you’ve written recently?
One of the things I’ve noticed is that, in general, when people become older and more experienced, they somehow become more conservative.
Therefore, you see yourself as more conservative in your writing nowadays, is that right?
Yes, I think so. It just happens. When you’re older, you have more experience and you are more careful about putting things down. When I was much younger, I didn’t worry about much, I just wrote things down. Also, I’ve always liked improvising. I like people who improvise.
In Mestizo II, I had the orchestra improvising. The thing that was so interesting about it is that the full orchestra has a lot of instruments in there and some of them cannot be heard when the orchestra is very loud. At the end of that piece, the orchestra is very loud because everybody is improvising. And my instructions in the score are that those who have instruments like a harp or a bassoon need to go to the percussion section pick up something that they can bang with. I ask them to get a stick or maracas or whatnot that will increase the big sound. Also, I had the pianist wrap his hands with tape so he just banged on the piano keyboard. It’s a piece you need to listen to. Those were my inventive years.
If the ‘70s were your inventive years, what would you call these years and this year, in particular?
Oh, I don’t know. I am just so delighted that I’m still writing. I never thought that something like this would happen. When I started studying and writing, I never thought of a big future or anything like that. The whole idea of composing came from my jazz influence plus all those years I spent in Austria and Italy.
To learn a new culture is everything. In fact, living in Europe taught me about being an American. I think this happens to everybody. When you think about it, when you live in a new environment, in a new culture, it brings you closer to your own culture.
It can be said that your music writing is also influenced by various experiences that are uniquely yours including all the discoveries you’ve made, the new things you’ve learned and the relationships you’ve forged with so many people.
Yes, I remember when I was in Graz, Austria, I used to listen to Radio Tirana***. In 2008, I enjoyed a week of guest lectures and premiere concert of my works in Tirana, Albania. It was amazing. I can’t believe that was twelve years ago.
Yes, indeed. And here we are twelve years later and you are still full of great energy to share with the world especially through your music. What’s your secret?
Life is good and I’m doing what I want to do. When I was in college and I said that I wanted to be a composer, everybody said, “No, you won’t. No, you won’t make any money.” And I kept thinking that’s not why I want be a composer. “I just want to be able to make up stuff. To make money, I’ll just do something else.”
But you have been composing music for decades now, which is exactly what you wanted to do and you didn’t have to worry about getting another job on the side. You’re Alvin Singleton!
Yes, and the biggest astonishment was that I’m published by Schott. That’s a really big deal. Yehudi Wyner, my teacher at Yale, studied with Paul Hindemith. When Yehudi found out that my works were published by Schott, he said, “Ah, that was my teacher’s publisher.” Then I had a composer friend in Italy, a woman, who wrote to me and said, “You’re published by Schott? We [composers] would kill to be published by Schott.”
Alvin Singleton & Schott, a perfect match. On that positive note, is there any hope for anything good to come to light despite everything painful and hard that we have seen and experienced in 2020?
I’ve given it thought in a different way. One of my main concerns is that the orchestra world or that the classical music world does not perform the music of composers of color. I know composers who are really good composers and they cannot even get played or published. I hope for that to change. In fact, that second article in The New York Times, that’s what that was about. More performances for deserving talented black composers is the hope.
*referring to the June 16th, 2020 article titled "So You Want to Be a Socially Distanced Orchestra" in The New York Times.
**referring to the July 3rd, 2020 article titled "Lifting the Cone of Silence from Black Composers" in The New York Times.
***This was in the ‘80s when Albania was under a strict communist regime and closed off to the world.
**referring to the July 3rd, 2020 article titled "Lifting the Cone of Silence from Black Composers" in The New York Times.
***This was in the ‘80s when Albania was under a strict communist regime and closed off to the world.