wolfe

If you could make a piece for the current White House, what would it be?

Oh god! What should George Bush listen to? Maybe I’d play him the last piece I wrote , which is called “My Beautiful Scream.” It starts with breath – an air sound played on the bridge of a violin. The Kronos Quartet plays it and it’s mostly them unfolding into a kind of cry.

What do you regard as the most pressing social issue today?

Greed. Greed manifests itself in so many ways. It’s so confusing why world is the way it is. I can’t figure out what else it has to do with, other than greed -- greed and a lack of creativity in the political arena. There is a lot of great art being made in every area, so there is plenty of creativity around. In the arts, it’s an exciting time.

What is an artist’s most important responsibility?

To reflect who we are. It sounds simplistic, but to actually do it is not.

In my own work I try to express both who I am and to reach into unknown territory artistically. I’m not interested in continuing a Great Tradition or in repeating what’s already been done. In contemporary music, especially in the orchestral world, a lot sounds like re-washed Shostakovich.

I’m more interested in honest reflection. To me art feels both political and spiritual, two things that are connected to art, but at different angles. I’m interested in many kinds of music that get at our emotional, spiritual, and political state.

The idea of musical as spiritual is easy to grasp, since like music, spirituality is abstract. But how can music be political? That’s something that more discursive art forms may seem better suited for.

First, we have done a bunch of music that has text and that can get very clearly into social and political issues. A lot of my own work is oriented toward the whole group: how to work together to make a whole sound. I appreciate virtuosity, but most of my music is almost always about how all the pieces fit together to make the whole. That comes from a personal interest in that phenomenon as well as from the influence of the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. If one person in the ensemble has to play one note the whole time to make the thing work, that’s what they do. This is politically based. But also there’s a power of emotion, a force that comes out in music that is abstract , yet is still spiritual, social, political. That’s part of why I love music. It feels like you’re trying to dig into something deep that can’t be articulated in words.

What is a citizen’s most important responsibility?

To get past your cynicism and be a participant. To talk to people. To care about others, be responsible, move beyond yourself and show concern not just for yourself and your little pot of land. To see how you can contribute and be involved.

What gives you hope these days?

I really feel amazed by the power of the public voice, often expressed as the power of the consumer -- whether it’s protesting Nike or just not buying things. There’s an incredible power in people saying what they need if only because in a world where greed is the power behind everything, when people say what they want, someone will sell it to them. You can see it with organic food – big supermarkets carry it now because people want to buy it. If people organize to articulate and demand what they want, it’s not just the marketplace that has to answer. It also works in the social and political arenas.

What advice would you give an aspiring young composer?

This is an incredibly rich time for a lot of kinds of music and so much of it is easily accessible. I’d say enjoy the rich variety of musical languages and don’t think of music having any hierarchies. Also, don’t feel you have to fit into the channels that exist. You can create your own projects, your own festivals, your own channels.

What question would you like to pose to other artists on this website?

What brings everyone to this project? I’m also curious about how people interface with the vehicles that get their work out into the world. It’s not the most important question, but I’m curious about the relationship between one’s ability to reach an audience and the entity you have to work with to do that -- the deep structures of those large publishing houses or record companies. There’s a practical business side of things, which is only natural because art is about communication. How can we all have a voice about that communication, some kind of united voice? The U.S. is one of the worst countries not just in terms of arts funding, but also in creating active artistic involvement in creating vehicles for expression.

Do you have an answer to that question?

There are times when you’re working with entities that are far from ideal. The result is important – they do help get the work out. I don’t’ have an answer. But I’m interested in how we can have a united voice to create better vehicles. I’m interested in some conversation about that.

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