On October 1 - 18, Baruch Performing Arts Center presents an exclusive performance by the pianist Yael Weiss of music by Beethoven and new works from "32 Bright Clouds". Ms. Weiss commissioned composers from 32 countries of conflict, all inspired by Beethoven's music. Her program at Baruch PAC features a world premiere by Bongani Ndodana-Breen (South Africa), and New York premieres by Saed Haddad (Jordan), Aslıhan Keçebaşoğlu (Turkey) and Adina Izarra (Venezuela). More info online at Baruch.cuny.edu. In this Insider Interview we spoke to Ms. Weiss about her project, “32 Bright Clouds”.
Why did you decide to launch the worldwide commissioning project 32 Bright Clouds?
Music is a wonderful language for bringing people together and the “32 Bright Clouds” project aims to use the power of music to express our unity, and the global aspiration for peace. The project was born a couple of years ago when I felt that I needed to go beyond the usual concert performances and create an opportunity to share important stories and to bring ideas from around the world to the concert stage. At a time when we are surrounded by an atmosphere of fear, anger, and words and attitudes that create divisiveness, I thought of using my own medium of expression, which is music, to transform that space of alienation and fear into a space where we are curious about the other, where we find excitement and joy in discovering both our own unique qualities and our innate similarities.
How did you come up with the name?
The name “Bright Clouds” is a poetic expression from an old Zen Buddhist text. I like the combination of light and dark colors. And I think of the new pieces as shining a bright light on what may be darker situations and conflicts. The expression “Bright Clouds” is understood to mean “the entire world covered with brightness of wisdom”, an image I find inspiring as I work on the project.
How did you choose the composers and countries you wanted to include in 32 Bright Clouds?
This is one of the parts of the project that I find most fascinating. There are countries of conflict that are very important for me to include in the project, and sometimes those are places that we normally have very little contact with. I usually look to find at least one common link somewhere. Sometimes a single link gradually leads me to the type of musicians and composers I’m looking for. Of course, there are endless research tools available online today and these often can help point me in the right direction. But not everything can be done electronically, and on one occasion I ended up taking a long plane trip half way across the world to meet and listen to musicians in a remote location.
What, to you, connects these composers from across the globe to Beethoven’s music? How are they inspired by or how do they incorporate a Beethoven’s piano sonata in their work?
Beethoven himself lived during a troubled time of transition and manifested in his own life and work a deep belief in liberty and equality, and especially in the creative power of the independent artist to free our minds. Each composer explores their own connection with these ideals, as reflected in their particular upbringing and culture. Many of the new works include dedications to current events in the composers’ own countries, just as we know Beethoven himself dedicated some of his works to specific events and ideas of the time.
Each new work offers a fascinating and creative way of joining music that reflects the composer’s own culture and compositional style together with a response to one of Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas. There are endless ways in which this connection is expressed in the different works. Just as Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas are 32 unique works, each exploring new compositional and emotional realms, so does each of the new works for the “32 Bright Clouds” project provide a new contribution to the piano repertoire. The range and variety among the new works is startling, and yet they are all connected by their relationships to Beethoven.
What about the “peace motif” from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is so important that you want to make the linchpin of this project?
Each one of the new works carries with it a message of peace. This is achieved by using a single group of notes, a Peace motif, that every composer from around the world includes or responds to in their new composition. This peace motif is taken from Beethoven’s masterpiece, the Missa Solemnis. Specifically, this is from the “Dona Nobis Pacem” section of the work. Most importantly, I chose these notes because Beethoven wrote in the score above them a kind of private message for the performer, he wrote “A call for inner and outer peace” and that is the message of the entire 32 Bright Clouds project.
How does each of them express their concern about the difficulties faced by their countries and countrymen? Could you provide a few examples?
South African composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s new work is dedicated to Uyinene Mrwetyana and all victims of femicide in South Africa. As the composer said, gender based violence is one of Africa’s unspoken cultural pandemics.According to official police statistics), a woman is murdered every three hours in the country. To compound this horror, South Africa has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world. Uyinene Mrwetyana, the 19 year old university student to whose memory this piano work is dedicated, was one such tragic statistic. The work integrates the “peace motif” with traditional African songs of the Xhosa women. It is titled “Isiko: An African Ritual for Ancestral Intercession”, a ritual used to ask for guidance at such times of suffering and despair.
Jordanian composer Saed takes the “peace motif” from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, especially the last three notes of it which are where Beethoven uses the words Pacem, Pacem, or Peace, Peace, and he avoids the middle note. This is his way of expressing his feeling that current peace agreements are empty, and so to musically express this emptiness he took out that particular note.
Venezuelan composer Adina Izarra’s piece is called “Arietta for the 150”. It is dedicated to the 150 young men and women who were killed during the 2017 peace demonstrations in Caracas. The work is intimately connected with the second movement, the Arietta, from Beethoven’s final Sonata Op.111. It is the expression of calm and peace in this movement that the composer brings forward in her own work, portraying a dream of a peaceful Venezuela, as well as joyful sections that include her response to the “peace motif” from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.