Mormoniana
– Contemporary-classical, Collaborative, Cutting Edge?
By Rose Datoc Dall
What Is Mormoniana?
The
name Mormoniana refers to the newly released book published
by Mormon Artist Group Press (collector’s edition available,
soon available in paperback) containing the following: original
piano scores by 16 concert composers; artwork of 18 visual
artists; a frontispiece by visual artist Valerie Atkisson;
an essay by composer and theorist Michael Hicks; and a Music
CD recording of all the original concert pieces performed
by concert pianist Grant Johannsen. All involved in this collaboration
are LDS. Each composer was commissioned to select a piece
of visual art as inspiration for an original composition for
inclusion in Mormoniana. But collectively, the body
was “conceived and developed as a single, concert work rather
than a collection of separate compositions [to be performed]
… in order, complete.” (Glen Nelson, “Forward,” Mormoniana,
Mormon Artist Group Press, 2004.)
To
find out more about Mormoniana, visit
http://www.mormoniana.com/mormoniana/index.shtml
Originally,
Mormoniana was conceived as “Latter-Day Pictures at
an Exhibition.” Anyone familiar with Pictures at an Exhibition
by 19th century composer Modeste Mussorgsky can
appreciate this analogy. (Mussorgsky used images from an exhibition
by visual artist and friend Victor Alexandrovich Hartmann
as the source of inspiration for Pictures at an Exhibition.)
But this original idea gave way to Mormoniana as the
project took on a life of its own. It became the great experiment
to put serious Latter-day Saint classical composers together
with the work of LDS visual artists while an LDS essayist/
composer/theorist explains the driving forces and pulls all
the elements together.
Refreshingly
well done! Grant Johannsen’s performance is superb, leaving
only the desire to see the live performance of the work. Everything
about the piece speaks of something truly fine; Mormoniana
falls into a league all its own and audiences accustomed to
Mormon pop might know how to respond to this recording, which
can only be described as high art. When listening to Mormoniana,
do not expect the warm fuzzies of Mormon pop. There is nothing
sweet about this music. In fact, this recording has absolutely
nothing to do with competition in the popular market. Rather,
Mormoniana must be understood as a dialogue between artists
and composers, writers and a publisher, as a piece of art
featuring some of the most acknowledged, respected and scholarly
minds in the field of contemporary-classical music. Some
of them are heavyweights in the field of music theory.
The Music
The
impressive list of composers includes Crawford Gates, Robert
Cundick, BYU’s composer-in-residence Murray Boren, Deon Nielsen
Price, Gaylen Hatton, David Fletcher, Reid Nibley, Rowan Taylor,
David H. Sargent, Lansing D. McLoskey, Christian Asplund,
Jeff Manookian, Nathan Fifield, Todd Coleman, Royce Campbell-Twitchell,
and Lisa DeSpain. Pianist Grant Johannsen’s performance of
the work is superb.
Be
prepared for a very different listening experience, a crash
course in contemporary-classical music theory, as you get
a glimpse into the world tread only by the composer’s composer.
Become more acquainted with the influences that drive contemporary-classical
music and watch its parallels in the contemporary visual art
world.
Ultimately,
many will continue to scratch their heads, but serious musicians,
performers, thinkers and even listeners with taste for contemporary-classical
will applaud Mormoniana’s contribution to the archives
of Latter-day Saint music. The music is brainy in concept,
artistic, substantive and finally, intellectually satisfying
for the serious musician, theorist and performer.
To
find out more about Mormoniana, visit
http://www.mormoniana.com/mormoniana/index.shtml
Stylistic Elements
The range in stylistic elements is broad. The 16 concert scores are challenging, occasionally
in tricky meters, some to be played with modern techniques.
Some pieces are infused with a jazz influence; others have
20th century elements such as non-traditional writing
of parts; some avoid symmetry and break with traditional writing
conventions, structure and notation which result in dissonance
and atonality; others embrace both traditional and contemporary
elements.
Jeff Manookian employs 20th century percussive techniques
of piano performance a la Sergei Prokofiev including using
the closed fist to play rhythmic and rushing tone clusters
(notes lying next to each other on the keyboard). In 20th
century music, closed fists and even the entire forearm is
used to play large tone clusters.
In
contemporary spirit, Murray Boren, Nathan Fifield and Rowan
Taylor weave dissonant motifs in counterpoint, sort of a contemporary
twist on baroque structure. Fifield even takes his cue from
a baroque tune, Bach’s ”O Haupt voll Blur und Wunden“ (also
known as the hymn ”O Savior, Thou Who Wearest“) and freely
diverges as he explores this tune in variations.
The
more outwardly melodic pieces by Reid Nibley, Royce Campbell
Twitchell and Robert Cundick use repeating motifs and patterns
and themes throughout their compositions, which build and
gain power. Meanwhile Crawford Gates weaves melodic and cascading
strains using a broad combination of elements, from broad
dissonant chording, to unpredictable metering and romantic
sweeping arpeggios.
Jazz
influence is most apparent in Lisa DeSpain’s playful composition
“An Ice Cream Between Friends,” which is probably the most
outwardly reminiscent to Mussorgsky’s approach (not necessarily
in style) to writing his whimsical and frenetic “Ballet of
the Chicks in Their Shells” from Pictures at an
Exhibition.
Artwork by John Moe selected by composer Lisa
DeSpain for “An Ice Cream Between Friends.”
To
find out more about Mormoniana, visit
http://www.mormoniana.com/mormoniana/index.shtml
Visual Art Drives the Concept
Selected
artwork, which provide the inspiration for these concert compositions,
are by visual artists Sallie Clinton Poet, Monte Anderson,
Lane Twitchell, Walter Rane, Alfred Lambourne, Bruce Hixson
Smith, Peter Livingston Myer, Stephen Moore, Trevor Southey,
Leslie Williams, V. Douglas Snow, David Linn, William Meeks,
John Moe, Ray Andrus, and collaborative photographers Thomas
Epting, Matthew Day, and Natasha Brien.
Each
composer selected a visual art piece as a springboard for
his or her composition, and each approached this task differently.
Meter
Gaylen
Hatton employs constantly changing meter as a propulsive vehicle
to illustrate the tragic and mournful fall of Lucifer in ”Fallen
Angel.” While on the other hand, unchanging driving meter
is a vehicle In Murray Boren’s ”The First Principle.”
The metaphor of faith without fear drove Boren’s dynamic markings
for the performance of this piece: “Fearlessly, without metric
accents,” (Glen Nelson, CD Liner Notes, Mormoniana,
Tantara Records, 2004.)
Artwork by David Linn, selected by composer Murray
Boren for “The First Principle.”
David
H. Sargent uses unpredictable metering and contrast between
dissonant heavily pedaled chords versus tones played in quick
staccato that jump in sporadic intervals to reiterate the
ambiguity of the contemporary painting of the Raising of
Lazarus by Bruce Hixson Smith.
Sound
The
physical properties of sound also become a vehicle – Christian
Asplund’s manipulation of sound in “Vision” is driven by the
contemporary painting of the same name by Trevor Southey,
which depicts a man and pregnant woman and an apparition of
their unborn child. Asplund plays with the resonance of the
piano itself and uses “combinations of sounds that build in
such a way as to almost make sound visible,” (Glen Nelson,
CD Liner Notes, Mormoniana, Tantara Records, 2004.)
In
addition and in the spirit of performance artist John Cage,
sound quality in time becomes the study for Todd Coleman in
his contemporary composition “Exquisite Corpse” (written for
piano and digital audio). The photo grouping by Epting, Day
and Brien, which juxtaposes odd images from different stages
of life and death, drives the unconventional format of the
music. “The score is presented in fifteen second intervals
(rather than measure divisions) … with quotations to Brahms’
Lullaby, John Cage’s Sonata for Prepared Piano, and Purcell’s
aria from Dido and Aeneas, ‘When I Am Laid in Earth.’” (Glen
Nelson, CD Liner Notes, Mormoniana, Tantara Records,
2004.)
Artwork by Thomas Epting/ Matthew Day/
Natasha Brien, selected by composer Todd Coleman for
“EXQUISITE CORPSE.”
To
find out more about Mormoniana, visit
http://www.mormoniana.com/mormoniana/index.shtml
Manner of Notation
Notation
also becomes a vehicle. Composer David Fletcher “let the marks
in the painting dictate musical structure, rhythm, tempo and
notation,” (Glen Nelson, CD Liner Notes, Mormoniana,
Tantara Records, 2004) as in “The Swirling World of Ersatz
Earth.” Fletcher’s piece is somewhat impressionistic. Quartal
harmony is used, as he breaks from traditional writing of
parts. The myriad of repetitious chording reiterates the spiraling
imagery in the painting, turning, increasing in tempo as it
converges into the center.
Artwork by Lane Twitchell, selected by composer David Fletcher
for “The Swirling World of Ersatz Earth.”
In
Deon Nielsen Price’s “Women in Christ’s Line,” the ancestral
line is represented by the flourish of notes from the top
of the keyboard to the bottom and a series of short themes
to represent the different women.
Lansing
D. McLoskey uses a “series of notes rising and falling in
intervals of perfect fifths” to make reference to the right
angles in the grid in Corner Grid. This reiterates
the grid pattern in the formalistic painting by Stephen Moore,
Untitled (corner grid). The piece is given unusual
dynamic markings “Gently, from opaque to translucent” (Glen
Nelson, CD Liner Notes, Mormoniana, Tantara Records,
2004.)
Artwork by Stephen Moore, selected by composer Lansing D. McLoskey
for “Corner Grid.”
To
find out more about Mormoniana, visit
http://www.mormoniana.com/mormoniana/index.shtml
The Flipside – Music Drives The Visual
Although
all the composers responded to visual images, the only visual
artist to have done the reverse in the Mormoniana project
is artist Valerie Atkisson, who was active early into the
project. Valerie, a participant in Mormon Arts Group, created
the frontispiece for the book, entitling it Notation in
Time. She derived the imagery from music iconography
and approached the piece in an improvisational manner, recording
her reaction to historical methods of music notation throughout
the centuries. To make a distinction, Atkisson’s artwork was
the only piece created for Mormoniana. All other visual
pieces were finished previous to the project and selected
by the musicians for their inclusion in the book.
Valerie Atkisson, Notation in Time, gouache and
computer art, 2004.
What Makes Mormoniana Contemporary
Mormoniana is diverse in both style and approach in the music
and in the visual art. The visual art, for instance varies
from traditional landscape to the non-objective art, from
more abstract paintings to religious imagery, from photographs
to mixed media collage. Likewise, traditional and unconventional
elements are embraced in the music of Mormoniana. This
inclusivity of disparate elements in the music and art, and
everything in between, makes Mormoniana contemporary.
In other words, anything and everything goes. The fact that
music combines itself with visual art is contemporary, a legacy
of performance artist John Cage, where media really have no
bound and can be combined and intertwined in unpredictable
ways. The collaborative effort has the feel of a grand collage
of sight and sound.
To
find out more about Mormoniana, visit
http://www.mormoniana.com/mormoniana/index.shtml
The “Mormonistic”
“What
is most delightfully Mormonistic (about Mormoniana),”
says essayist Michael Hicks, “is that it is all over the aesthetic
map. It wanders from one frontier or trail to another, confident
in a love of the senses and a belief in beauty as a corollary
of truth but mistrustful of any attempt to say what it should
be, according to some common held orthodoxy or art or Mormon-ness.”
In
other words, the spiritual subject matter for many pieces
makes it uniquely “Mormon,” but the music diverges from our
“common” association with Mormon music after that point. Testimony
finds expression in art song in concert form.
Having
made that distinction, concert music is not to be confused
with the hymns, nor music to be played or performed in sacrament
meeting, for instance. Some are fearful of unconventional
interpretation of sacred subject matter because of the lack
of distinction between hymns or music for meetings of worship
and concert music. There is indeed a distinction and a place
for everything. Concert music is for the concert hall and
is not intended for Sunday meetings of worship
Mormon Artists Group
Mormoniana is the second publication by Mormon Artists Group Press,
having published Musical Compositions by LDS Composers
in New York City’s Library Collection two years previously.
This first publication was a reference volume of more
than 200 existing works. Mormoniana, on the other hand,
was a commissioned project as a seeming natural consequence
of the dialogue within Mormon Artist Group (MAG), which is
comprised of 50 creative artists who are Mormon and live in
New City (painters, choreographers, novelists, photographers,
filmmakers, architects, playwrights, historians, poets, etc.).
The group does not limit its associations or its dialogue
to New York; Mormoniana includes commissions of composers
from all over North America.
To
find out more about Mormoniana, visit
http://www.mormoniana.com/mormoniana/index.shtml
The Dialogue
What
gives Mormoniana most significance is the dialogue
from which the project sprang. The dialogue exists amongst
the entire creative LDS community about its own relevance
in an LDS culture and the corollary of the arts and the Gospel.
Librettist Glen Nelson, the Director of MAG (who instigated
the Mormoniana project), is an active participant in
this dialogue, with a very keen sense of the issues that face
the LDS creative community. He in no small way has sought
to create opportunities for this artist group and for the
larger footprint of serious LDS art to be felt in and to find
significance within an LDS culture.
Four
years ago, I had the pleasure of attending a panel discussion
group moderated by Nelson. This panel, convened as part of
the Manhattan Stake Arts Festival, brought together
professional Mormon artists to discuss the role of art in
LDS culture. Central to this dialogue is Spencer W. Kimball’s
Gospel Vision of the Arts, which many artists, performers,
composers, writers, poets, architects, filmmakers, and others
in the LDS community regard somewhat as the artists’ manifesto.
The dialogue is ever-present, and artists continually ask
themselves, “Have we arrived, as a culture, to the level of
excellence and vitality in the arts that President Kimball
foresaw? Are we getting closer?”
Mormoniana gives me hope that we are getting closer and are moving
in the right direction, although the LDS creative collective
seems hardly even aware of itself and its potential or of
the talented individuals that are represented but still live
in obscurity.
Conclusion
Moreover,
out of all the collaborative works that I have seen by artists
who are LDS, Mormoniana seems to be one of the more
successful attempts. Mormoniana is a well-conceived
and beautifully contained and executed work of art, and to
finish it off, it is hand bound by Glen Nelson himself in
limited edition. Nelson used a gorgeously simple brown silk
embroidered hard cover to set the work apart from mass issue
off the press.
As
a manifestation of this yearning to give a collective of artists
validity and a voice, cultural and societal significance,
Mormoniana might even seem to say not only, “We are
LDS – hear us roar,” but also, “We are LDS and we are also
smart and sophisticated.” It could demand historical significance
– a collaboration that involves such a large number of LDS
creative professionals (and many of whom are at the forefront
of their fields). This makes Mormoniana definitely
a project that cannot be ignored. But ultimately, it demands
nothing, not even our approval. It is art.
In
conclusion, I find Mormoniana fearless in its
attempt to be what it is and nothing less, not answerable
to popular culture but only to itself and to higher truth.
I appreciate Mormoniana as a documentation of a serious
LDS artistic culture that is struggling to define itself and
to make its presence known. Collaborative, contemporary-classical,
cutting edge? Most definitely, and I can’t wait for more.
To
find out more about Mormoniana, visit
http://www.mormoniana.com/mormoniana/index.shtml
