ID: How did Katrina Ballads come about as an idea?
TH: It came about, really, from a lot of anger [laughs], and frustration, and
sadness about the actual events. After 9/11 I felt like what I was doing had to
be relevant for me. I felt a call to activism, in a way. I didn’t understand why, I guess I do understand why, but it was very upsetting that
everyone wanted to go to war so fast. People were being victimized here and
abroad. I wanted to be a sort of activist, and music is a very powerful way of
doing that. Independently of that, and because of that, I started studying this
South African choral music. It’s community music. Everyone in South Africa is into choral music. Choirs are
almost like football teams there. They used this music to fight apartheid for
years. There is all this music that is blatantly political that served to
create a community within the people singing it. It gave them strength, helped
people mourn, helped people understand themselves. It’s a beautiful thing. Afterwards I realized I wanted to do something in that
model here. So, I started this group Yes is a World, in 2002, in that light.
I think that Katrina was definitely the worst disaster in this country that I’ve ever seen, maybe since the Civil War. It was so fucked up. I could not
believe this happened. For a long time it was bottled up within me. The idea to
set the primary source texts came a few months later. Initially it was
something that was cathartic. Now that I look at it I realize that it was the
first time I was able to integrate the music and the activism successfully.
Before that it was more naïve, for me, this was the first thing I’ve done as a composer that I can really stand behind, in terms of the melding of
the two ideas. The piece is about the events, ourselves, and the country, but
it’s also about the media. How the media woke up. Sometimes people confuse the
ideas, [and think] that it is inauthentic. That I’m saying I was a victim of the storm, and it’s not about that. We were all witnesses to what happened in the media, how there
was this call to responsibility. The media has laid down and taken shit for
years before this…It hasn’t exactly been completely reformed either. Maybe that’s how it’s always been in this country, completely complacent. I feel like it’s getting worse. But for that week, all bets were off. The media felt abandoned.
They were seeing things and there wasn’t the normal spin from the government. It was completely inefficient. They were there; there was no protection from it. While they are normally
protected, or removed from it. With the piece, at the Anderson Cooper movement,
there starts to be this musical portrayal of the media subconscious, starting
with the build of Anderson Cooper’s anger. I tried to make it flower out into this notion of the absurdity of the
situation and the intensity of the media response.
ID: I find it surprising, though it makes sense, but generally in a political
piece of this nature the media is often indicted in the same fashion as the
politicians for their acceptance of the spin. What was the process like for
determining the source texts? How did you wade through everything that happened
and decide ‘I will compose this movement around this 30 second sound bite?’
TH: Mostly, with a few exceptions, the texts were all things that I experienced
during that week. Like most people, I wasn’t that concerned about it until the media started yelling, “What the fuck?” Maybe that Tuesday or Wednesday night after they had been flooded out for a day
or more. I think the Anderson Cooper interview was on Wednesday and I saw that.
After the Anderson Cooper interview, I was glued to the media. I saw all of
these source texts happen. Though, I don’t think I actually saw the Kanye West thing happen. That was all over the next
day. I listen to This American Life, and that [Ashley Nelson] interview was
just heartbreaking. I think, in the way it was assembled, I wanted it to be
something like what my experience with this material was. In the beginning
there was a flood, and it gets progressively worse from there. That’s sort of why it’s oddly structured.
ID: Were the stylistic moves, in terms of blending genres, intentionally rooted
in New Orleans styles?
TH: It doesn’t represent New Orleans culture literally. It’s not that particular. None of those styles scream New Orleans to me. Maybe that
second interlude with the trumpet is a little bit New Orleans, but that’s even a little abstracted. Unless you look at it in a very broad way and
extract that here is the blues, or jazz. I can see that. But it’s more about the fact that all sorts of things exist in New Orleans, but they
exist in this very broad, but beautiful way. On top of that, music is so
important there. That’s why it’s stylistically the way it is. That’s something I’ve found that is being misunderstood. People saying, ‘Well, this isn’t like New Orleans music.’ That’s too easy. And it would be completely inauthentic if I tried to do that. I’m not from New Orleans. I don’t play a brass instrument. I could write something that maybe sounds like that,
but it would be hack. It’s more about an American perception of music, the ways styles are pushed
together in American music, oppression being expressed in music. The thing to
me that is the riskiest or the weirdest thing about it is the difference in the
styles of the singers.
The first movement, in many ways, is the most difficult for people. What was
your impression of the first movement?
ID: The Prelude?
TH: Yeah, with the mezzo-soprano, and it starts with the roll on the piano and
the strings.
ID: The first time it was a little difficult to digest. The singer, initially,
appears to be doing something nearly operatic. There is a nice subtlety to the
music that seems to be a microcosm of what the hurricane was, and what the
album will be. It’s difficult to extract that upon the first listen. There is all this dissonance
and beauty before it seems that the dissonance really starts to overcome the
more pleasant melodies. It’s evolution is a challenging introduction. But her voice is beautiful, it’s entrancing.
TH: Yes, it’s dissonant. Abby Fischer is the singer, her vocal style is very subtle. She has
this extremely tight vibrato she uses. But she incorporates this almost cabaret
thing, and she goes between the straight tone and a tremolo, it’s very unique. I love her voice. But I think it turns a lot of people off
immediately. The thing about vocal quality is it has a lot of these
subconscious signifiers. A lot of people hear vibrato and they immediately
think opera, and, of course, then they’re turned off. Or they will bring other associations to it. But this had to have
this kind of intensity. It has this intimate jazz cabaret vibe going. I think
it’s a little risky. Shit is thrown in really fast. It’s the hardest song to really get.
ID: It took me a little bit to warm up and actually be able to listen to it. It does have a sort of operatic feel. It ultimately doesn’t come through as operatic, but it takes on a specific quality that adds to the
impression, throughout “Prologue,” of being an allegory of the event, and what the album will be.
TH: Thanks for saying that because when you do it live people are there. It’s an experiential thing. She is a very dynamic performer, even visually. Aside
from walking out, the people are there for an hour; you know people are going
to experience the arc of it. I think by the end, the first movement makes
sense, but they aren’t going to listen to it anymore. With a recording you can turn it off at any
moment. The listener has that freedom; it’s not an experiential thing in the same way. It’s a little dangerous to have the first movement be like that. I think, given the
nature of the event, it has to be like that. I think about that a lot. That
just leads into a whole other thing about how people listen to music today. It’s the sound bite, it’s so important. What is that? We spent so much time mixing the first movement,
because it’s so important. The ensemble sound has to sound a very particular way. If
someone makes the choice to turn it off, or decides they don’t get it, they aren’t really listening to everything that’s happening. It’s really interesting—I’m rambling I know, cut me off at any time—but about the voice; what a voice signifies, how they use it, and the style that
it brings to mind, it’s a very powerful thing to use in music. Subconsciously, it has nothing to do
with the notes or the harmony, or even the rhythm, it’s the quality of the voice. That accesses the whole range of music in your own
personal history. With an operatic voice, in this country anyway, there are a
lot of negative connotations that come with that, because of the status of
opera in our society. It’s an elitist thing. And it’s not really relevant to young people in this country.
ID: It’s something that is actually rarely experienced by the youth, but they are
hyper-aware of it’s existence. It almost becomes a parody of itself without ever really being
manifest in someone’s life. It’s more of an idea than anything to some people.
TH: The shit that is essentially opera now is not called opera, or wouldn’t be called opera because it’s associated with all these negative things. But opera as an idea, with music
and drama, and the show, the theatrical performance with music, that is
relevant. But the idea of opera, the idea that it’s European, and it’s a singer with a false sounding, huge vibrato is not our culture.
ID: The album seems very well suited to New Amsterdam Records. They are
consistently putting out interesting, well-produced, classical recordings that
aren’t necessarily quantifiable as just classical recordings. How did that pairing
wind up coming together?
TH: We’re all in the same scene. I’ve known those guys for a while. I’ve known Judd [Greenstein] the longest because we went to Bang on a Can, the
summer festival, together. Lawson [White, of So Percussion], the guy who
produced the record, has a connection with them as well. It seemed like the
most logical fit for a record label. Also, they have a new idea about how to
market this. They are a non-profit, and they are very artist-centric. They are
open to this online thing more than most labels. They released this as a
digital only download, we’re going to put the CD out at the beginning of ’09, but they are marketing it as a download, and that’s something that a lot of labels aren’t hip to yet. Their business model is interesting to me. It’s going to be more financially viable for them than the old label model. They’re new, so it’s up in the air whether that’s true, but it has the potential.
ID: They have created an interesting identity that is very akin to an indie-rock
label. It’s a new approach to buying classical music.
TH: Yeah, and I think there are people who, if they aren’t comfortable using the word “classical” music, or buying “classical” music, it doesn’t have to be classical music to them. It’s about synthesis. Which is also why Katrina Ballads makes the most sense there, because it is about synthesis. Also, New Amsterdam’s conception is that it’s an extension of a scene. It’s a new music scene, New York, late 20s, or whatever it is. I know there are
people who aren’t quite in that mold, but that’s their idea. It’s a good fit.
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