Ammie Brod interviews composer Pierce Gradone about On a Blue Burst of Lake, which will receive its world premiere on January 18, 2020.
“The Harbor
Carl Sandburg
Passing through huddled and ugly walls,
By doorways where women haggard
Looked from their hunger-deep eyes,
Haunted with shadows of hunger-hands,
Out from the huddled and ugly walls,
I came sudden, at the city’s edge,
On a blue burst of lake,
Long lake waves breaking under the sun
On a spray-flung curve of shore;
And a fluttering storm of gulls,
Masses of great gray wings
And flying white bellies
Veering and wheeling free in the open.”
AB: I *love* the Sandberg poem that the title comes from. Who brought that to the table, and does it factor into the piece in musical ways? And does this piece have a special connection or resonance with Chicago, either musically/artistically or emotionally?
PG: I’m fairly certain that I’ve wanted to set Sandberg’s “The Harbor” since I moved to Chicago. I live about a block from Lake Michigan, so it’s played a large role in my daily life, be it walking my dog on the water or barbecuing at Promontory Point. I think I chose this title because Andy and I share a love for this part of the country, and the lake in particular; so I wanted this piece for him to reflect that.
The poem does play a musical role in the piece, albeit in a somewhat subtle way. The two movements represent the dual nature of the lake: the first as a tempestuous duel between piano and oboe; and the second as the placid calm on a sunny day, when the lake is nearly transparent. It also roughly mirrors the two-part structure of the poem, in which the narrator walks through the industrialized gloom of early 20th century Chicago and suddenly finds himself captivated by this “blue burst of lake."
AB: How much did you and Andy collaborate through this process? Are there specific things about Andy as a person and/or performer that had impact on the piece itself?
PG: Andy and I have worked together many times, so many of the technical issues were already understood. However, we did have one workshop in which we explored some of the timbral and harmonica possibilities of combining some of the oboe’s richer multiphonics (multiple notes played at once) with chords in the piano. I would also (as I tend to do with most commissions), send mostly completed sections or movements for review.
AB: Do you have any nuts and bolts stuff that you'd like to mention about the piece?
PG: I think this piece is as close to a “sonata” as I’m likely to get (except that it’s perhaps a sonata for both instruments in terms of technical difficulty). In certain ways, the piece has a romantic sensibility, despite a richly chromatic harmonic structure. Perhaps it’s the voice-like nature of the instrument, or that I simply have a romantic notion of the city and its lakefront. I often struggle with slower movements, but I must say that I really love the slow second movement of this piece, especially its simplicity of line and color. As I’m growing older, I’m far more accepting of simple, unadorned moments in my music, and I think that this movement is a good example of that.
Listen to Andrew Nogal perform the world premiere of On a Blue Burst of Lake at the Holtschneider Performance Center on January 18, 2020.