With Help from Conservatory Performers, Composition Professor Has His Moment at Carnegie Hall

Last spring, members of Oberlin's Contemporary Music Ensemble traveled to New York to perform music written by Professor of Composition Lewis Nielson. The March 27 concert in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall was a great success, according to critic Anthony Aibel of the New York Concert Review, who declared that Nielson is "a master composer, an American original" who "deserves to be better known."

Each work in the concert, which was presented by the International Artists Alliance, "had something vital to say … and the performers were always able to communicate the music's message with vitality and insight," Aibel wrote. He acknowledged that Nielson's music is not always readily accessible, but noted that in the hands of performers "as good as the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, the listening challenge becomes quite minimal," and the music "soon becomes property of the listener because it has human nature at its core."

Lewis Nielson spoke with writer Marci Janas about his life's work.

LEWIS J. NIELSON Director, Division of Contemporary Music Chair, Composition Department Associate Professor of Composition Education: B.A. magna cum laude in music (1972), Clark University M.A. in music theory and composition (1973), University of Iowa Ph.D. in music theory and composition (1977), University of Iowa View Profile >

MJ: Should listeners leave their hearts at the door, engaging your music solely on an intellectual level?

LN: Never! I couldn't write music that way, and I'd have to experience it myself that way. I'm a very emotional person—I couldn't keep my emotions out of something even if I tried as hard as I could. My obligation (not binding in any or all details on performers or listeners) is to provide an intense and engaging experience both for heart and brain.

MJ: Your music has been described as being "not always readily accessible," but with "human nature at its core." Where and how do you find a balance between the intellect and emotion in your work? Does it concern you that some find your music inaccessible? Would you sacrifice anything to make it more so?

LN: My music is all about engaging both the mind and the emotions. Too often, accessibility and intellectual satisfaction are arrayed as nearly polar opposites. This seems to me to be far from the case; each informs the other and enhances the aesthetic experience.

The music that appeals to me most is both moving and thought-provoking. The words accessibility and entertainment have become critically charged and practically unusable. Personally, I consider my music accessible and—if entertainment can mean something for the intellect, the emotions, and the body—entertaining.

I refuse to believe that human beings have insufficiencies in any of their senses that would make them, a priori, incapable of responding to what I write. Consequently, I can't imagine making changes in what I do except with regard to my own aesthetic needs.

Any composer is, in a sense, expressing what is universal and meaningful in himself or herself with the hope that it finds a resonance in others. To change my values (musical or otherwise) would not achieve greater communicativeness or accessibility because it would be an inherently false act on my part.

MJ: What characteristics are present in your ideal listener?

LN: My ideal listener is a literate human being; not necessarily musically literate, though that would be nice, but with an open mind and heart.

MJ: What characteristics are present in your ideal musician?

LN: The same things, plus, of course, expert musical literacy and outstanding technical ability.

MJ: What would you say have been your three greatest influences? A composer? A musician? A great Italian dinner?

LN: First, the performers with whom it has been my privilege to work. Second, the music of Beethoven, which I find infinite in its ability to stimulate and—that word again—entertain. And third, my principal teachers Peter Tod Lewis and William Hibbard, both of whom, though coming from opposite ends of the musical spectrum, taught me not only composition but also lessons in expressing myself musically that I have always preserved.

MJ: What is it like to hear your music come to life? Are you a nervous parent?

LN: I never worry with Tim [Weiss] in charge, and I try always to work with very intelligent and highly gifted players (as exhibited by the many extraordinarily talented musicians in the Oberlin CME). I've been extremely pleased lately to see that my ideas seem to communicate very well with the performers but, again, I try to work with performers who are experienced and know what they're looking at. I am nervous, not so much because of the players (although, in the wrong hands, that can be a real horror story), but because I worry that I haven't been sufficiently clear in notating my intentions.

MJ: Tell me about the experience in New York. How did it feel to present this concert to a Manhattan audience?

LN: I'm usually fairly antsy at concerts when my music's being played, but since I had heard everything many times prior to the performance and knew that the margin for error was minimal, I was more relaxed than usual.

MJ: What were the greatest rewards of this experience?

LN: The recognition of both the quality of my music and the quality of the performance level was the primary reward.

MJ: What were the greatest challenges?

LN: Making hotel reservations and getting parked. I HATE to drive in Manhattan!

MJ: What inspired you first to a life in music, and second, to a life as a composer?

LN: I had lessons in one thing or another musically from about the age of 5, and I just did what was put before me. At the Royal Academy of Music, between the ages of 10 and 14, I pursued instrumental and conducting study, but this involved a lot of counterpoint, ear training, etc. I had no idea I was learning to be a composer, but that's how it turned out.

MJ: What keeps you inspired on discouraging days?

LN: I really don't have discouraging days. Maybe just possessing the self-discipline to work when I feel discouraged is somehow reward in and of itself. Inspiration, at least for me, is continuous. I'm never uninspired to write music.

MJ: What is the most memorable performance you have seen and why?

LN: Speculum Musicae, March 1971, Worcester, Massachusetts Art Museum doing a program of Crumb, Stravinsky, Wuorinen, Schoenberg, and some other composers. It was electrifying, and it was the first time I heard Pierrot Lunaire live. A close second was a lecture by Stockhausen at Jordan Hall in Boston that same year and hearing very fresh, new works by him.

MJ: I'm going to steal from Inside the Actors' Studio's James Lipton, who stole from the French television host Bernard Pivot. Lewis, what sound or noise do you love?

LN: The sound of Tim saying 'yes' to something I've asked him to do. Also, I love the sound of breaking glass. Does this give something away about my past?

MJ: And what sound or noise do you hate?

LN: The sound of Tim saying 'no' to something I've asked him to do. That and snoring.