DAVID SISCO
I had the opportunity to chat with David Sisco about his new song cycle based on texts by Beat generation poet Gary Snyder, his "Four poems for Robin". This is a first time collaboration between Sisco and New Music New York. The cycle will be premiered on June 12, 2012 by tenor William George at NMNY's next concert,
For ticket information, please go to: http://nmnybodyelectric.eventbrite.com/
I sing the body electric: Walt Whitman and Beat Generation Poets
in chamber music and song
Saint Peter's Church at CitiCorp in Manhattan (53rd and Lexington Avenue)For ticket information, please go to: http://nmnybodyelectric.eventbrite.com/
I read over your website and work list, and checked out some of the
poets you have been drawn to in the past as inspiration for your art
song work list: cummings, Blake, Amy Lowell, plus some other poets I am
not familiar with, such as Barbara Worton and Linda Dini Jenkins. What
are the poetic images and themes that fuel your art song compositions?
and is there anything that these poets share or have in common?
I
wish I could say something brilliant about how I go about choosing
texts. To be honest, I simply rely on my visceral response to the words
and the arch of the poem. Poets would probably be disgusted by how
quickly I discard a poem when skimming over texts to set. It’s not a
reflection on the poet’s work, but more about whether or not I feel
drawn to it.
I’m interested in poems that allow me to
honor the language while creating an inner life or subtext through the
music. In theater, the meaning of the words is informed by what’s not
being said. I believe the same should be true in art song. To create a
fully realized world for the singer to play in is a huge treat (and
responsibility).
In the last three years I’ve had the
great pleasure of writing song cycles based on the work of several
living poets, including: Danita Geltner, Linda Dini Jenkins, Dennis
Rhodes, Jeff Walt and Barbara Worton. What these writers all have in
common with Blake, cummings and Lowell is that their works have a
natural lyricism that makes them a joy to set to music (not easy, but a
joy).
In your program notes describing both the songs and the poems by Snyder that you've chosen, you allude to a
quality that definitely reminds me Proust: the interplay between past
and present and memory. How did these poems affect how you work with
the musical material and the composition of the songs that you are
writing for NMNY?
I tried to play with this sense of time
by creating pauses or obscuring a sense of the beat. This will
hopefully uncover the cracks in which the performer can explore the
poet’s voice. In “Siwashing it out,” the first piece in the cycle, I
enjoyed going back and forth between a 9/8 and 3/4. The 3/4 feels very
heavy in comparison, almost as if the author’s memories are literally
weighing him down. In the second piece, “A spring night...”, I created
simple undulating chord progression in the left hand of the piano while
the right hand is more virtuosic, representing different levels and
experiences of time and memory.
There seems to be a
universality in the theme of remembering a first love and more than
anything, remembering our younger "selves"; its almost like a theatrical
ploy of the older actress observing the younger self actress, acting
out the past in a flashback thing. Will you portray this in the songs,
or is it even something you seek to show?
To me, these
themes are so ensconced in the text that having to portray them further
in some way would make them trite or overly sentimental. I think the
joy of art song (and indeed, all art) is that we each take away from it
what we’re capable of receiving based on who we are in that moment. I’m
sure a more mature audience member will have a different (or at least
deepened) relationship with these Snyder texts than a younger person. I
don’t say that to put a value judgment on anyone’s perceptions.
Actually, I think it’s a tremendous wonder.
Having said all that, I’m always careful not to put something “on” the poem that isn’t there or might suggest I have a hidden agenda with the text. I’m all for letting the text speak on its own through the singer and letting the audience come to their own conclusions, as I have.
What is the compositional process like with these particular settings you are working on now?
I
had to write these pieces very quickly, so a lot of what I did was
trust my gut and just go. Because there are different geographies
referenced in the poems, I tried to be somewhat familiar with the sounds
these places might suggest. Again, in “Siwashing it out...” I
attempted to create a musical image of rhododendron leaves falling,
which is mentioned in the first line of the poem.
Beyond this, I did what I normally do when writing a new art song: I read the poem aloud several times so I can feel the words in my mouth and get a sense of the text’s organic pace. I begin to set the melody away from the piano and usually the harmony comes not too far behind
Is this the first time you are inspired to set a Beat Generation poet text? and why Snyder versus Whitman?
Oh God, Whitman scares the living daylights out of me! I haven’t worked
up the nerve to set any of his poetry yet. I settled on Snyder because
he’s off the beaten path, and I really love this small set of four
poems. I think they’ll make a nice set for tenor. There’s also that
bittersweet quality about the texts that resonates with me these days.
Your current projects are interesting. I got a chance to read one of the Linda Dini Jenkins poems listed on your current project tab of your website, which is about reminiscence. I also saw you are setting poems by Stephen Crane, the author of the Red Badge of Courage. His poetry is somewhat below the radar and probably seriously under rated. When you receive commissions, do the artists assign you the poetry, or do you choose the text and have final say? What is your process of collaborating with the commissioning artist in terms of text?
Like anything, it has to be a collaboration. I want the
singer to be completely on fire about the text I’m setting for them.
Otherwise, why set it? And yet, I also have to make sure the poem
inspires me.
Perhaps one of the best times I had
tailoring a cycle to a particular singer was my song cycle “Missed
Connections” for my dear friend and brilliant mezzo, Elizabeth
Mondragon. The cycle features texts taken from craigslist.com.
Elizabeth and I had a blast forwarding each other different posts, and
the cycle took shape almost on its own. I later created a male version
of the cycle for Kurt Ollmann, and we had a very similar collaboration.
Again, there has to be a sense of ownership when it
comes to the text - a “Yes, I totally get this!” feeling for the singer
and me. In the musical theatre world, we say that a song occurs in a
show when words are no longer enough. I feel the exact same way about
art song. There has to be a palpable reason for us to invest in these
words at this moment. Otherwise, we’ll be doing a great disservice to
the poem.
David Sisco is an active performer, writer and teacher who's art songs
have been featured at concerts produced by Friends & Enemies of New
Music, Joy in Singing, Lyricfest and Songfest. For more information,
visit his website: www.davidsisco.com.
Siwashing it out once in Siuslaw Forest
I slept under rhododendron
All night blossoms fell
Shivering on a sheet of cardboard
Feet stuck in my pack
Hands deep in my pockets
Barely able to sleep.
I remembered when we were in school
Sleeping together in a big warm bed
We were the youngest lovers
When we broke up we were still nineteen.
Now our friends are married
You teach school back east
I dont mind living this way
Green hills the long blue beach
But sometimes sleeping in the open
I think back when I had you.
Excerpted from Gary Snyder, “Four Poems for Robin” from
The Back Country
