A Foreigner Writing for Native Ears

I have had a long affinity for all things Russian (history, literature, film, fine art, and, especially, music) and I was recently afforded the opportunity to write a piece for the tenor Michael Spyres and The Moscow Chamber Orchestra. Having gained so much from this culture’s  dizzyingly vibrant musical tradition, the task of writing a work that might in some small part convey my admiration became quite a daunting task. Ever cognizant of writing in an authentic manner, I knew that I should in no way adjust my own musical language for the occasion, but one thing I did want to do differently was set my text in the native language.

My favorite composer, Dmitri Shostakovich, took great pains to translate his 13th Symphony into German (with the help of Kurt Mazur) and his insistence that a work should be presented in as intelligible a manner as possible to its audience is something I greatly admire and to which I aspire. But not speaking Russian in the least put me considerably out of my depth. So I enlisted the help of my dear friend and collaborator, Ben Pfeiffer, who, aside from being a fantastically talented writer, also studied Russian in college. Ben, ever the perfectionist, then took his translation to Irina Fediunina Six, a Literature and Russian language professor at KU who is a native Russian speaker. The result was an impeccably beautiful translation that I could set without much difficulty.

In the midst of finishing the piece (originally scored for piano and voice per Michael’s request), I received a call from Michael in which he said those 7 words that every composer longs to hear, “can this be for full orchestra instead?” All of sudden my palette went from black paint on white canvas to a rich array of orchestral colors. The resulting piece, partially in English and Russian, is  filled with a warm zeal and moments of tender lyricism that I am thrilled to present to the concert-going residents of St. Petersburg! 

And this will be all will receive its premiere performance as part of the 2010 Musical Festival St. Petersburg Palaces on November 12. 

If you would like to help defray some of the costs associated with my trip to St. Petersburg, please visit www.andrewpauljackson.com/about.html and click the donate button at the bottom of the page. Thank you!

Charlie Sheen in... HYPER-REALITY!

As an avid TV watcher, I came across a series of commercials advertising an HDTV provider. This campaign featured easily recognizable scenes from notable movies in which, part way through whatever dialogue or action was taking place, the lead actor, newly spliced into the original footage, would say something to the effect that “if so-and-so were experiencing this scene in HD, they would…” etc. My particular favorite in this series is the one involving Charlie Sheen in his role from the Major League movies. In the commercial Sheen’s character specifically argues that an umpire that just called “ball” on a pitch would have seen it was a strike if he had only been watching this in HD.

For those of us who over think, what this campaign was specifically selling was hyper-reality. As the actors by nature of their characters are ostensibly in a simulated reality, but they acknowledge that that reality is somehow lacking or would pale in comparison to the hyper-real, symbolized in this particular instance by HDTV.

From HDTV to dying one’s hair, hyper-reality is becoming more and more prevalent in our contemporary lives. And it is something on which Jean Baudrillard was way ahead of the curve. In his wonderful treatise Simulacra and Simulation, Baudrillard explores the nature of symbolic representation and its role in contemporary life. This conjecture became the impetus for a recent work of mine for string trio, befittingly called Simulacra, that will premiere a week from today. The piece attempts to present Baudrillard’s formulations of increasing simulation (reflection, perversion, pretense, and simulacra) in an abstract musical essay. I hope you can join us!

“The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth- it is the truth that there is none.” Jean Baudrillard in Simulacra and Simulation

Simulacra will be premiered on The Fifth Floor Collective’s first concert of the 2010-2011 season. For more info visit: http://www.fifthfloorcollective.com