In a few days Not Less Than the Good will be performed in Concord, Massachusetts, as a part of the Thoreau Bicentennial celebration. Last month New Thread Quartet, J.D. “Sandy” McClatchy, and I performed the world premiere at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York. It was an amazing evening. I was thrilled and honored to be onstage with such incredible performers.
In the weeks that follow the performance I find myself reflecting on the communal effort involved in bringing this performance (and, indeed, every performance) to life. The antiquated notion of music being created by solitary individuals is still alive in our popular conception of what a composer is. This is untrue; at the very least, every musician in the performance contributes to the experience of the music. (I recommend Andrew Durkin’s Decomposition: A Music Manifesto for more on this topic.)
I was very fortunate to have many great people around me to make Not Less Than the Good what it is. Of course there is New Thread Quartet (Geoffrey Landman, Kristen McKeon, Erin Rogers, and Zach Herchen), who not only gave an incredible performance, but helped to shape my conception of the piece. I heard NTQ perform on a series called Music for Contemplation in 2015. They played a series of very quiet pieces that required an intense level of concentration. They played beautifully, bringing everyone in the room deep into the intensity of their experience. Hearing this was inspiring and influenced the creative decisions I was beginning to make. I embraced the kind of quiet and intense playing that I had heard, and for the first time understood that the way into this project was to create a sonic sunrise.
The addition of J.D. McClatchy to the project elevated everything. When I recorded him reading the script in January it was like finally hearing the piece as I had imagined it, but not in a way that I could articulate even in my own mind. Sandy brought both his experience reading poetry and his deep knowledge of poetry, literature, music, and philosophy. He reads Thoreau with an authority and insight that is deeply profound. The music is very different without his voice.
Sandy’s presence in Not Less Than the Good is due to Melissa Grey. She is an exceptional composer (who I am very fortunate to collaborate with on a number of other projects). She has been around this project from the beginning, letting me show her sketches and listening to me think through ideas out loud. On more than one occasion she helped me see some aspect of the project that I was overlooking. One day, during a rehearsal break, she suggested that Sandy would be the perfect narrator and offered to reach out to him for me. This very generous offer transformed the project.
Many months before recording Sandy, I had recorded actress Darien Crago reading the script. She kindly allowed me to use her voice to construct a scratch version of the piece as I was composing. Her skilled reading allowed me to compose and shape the piece much more effectively. The presence of her voice throughout that process, which allowed me to hear the words in someone else’s voice, had a positive influence on many of the choices I was making.
The idea to record a reader early in the composition process came from Michael Fix, an extraordinary producer who describes himself as a “freelance fixer”. Fix was integral to the early phase of the project. I was struggling to get my head around this enormous text and the scope of what I wanted to do. His experience is in film-making and large scale event production, so he had several suggestions on how to begin that were perfect for a project of this size. These included creating a one-sheet for Not Less Than the Good that I could use to talk about the project. Fix patiently read through several iterations of a project description, offering reactions and suggestions. This helped me think through what I wanted to do in order to make a plan for beginning the work.
Not Less Than the Good features field recordings made at Walden Pond in a prominent role. Once I had determined that the music was going to be in the shape of a sunrise, I wanted to record the sounds of insects and birds at Walden Pond during the sunrise and early morning hours. This took help from several people to accomplish.
Jason Fitzgerald, a friend and accomplished audio production professional, loaned me the equipment I needed to make the field recordings. The proper microphone and recorder make a significant difference in the recording’s quality. The sounds of Walden Pond are an essential part of the music. Jason’s help selecting the right gear, and his tutorials on how to best use it, were essential. As a surprise bonus, Jason brought a recorder to the performance in order to document the concert.
Having the right gear is one thing, but I also had to be able to access the pond very early in the morning. Sunrise that morning was at 6:06 am, meaning I had to be there and set up before 5 if I wanted to capture the pre-dawn sounds. Walden Pond is not open to the public before 6 am. A helpful employee at the state parks office suggested that I try to make my recordings on one of the properties that border the pond, such as The Walden Woods Project. Thankfully, the people at WWP were happy to accommodate my request. In particular I should mention Juliet Trofi, who answered my emails and coordinated everything I needed; Matthew Burne, who wrote with suggestions about where to go on the property and sent the necessary maps; and Jeffrey Cramer, who runs the Thoreau Institute Library at WWP and assisted with the addition of my recordings to the Library’s archive.
After making the recordings I had a meeting with Michael Frederick, Executive Director of The Thoreau Society. He indulged me in a long conversation about Thoreau and Walden. His suggestion to read The Magic Circle of Walden helped me to make the final adjustments to the script. He was also willing to read the script and offer feedback, which I greatly appreciated.
The performance at The Morgan Library & Museum included a lighting effect that simulated a sunrise. This was an idea contributed by Erin Rogers and executed by Kris Diehl. In addition to designing the lighting, Kris helped locate the equipment needed and was present to run the effect during both the dress rehearsal and the performance. The video does not do justice to the subtlety of what Kris made, but it does show how effective this simple theatrical element was. Everyone who attended that performance had their experience of the music shaped by their experience of Kris’s beautiful lighting.
Actually, everyone who attended that performance had their experience shaped by their experience of the space itself. Thanks to Linden Chubin and the entire staff at The Morgan (especially Paula Zadigian and Anthony Del Aversano) for everything that they did to make sure that it was a great experience for everyone who performed and listened. I’d also like to point out Christine Nelson’s stunning exhibition design (we were honored to perform on the opening night of This Ever New Self: Thoreau and His Journal). Performing in the same place where Thoreau’s journals are displayed added a layer of magic to the evening.
This list would be incomplete without mentioning Lucinda Kalin, who is the reason that I read Walden in the first place. Before my daughter, Mathilda, was born, Lucinda purchased a copy of Walden for Mathilda’s future library. I had never read it before, and looked at it as it sat on the shelf when I would rock Mathilda to sleep. One day I just picked it up and started reading. Very quickly I knew that I wanted to compose music for this book, so I went out and purchased my own copy to mark up. Mathilda, who is now 6, attended the performance at the Morgan. One day she will read Walden for herself. I look forward to those conversations.
[photo credit: Marc Fiaux]