{"id":25689,"date":"2015-02-18T11:47:51","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T16:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=25689"},"modified":"2015-02-18T11:47:51","modified_gmt":"2015-02-18T16:47:51","slug":"feature-david-lang-whispering-secrets-of-the-internet-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2015\/02\/18\/feature-david-lang-whispering-secrets-of-the-internet-age\/","title":{"rendered":"FEATURE | David Lang: Whispering Secrets of the Internet Age"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"David
David Lang, composer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From his irreverent early work with Bang on a Can in the late 1980\u2019s, to his more recent appointment as professor of composition at Yale University, David Lang juggles a dual role as an iconoclast and respected new music figure.<\/em><\/p>\n

+++<\/p>\n

Composer\u00a0David Lang\u2019s<\/a> work is strongly technical and instantly communicative. His compositions are crafted out of a combination of relentless blocks of chords, and filigrees of opaque melodies. Hallmark works include:\u00a0cheating, lying stealing,<\/em> which sounds almost obsessive compulsive, yet smooth and glossy, and the little match girl passion<\/em> \u2013 \u00a0which landed him a Pulitzer Prize for music in 2008.<\/p>\n

Earlier in February, I spoke with Lang about his piece The Whisper Opera<\/em>, which will premiere in Canada via Soundstreams<\/a> on February 26th,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0at the Theatre Centre. The work was originally conceived out of a major \u201cproblem\u201d that has been plaguing Lang and many other classical composers since the early 20th<\/span>\u00a0century: The effects of recorded music on performance practice.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026We are completely surrounded by music all the time. It\u2019s at our fingertips. It\u2019s completely available. We can log on to the Internet and illegally download anything we want at any moment \u2013 perfectly recorded and perfectly balanced,\u201d Lang said. \u201cAnd on the one hand, that\u2019s fantastic\u2026 But the problem for me is that if you believe like I do, that the live performance experience is the core of what music is about, that is, somebody in front of you, using their human abilities to transmit a message that you receive right there from them\u2026 how do you keep that experience the centre of the musical world if so much of our musical life is done outside of that world?\u201d<\/p>\n

This question has been the elephant in the room for many composers, who, like it or not, must contend with the changing role and function of live concert music in the mp3 era. Some embrace the medium with enthusiasm, and produce classical music albums that embrace pop-style recording techniques. Others, like Lang, choose to act contrarily to culture’s demand for the perfectly recorded musical experience, creating unusual projects to provoke this paradigm.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven for someone who loves live music, like me, most of the music I hear is recorded. So, what I started thinking about in the last few years, is that we have to work very hard now to design projects where live connection is paramount,\u201d Lang said.<\/p>\n

On the surface, it seems unusual for a composer to pursue this direction. Lang\u2019s works like mountain<\/em> for orchestra, love fail<\/em> for four singers, and pierced<\/em> for large ensemble, are cool-to-the-touch, and almost hyper-modern. Lang\u2019s music is also heavily recorded, and admittedly, sounds great coming out of computer speakers. But the ideas that the Whisper Opera wrestles with go beyond matters of style and accessibility \u2013 it reaches out to the core of the live music experience and into a world of inaudibility, failure and musical impossibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you see when you see a performance [of the Whisper Opera] is someone struggling and failing to accomplish something. And you would never record something being failed\u2026 but seeing it live is a powerful and theatrical experience, kind of emotional.\u201d Lang explained. \u201cSo the Whisper Opera comes out of this thinking. It\u2019s trying to figure out something that\u2019s so fragile, so tiny and intimate, and so delicate that it can\u2019t possibly be captured in any other way. It has to be experienced live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lang is so insistent on this aspect that he forbids the work to be recorded, broadcasted or amplified in any way. Its intimate nature prompted director Jim Findlay, to construct unique design to capture the quiet essence of the performance. In addition, Soundstreams has limited performances to 52 people per staging, a limitation, Lang says, which is of integral importance.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of it is the whole thing is just so quiet that you can\u2019t have very many people, and you can\u2019t be very far away from the action. But the other reason why is, again, this experience needs to be unique. It needs to be special, it needs to be something in your life which fills a place in your imagination that you didn\u2019t know existed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opera seems like an unusual medium to explore spaces of extreme intimacy \u2013 the lavish, extroverted productions of the Canadian Opera Company draw over two thousand people at most shows \u2013 but Lang explains that opera is ideal for such an idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t have what you would consider to be traditional arias, or traditional forms, or traditional melodies, but underlining all these things, the reason why those kinds of those things are useful for opera composers is because you\u2019re trying to get at the larger issue, which is how you depict the emotional life of a person\u2026 and that is the core of what happens in this piece of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lang also brings the opera genre into the Internet age, constructing a libretto primarily from search engine results.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the idea of this piece was that I wanted people to be in the presence of something that would go in and out of focus, depending on what you were able to hear\u2026 And I thought that was a very beautiful idea, because, again, everyone observing this will have a different part of the overall story. You will see someone very close to you whispering to someone a few seats away from you, and you will not be able to understand what they are saying\u201d, Lang explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo no one has the full story. And then I started thinking, that\u2019s very much what the Internet is. That the Internet is this incredible welter of voices, of people sharing things with each other. And sometimes sharing things that are tremendously revealing about themselves. And sharing their secrets and sharing their secret lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the Internet, hidden desires bubble to the forefront, as Lang compiled the libretto from Internet searches relating to human desire, things \u201c\u2026that people would reveal about each other on the Internet that they might not reveal to a live person standing right in front of them.\u201d The result was a large catalogue of human emotions from every corner of the planet, though Lang did some curating, removing references to religion, politics, and specific people to keep the responses as objective as possible.<\/p>\n

To close the interview, I asked Lang if he thought devices like smart phones and the Internet were creating a lack of personal touch and intimacy amongst people. Lang\u2019s answer was non-partisan, and stressed that the Whisper Opera was not created to comment either way on the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet age.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Internet is like everything else\u2026 it can be used for good or evil. It\u2019s like every tool. It can bring people together or drive them apart\u2026 and what determines that is what kind of people we are. It makes it much more easy to be despicable, and it makes it much more easy to be humane,\u201d Lang said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s neither good nor bad, and I never would want anyone to think that my point of [the Whisper Opera] is just one way or the other, that we live in a world that is getting better or worse. I just think for me personally, I look for the emotional, the humane, the noble, in whatever setting I\u2019m in. And when I\u2019m on the Internet, that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Whisper Opera<\/a>\u00a0makes its Canadian premiere on February 26 through\u00a0March 1, 2015, at The Theatre Centre, 1115 Queen Street West. Start times vary.<\/p>\n

Tyler Versluis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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