K: Why did you choose the legend of St. George and the Dragon for your first programme work?
Actually, the original plan was to have a set of fantasy-type scenes, similar to Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition in
which he has different pieces mostly unrelated. Then, I decided to make it more like a story: a continuous development of
music instead of a series of unrelated pieces. I feel the story form has better capability of holding attention in a concert.
When I was a kid, my mom read to me the version of St. George by Margaret Hodges, and when my mother reminded me
of it I immediately started to musically illustrate the story. The legend of St. George already fit the musical ideas I had
written, and it was as if I had been always writing with it in mind. The story itself is definitely worth telling, and the
message it conveys is one of hope, courage and perseverance, all of which I had always intended to have in the piece.
What was the most difficult movement of Saint George and the Dragon to write?
Each movement had it's own little difficulties and challenges to it. The one that had the most of these was probably The
First Battle. The version that I finally used was the 3rd version I wrote, and I discarded hundreds of measures in order to
get to the final product.
It was the most difficult because I wanted to write battle music that was still music; often you hear battle music, like in
soundtracks, and it tends to be mostly just noise. The hard thing was to figure out how to make it musical, but still sound
battle-ish. I ended up making it like the development section in a sonata, using the several themes and fragments of these,
answering to each other and being thrown about.
Why did you choose to work with the stringed section instead of the full orchestra in the Death of Una?
By using the entire orchestra one can get a very full, colorful sound, but by using just the strings, one creates what they
call "white sound." An example of that is the soundtrack for the old Psycho, to display the horror of the movie the
composer used the string section for the entire soundtrack, which gave it an eerie sound: less colorful, and hence the
name white. I decided to use it for the Death of Una because it was appropriate.
The string section is also the most expressive choir of the orchestra. It added the more expressive and dramatic sound I
wanted for Una's death, and helped it stand out as one of the more emotional movements.
What did you hope to accomplish musically with St. George and the Dragon?
Foremost, I was trying to achieve dramatic structure. With St. George, I wanted to put that dramatic concept into
music. The first three movements introduce different themes. The themes are like characters. St. George’s and Una’s
themes are especially prominent. In the battles, those characters and their themes are tested. In the end, you see how the
themes have changed after the development sections, just as the person has changed after conflict.
The two most important things when you have a piece that long is making it sound unified and keeping people's attention.
St. George is successful at doing both of those things.As for unity, the major themes of St. George, Una, and the Dragon
are found throughout all of the movements, creating common strings running through the whole piece.
There's also a common element in these three themes that reinforces this common string. All use the minor 3rd in a
prominent way, but also in different ways. It gives unity, but they're different enough so that they sound separate, and
not repetitive. The musical illustration of a great story is very appealing, and the virtues it shows -- such as courage and
perseverance -- add to the piece; take all three aspects together, and they make it a success.
Actually, the original plan was to have a set of fantasy-type scenes, similar to Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition in
which he has different pieces mostly unrelated. Then, I decided to make it more like a story: a continuous development of
music instead of a series of unrelated pieces. I feel the story form has better capability of holding attention in a concert.
When I was a kid, my mom read to me the version of St. George by Margaret Hodges, and when my mother reminded me
of it I immediately started to musically illustrate the story. The legend of St. George already fit the musical ideas I had
written, and it was as if I had been always writing with it in mind. The story itself is definitely worth telling, and the
message it conveys is one of hope, courage and perseverance, all of which I had always intended to have in the piece.
What was the most difficult movement of Saint George and the Dragon to write?
Each movement had it's own little difficulties and challenges to it. The one that had the most of these was probably The
First Battle. The version that I finally used was the 3rd version I wrote, and I discarded hundreds of measures in order to
get to the final product.
It was the most difficult because I wanted to write battle music that was still music; often you hear battle music, like in
soundtracks, and it tends to be mostly just noise. The hard thing was to figure out how to make it musical, but still sound
battle-ish. I ended up making it like the development section in a sonata, using the several themes and fragments of these,
answering to each other and being thrown about.
Why did you choose to work with the stringed section instead of the full orchestra in the Death of Una?
By using the entire orchestra one can get a very full, colorful sound, but by using just the strings, one creates what they
call "white sound." An example of that is the soundtrack for the old Psycho, to display the horror of the movie the
composer used the string section for the entire soundtrack, which gave it an eerie sound: less colorful, and hence the
name white. I decided to use it for the Death of Una because it was appropriate.
The string section is also the most expressive choir of the orchestra. It added the more expressive and dramatic sound I
wanted for Una's death, and helped it stand out as one of the more emotional movements.
What did you hope to accomplish musically with St. George and the Dragon?
Foremost, I was trying to achieve dramatic structure. With St. George, I wanted to put that dramatic concept into
music. The first three movements introduce different themes. The themes are like characters. St. George’s and Una’s
themes are especially prominent. In the battles, those characters and their themes are tested. In the end, you see how the
themes have changed after the development sections, just as the person has changed after conflict.
The two most important things when you have a piece that long is making it sound unified and keeping people's attention.
St. George is successful at doing both of those things.As for unity, the major themes of St. George, Una, and the Dragon
are found throughout all of the movements, creating common strings running through the whole piece.
There's also a common element in these three themes that reinforces this common string. All use the minor 3rd in a
prominent way, but also in different ways. It gives unity, but they're different enough so that they sound separate, and
not repetitive. The musical illustration of a great story is very appealing, and the virtues it shows -- such as courage and
perseverance -- add to the piece; take all three aspects together, and they make it a success.
 |
