Last trip of the month: back east to beautiful Montreal for the world premiere of Moving, Still with the Montreal Symphony. This was part of a really great project: the OSM commissioned three composers (Simon Bertrand, Scott Good and me) to write short pieces inspired by artworks from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
I’ve had the honour to have my music played by the Montreal Symphony before but this was the first time I’ve been commissioned for a new piece, and the first time to work with Maestro Kent Nagano. So even though the brief was for just five minutes, I knew it had to be a good five minutes!
(Montreal Museum of Fine Arts)
Each of us composers received a beautiful copy of the museum’s Canadian/Québec catalogue (volume 1 because it’s a big collection) and I must say I am thrilled to have it. There is a lot of inspiration in that book and I am far from finished mining it for musical ideas. For this project, my chosen inspiration was Betty Goodwin’s Nerves. No. 10. I love how it is so alive, so crackling with energy, yet has a darkness and a sadness to it, so common in her work.
I thought about the aspects of Goodwin’s piece that intersected with my music. She works in layers, as I do. We both pay attention to the big structure, but at same time there is a lot of activity below the surface—I always give the second violins and violas the most to do! And her approach to colour, both subtly and in flashes, appeals to my approach to orchestration.
Composers work so much on their own, it’s a real treat when a project allows three of us to come together. It helps to build a sense of conviviality and community amongst us. Of course I knew Scott Good, who was my successor as Composer-In-Residence with the Vancouver Symphony (he’s since relocated back to Toronto). Now was my chance to get to know Montreal composer Simon Bertrand. (Very nice, too, that we three represented the country from Vancouver to Toronto to Montreal).
Simon’s inspiration was Gravité by Jean-Paul Riopelle, and Scott chose North Shore, Lake Superior, by Group of Seven painter Franklin Carmichael. My piece completed the triptych. Now, a commission is a wild card at the best of times, but—even riskier—the three of us didn’t consult with each other. But there was some kind of cosmic alignment: all three pieces were great, and worked fantastically well as a set. Relief all round.
As it happened, the actual premiere concert happened in Ottawa, at the National Arts Centre, which meant I had the fringe benefit of seeing some dear friends in Our Nation’s Capital.
Oh, yeah, and the concert was fantastic. Wow.
Then, the late-night drive back to Montreal and two more concerts at the gorgeous Maison symphonique, new home of the OSM, which I hadn’t seen before. We did pre-concert chats in Montreal, which challenged my high-school-level French, but going between our two official languages, I think I did okay. For the Montreal concerts, our visual inspirations were projected above the orchestra, as were other Canadian works during Mussorgsky/Ravel’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The performances just kept getting better, as if that were possible.
On the final day, I visited the museum and saw both Simon’s and Scott’s pieces for real (That Riopelle is big). Sadly, Betty Goodwin’s work was in storage.
While in the gallery I overheard a woman say to the docent (in French) that she had been at the OSM concert the night before, and Maestro Nagano had said the pictures were in the Museum, and she wanted to see them. I have to say, I did myself proud by going to her and saying “Excusez-moi, mais je suis un des compositeurs” and then carrying on a conversation “sans anglais”. (She very kindly said my French was good…). She was a testament to how great this project was: she heard three new pieces of Canadian music at the symphony and the experience made her want to find out more about Canadian art. Who could ask for a better result?
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