The composer Edward Smaldone is featured on two new albums; "Once and Again" on New Focus Recordings (released August 15, 2020; FCR258) and "Double Portrait" on Ablaze Recordings (released June 19, 2020; AR00053). In this Insider Interview we spoke to Mr. Smaldone about these CDs.
Your musical inspirations range far and wide, from jazz, to contemporary classical, to rock, and beyond. When writing a piece do you tend to think of one certain source, or does each work contain a multitude of inspirations throughout?
I feel that my musical voice is the sum total of all the musical experiences I have had. My experience as a performer, a singer, a guitar player, a pianist, a conductor all feed into the palette of sounds I bring to my composition. I also have experienced a very broad array of styles throughout my musical life listening and studying and analyzing scores of every description. Much of this can be reduced to musical values that translate beyond the stylistic limitations of a particular piece. For example, I have noticed how Beethoven can build musical momentum through aspects of rhythm, dynamics, register, orchestration and motive, combining each in ways that drive the music forward, taking the audience on a visceral ride over the course of several minutes of music. But I have also noticed exactly these qualities in a free-wheeling instrument jam by the Allman Brothers, or a brilliantly structured improvisation by Paul Desmond, or Oscar Peterson, or countless others. As a composer, I respond to these elements as a listener, and strive to imitate these aspects without sounding at all like any of the musicians mentioned. What I try to do is isolate the elements of the music that contribute to the audience experience of change and progression as the music moves forward. In this way, the “influences” of various styles or pieces does not involve the superficial repetition of the particular sound of the influence, but incorporates some part of the musical experience: quickly moving harmony, static harmony, driving rhythm, a-rhythmic stasis, florid melody, simple melody, contrapuntal density, simple texture, etc. And, always, these elements have to serve some sort of emotional goal that can be communicated. These are all the experiences that inform the sounds I have in my ear as I wrestle with expressing something with the instrumental means of whatever piece I’m working on.
On your album Once and Again you’ve come back to old works that you’ve continued to tweak throughout the years. How do you know when a piece you're working on is truly “done”?
In a sense, no piece of music is ever “done” because each performance will bring new details and new connections. Each time someone listens to the same recording, it is a new experience, because each new hearing brings the experience of one more hearing to the table. So, we really never do step into the same stream twice. The “tweaking” I typically do with all of my pieces stems from the fact that the piece is not really the score, but the performance. It is usually after I hear the performance that I see and hear the form and shape come to life, and notice ways that a (usually very small) nip or tuck can make all the difference. In a sense I’m like a tailor, who measures with precision, then sews, then hangs the garment on the client, and only then truly sees where the shape needs adjustment to come into the clearest focus.
The line-up of musicians included in Once and Again is an impressive group of A-list chamber musicians. How did you get to know them?
A long time ago someone said to me “remember, you are always networking.” I have been fortunate to have a long career making music of all kinds, and encountering musicians of all kinds. I have always also valued the personal aspect of our craft. My violinist is not just a violinist, but he is a person who plays the violin. Often, I find the most sympathetic musicians are those skilled performers who have a personality with which I can relate. I feel that my professional relationships with the musicians I have worked with extends to personal relationships in which we value each other as people as well as performer/composer. On the new CD, all of the performers (with just a few exceptions) are people I have known a long time as colleagues at the Aaron Copland School of Music, where we all teach. In most cases, they are also performers who have previously played my music and even recorded it. I am very fortunate to have these musicians in my network.
Two notable exceptions to this were the singers Tony Arnold and Susan Narucki. They are both singers I have heard and admired for their outstanding work, especially with new music. I was talking with a friend and simply said out loud “Gee, I wish I could get someone like Tony Arnold/Susan Narucki to record this piece.” My friend said, “why don’t you just ask them?”
Like a nervous kid at an 8th grade dance, I got up the nerve simply write to each of them and send some music, inviting them to participate in this recording. To my joyful surprise, they each agreed, and now I have two more friends in the stable of wonderful performers who have performed and recorded my music.
As Double Portrait is, by title, a portrait of you as a composer, how do the pieces represent the full range of your work? If you had unlimited space on the album, what else would you have included?
What is interesting about the Double Portrait CD is that the project was initiated as a vehicle for the All of the Above Ensemble. This is a “Pierrot Ensemble plus Percussion” group of young outstanding musicians who all studied at the Cincinnati College Conservatory. I sent them a raft of pieces that use their instrumentation, and they chose these four works. Curiously, ALL of the pieces they chose are among those that already have other recordings, and none of them are my most recent works. The pieces were composed between 1987 – 1996. As a group of pieces, I think they paint a portrait of my work as an emerging composer. There is a kind of bravado to most of this music that seeks to make a bold statement of a composer trying to make a mark. Perhaps there is a connection between the young composer (in his 30s at the time) and the young performers who are at a similar juncture in their careers. It only just occurs to me now, but these performers are approximately the age I was when I composed these pieces. Their energy on these recordings is well-matched to the energy of the music.
Regarding the second question, don’t ever suggest to a composer that he has “unlimited” anything. I think the limits of the package we have is a useful portrait of a particular “moment” in the life of a composer, reflected in the particular “moment” of these performers.