One of my goals for this fall is to go through Emily Reese’s series of interviews with composers, and take notes on each episode. The other night I listened again to one of my favorites, her interview with Lisbeth Scott. Lisbeth started out as a classical pianist but changed direction, branching out into singing and composing. Here she is as vocalist in the soundtrack for the game “Journey”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBXokDs6WyE

In the interview she talks about how this music came about. The composer, Austin Wintory, had specific ideas about what he wanted the score to be like, but he had known Lisbeth from previous work and wanted to use her particular voice as an instrument. Part of the composing process included Wintory bringing instrumental tracks to the studio and having Lisbeth improvise vocalizations over them. [Check — was she improvising or trying out what he suggested?]. As her career continued, Lisbeth began to focus more on her own compositions. In the interview Emily Reese asked her “How did the transition happen?” Lisbeth replied “Did you ever get the feeling that you’re going to throw up and there’s nothing you can do to stop it?” They both laughed uproariously for a few minutes (one of my favorite thing about this interview is the great chemistry between Emily and Lisbeth) and Lisbeth continued to say that there is something there that just has to come out.

When I think of my own composing, it’s not because there’s something inside that needs to come out. It’s more of an urge to build. One of my favorite parts of keeping an aviary is designing different kinds of environments and enclosures for the birds. Species A and Species B both want a lot of room to fly but you can’t put them together because B would bite A’s toes. Species C gets along with A but A would steal C’s food. How to arrange the compartments? One section I invented is a miniature greenhouse jerryrigged from 2 x 2s and shed kit brackets. It’s like building with Legos, but with added constraints. You don’t usually have to worry about Legos biting each other’s toes.

I also enjoy creating worlds in Minecraft. I built this cube-planet in honor of a friend’s birthday. The over-all design was made using software called “World Painter”, and repetitive structures were built with “MC Edit”, but the rest of the work was built block by block.

Unlike Lisbeth Scott, with her overwhelming urge to express something from deep within, most of my composing is about …building.  I want to build a sound environment that feels…edgy and dangerous? austere but beautiful? cheerful? awe-inspiring?

I want to build worlds. Places, moods you can travel to.

I’m picturing my upcoming music classes as a visit to the hardware store. Look! A mitre saw! A tile cutter! Stacks and stacks of 2 x 4s!

By Per Erik Strandberg sv:User:PER9000 – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=830530