what's the use of a title? was written between September, 1995 and March of 1996 as part of my Masters degree at the University of Michigan. Charles Bukowski, who passed away in 1994, wrote the poems used in the piece. Ironically, one of the main goals that I was attempting with this piece, was for it to be presented without the need to "explain" the music prior to a performance. At the time, it was one of my main gripes, so to speak, that unless the music was an oldie but goodie, composers were compelled to prepare an audience on what they were about to hear. I felt that any given piece of music should, on some level, be able to connect with the audience regardless of music training or lack thereof. And if it fails on that fundamental aspect, well, it isn't anyone's fault but the composer in question. The music in what's the use of a title? may sound tonal upon listening, but its underlying sonorities and progressions, are anything but tonal. There are no "keys" per se, much less tonal chord progressions in the music. I had found a way to create this semblance of tonality by means of pitch-sets that retain their identity in either a linear form or as a harmonic sonority. I borrowed the idea from Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring", and from Stephen Albert, whom I greatly admired, and sadly had passed away a few years before, in 1992. I was able to create color and contrast through the use of these pitch-sets by simply combining two different transpositions of the same set of which in its prime form is C-Db-Eb-G. Still, I should emphasize that all of this is for my own method of organizing the music. The audience doesn't need to know this prior to listening to the music, just like we don't always need to know how the plumbing was done in the our house, except when it doesn't work. All that matters is the end result of our labors, however long or short they may end up being.
"sway with me" is the first song of this cycle. In many ways, it marks the beginning of my own newly found freedom from being a slave to the way I had been writing music before this work. The first section is a dance in a ¾ time signature, but with a 6/8 time signature implied. In music theory, this is known as a hemiola. The use of the hemiola in this song is similar to waltzes from Venezuela or the vals venezolano, as they are known. In fact, this kind of hemiola is known as a joropo in Venezuelan music. I became very familiar with these Venezuelan waltzes during my classical guitar studies as an undergrad, especially composer Antonio Lauro (1917-1986). This dance goes through some transformations until it reaches the closing section, of which the cellos present an ever-fading melodic figure in background. The song then ends on a static chord.
"some people never go crazy" was composed with Kim Haynes, the soprano who premiered the piece, in mind. Kim is an amazing woman who happened to be my resident advisor for the graduate house I was staying the first year at Michigan. Now, Kim has the nicest, warmest, and funniest down home Southern flare and personality, and why wouldn't she be that since she hails from North Carolina. I wrote with that in mind, but come rehearsals, the diva-ness that is to be found in all singers wasn't going give up without a fight. What I'm saying, there was no fight. It was over before I even tried. No matter how I pleaded for Kim to be herself, it just wasn't going to happen. The music in this song was inspired by the works of Carl Stalling of the Warner Brothers' Bugs Bunny fame, and by Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire". It is meant to be light-hearted and whimsical in nature, serving as the comedic sidekick to Ms. Haynes voice. There is one actual musical quote in the song. The quote is from "Indita Mia" an old Mexican ranchera, or country-folk song, that I used to perform weekly with my father in a six-piece Latin music band back in my hometown of Tucson, Arizona.
"tonalities" was written as a final farewell to Charles Bukowski. Bukowski is just one of those figures that almost every twenty-something year-old musician or hipster will come to know. With the imagery and ethereal landscape, I felt this poem would work best as a memoriam for Bukowski when I was composing the songs. The central figure in this song is the steady piano progression with the orchestra serving a backdrop to past memories, with the last section being the "finale" so to speak, and it closes with material from the first song "sway with me".
-- Jesus Contreras
Score
The music (mp3):