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Lowell Liebermann

Composer Lowell Liebermann

A Conversation with Bruce Duffie

Lowell Liebermann

'Tis a rare thing these days for a composer of classical music to be much-performed, but the subject of this conversation has achieved that status. Lowell Liebermann writes music that the public enjoys and musicians understand and support. He by no means panders to anyone, yet his scores are applauded and are willingly re-heard by a diverse audience.

A comprehensive account of his activities and a link to his website are in the box at the end of this presentation.

In August of 1998, Liebermann was coming through Chicago and agreed to stop and speak with me about his ideas. As we were setting up to record the conversation, I mentioned that this chat would be on the other side of a cassette which already held an interview with another composer. So Liebermann would always be linked in my mind with this other creator . . . . .

Lowell Liebermann: I’ve been linked with quite a number of musicians... [Laughs]

Bruce Duffie: Well, let’s just start right there. Do you like being linked with other composers, or do you want to be a completely unique entity unto yourself?

LL: It depends on the composer. A lot of critics, especially those who don’t really have the equipment themselves to listen to a piece of music and really evaluate it on its own terms, start playing the “influences game.” The criticisms often consist of a list of other composers that the critics are reminded of while they listen to your piece.

BD: You’ve used a little bit of this one and a little bit of that one?

LL: Right. And they almost inevitably mention composers I can’t stand! [Laughs]

BD: In favorable comparisons, though?

LL: It depends. Usually it’s a big cliché of modern music — and modern art in general — that it’s supposed to be a negation of what came before it, and must be absolutely unique and individual. So when they say it sounds like something else, it’s not meant kindly. In fact, I take the exact opposite view; to me, classical music is a continuum and it’s enriched by associations from the past. Not that a piece of music should be slavishly imitating something, but to me those influences are enriching, and it’s what allows you to place yourself as a composer in a cultural context.

BD: So you’ve got to come from someplace?

LL: Yeah, yeah. And it’s crazy, because Beethoven often sounds like Haydn or Mozart. There are no composers that are totally unique sounding.

BD: Is that a good thing, a bad thing, or just a thing?

LL: I think it’s just a thing, but it can be very funny. For instance, a review of my opera when it was premiered in Europe said that it sounded like a cross between Berlioz and John Adams. I would really be curious to hear what that sounded like! [Both laugh]

BD: Well, do you try to sound like anybody else, or do you try to sound only like you?

LL: I don’t try to do either. The way I approach composing is a very organic process where I like the overall large form of the work to develop out of the smallest idea or seed that you’re working with. To me, the process of composing is, in a way, the search for an inevitability, that this is really the only right way that this material could develop. It’s about just looking at the material and finding the right way for that to develop; it’s not about trying to sound like anything.

BD: Are you developing it in a certain way, or are you following its development?

LL: More the latter. Occasionally in a piece, one will be working with material that either reminds one of another composer, or another piece of music. Then sometimes you work in references in your own music that explicitly refer to another composer’s work. But I don’t think any composer can escape being influenced.

BD: Are the references homage, or tweaking?

LL: Usually homage. Sometimes tweaking homages!

BD: Should we know what those references are, or should they just be fleeting ideas that may or may not be grasped by the audience?

LL: It depends. Sometimes it’s very explicit and meant to be picked up. Other times it’s more subtle, sort of an in-joke.

BD: When you’re writing a piece of music, going along and watching its development, how do you know when you’ve reached the end?

LL: When you write the double bar! [Both laugh] No, it’s always pretty clear. It’s a difficult decision and it depends on each piece. It’s sort of like a writer writing the novel. Usually when you start out, you have a pretty good idea of the plot before you begin filling it in.

BD: Do you spend a lot of time thinking before you put anything on the page?

LL: Yeah, I do, and then I actually spend quite a bit of time sketching, searching for the material I’m going to use. Once I actually have decided I’ve got my material and I can begin, then I usually compose from A to Z. I usually compose a piece in the order it’s listened to.

BD: But then when you get to the double bar, don’t you go back and tinker with little portions?

LL: Very rarely. I’ll occasionally go back. Often one writes ahead and sketches ahead quickly to get to the double bar. Because you know where you’re going, you know where you want to go, and maybe you’re in a section that you’re not quite sure about some of the details. So you sketch that in quickly and go ahead to the finish. Then you have to come back, but usually I don’t do much revising. I have never really looked back at pieces and said, “Oh, this doesn’t work, or this doesn’t have to be changed.” I tend to compose very carefully and very slowly. I usually don’t put something down on paper unless I’m pretty sure that that’s what I want.

BD: Is it true that each little note gets its moment with you?

LL: Yeah, yeah. It tends to. One of my aims in composing — one of my aesthetic ideals — is that there should not be any notes that are not absolutely necessary.

BD: Then once you get it all out and you hear it, are you ever surprised by what you hear?

LL: No, I never have been, I have to say.

BD: That’s good. That means that you’re able to transfer the sound in your ear to the dots on the page, and it comes back at you the way you heard it.

LL: Yeah, yeah. It usually does.

BD: Once you hear it, do you ever then go back and tighten or change or revise just a little bit?

LL: Very slightly; an occasional dynamic here or there. Occasionally you’ll decide in the strings maybe you want to mute something that wasn’t muted.

BD: You must be a publisher’s dream, then, because some composers go back and after each performance they have a whole set of corrections!

LL: Yeah, but nowadays, the way publishing works it’s usually the composer’s responsibility, anyway. The publishers say, “Give us finished materials, and then we’ll publish it.” I suppose the piece that I did the most revision on was my opera, and just because it’s such a big, large amount of music.

BD: This is the Oscar Wilde?

LL: Yeah. It’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. I went through it and took out certain things to make the orchestral texture lighter. When you’re dealing with singers onstage in a particular hall, you can never really judge the acoustics exactly. It’s going to be different in each, depending on the weight of the voice. So you always have to account for that. I’ve only done one opera, but composers who have done more than one have told me that no matter when you think you’ve got the finished orchestration down, you get another performance and then there’s always something that has to be adjusted.

BD: Do you like working with the human voice?

LL: I like working with the human voice. I don’t necessarily like working with singers! [Both laugh]

BD: Would you want to take the voices out of the throats and be able to manipulate them?

LL: That would be the ideal situation! Singers are a whole category by themselves, in terms of working with them and the egos you have to deal with.

BD: Do singers like working with you?

LL: I haven’t had too many complaints... or at least they haven’t complained to me!

BD: You haven’t conducted the opera?

LL: No, no.

BD: But you’ve conducted other works of yours.

LL: Yes, yeah. I’ve conducted the recording of my two piano concertos on Hyperion. And I conducted the recording of my Flute Concerto, Flute and Harp Concerto, and Piccolo Concerto that’s going to be released by BMG with James Galway.

BD: Is it easier or harder working with a huge established artist like Galway? And would you have written differently, or would it sound different, if it was just Joe Competent flute player?

LL: I wouldn’t have written any differently just because whenever I write a piece, I always write for my imagined ideal performer. And even if you’re writing an easy piece, or even children’s pieces, you’re still writing for the ideal pianist of that level. So, which performer it is doesn’t tend to alter the way I write, except in Galway’s case, he has such an incredible sound and such incredible low notes that I did emphasize a lot of that in the flute pieces. He can do anything on the instrument, so I wasn’t afraid to write anything. As far as working with him, he’s probably one of the easiest musicians I’ve ever had to work with.

BD: He seems genuinely interested in putting the music across.

LL: Oh, yeah. But he was willing to try anything; he is a composer’s dream, as is someone like Stephen Hough, who’s played a lot of my music.