28 THE AMERICAN ORGANIST

This article is the sixth in a seriesto illuminate new music commis-sioned for the 2014 AGO NationalConvention.

NICO MUHLY (b. 1981) is anAmerican composer with asignificant catalog of workacross all genres—with recent col -labor ations from organizations andperformers as diverse as the Metro -politan Opera and pop star Usher. Henow adds the American Guild of Or-ganists to his list of commissions;John Scott will premiere his newwork for organ during the 2014 Na-tional Convention in Boston. I recent-ly had the opportunity to catch upwith Nico and his close friend, Britishorganist James McVinnie.

Nico, we are thrilled you have com-posed a new work for organ to be pre-miered during the 2014 NationalConvention in Boston. Please tell usabout the piece.

The piece is called Patterns. It’s infour sections, each of which is sort ofa rhythmic étude. The first is a per-petual motion with staggered and an-gular rhythms alternated between thepedals and the left hand. The secondmovement is calmer and is centeredaround an idée fixe in the left handwhile the right hand interjects and or-naments. The third movement has todo with ways to divide the measure:seven, eight, six, five, four—it’s allthere. Then the finale is perpetualmotion on speed—manic and hyper.

How did you first encounter the pipeorgan, and when did you begin com-posing for it? What about the organinspires you now?

I first started out by actually play-ing the organ; when I was a chorister,it seemed like a useful secondary skillto have. Writing for it is always astrange challenge, as each instrumentis so specific but you can’t restrictyour writing to one instrument in oneplace. So, there’s a sense of needing towrite almost as if for an orchestra,

where you sort of know what you’regoing to get but need to leave enoughroom for personal interpretation.

While every composer brings uniquelife experiences to his/her work, Isus pect an Anglican choral back-ground is relatively rare among yourpeers. How does this background in-fluence your work today, both inworks for these specific forces (choir,organ) and in other media (orches-tra, etc?).

I don’t know how to trace it too di-rectly, but I know that I’m more emo-tionally interested in liturgy than inthe Romantic period. I find thatchoral music teaches me more abouthow to make an emotional impactwith orchestral forces than a lot of or-chestra music! But I don’t fret toomuch about it.

Would you tell us more about yourexperiences as a chorister? Whatmade it special to you?

For me, the thing that makes thechoral tradition so special is the feel-ing of playing on a team. All your in-dividual musicianship has to exist ina context of the group; you can’t splitindividuals. The intricacy of unison

singing—particularly in Byrd, Tallis,Taverner—is challenging, but as aboy, you haven’t been told that it’shard yet, so you just learn it. It’s a really great thing.

John Scott will premiere Patterns inBoston. How does your existing rela-tionship with the performer influ-ence the composition process?

It helps to write for John because hecan do anything. But he also has sucha specific gift for registration that I was even less specific about thatthan I would be normally; if you trusta musician, you give them the abilityto really construct the environment.

Is there any advice you’d give to or-ganists interested in performing yourworks?

I always say that tempo is differentthan speed. Spaces imply their owntempos, and for something to feel fastin, say, Grace Church in Providencedoesn’t mean it has to be the sametempo as it would be at St. ThomasChurch, New York City.

Jamie, as a performer, what are yourthoughts about this?

I would add that a big acousticrarely means one has to play slowly.There are some acoustics in whichyou will never hear every detail of apiece, and some spaces will be so mea-ger that the organ will seem stymied.For me, the crucial thing is to listen,really listen, to get a balance of pacing(or tempo, as Nico says), clarity, andcantabile of line suitable to everyspace and piece of music. We allknow how playing a great organ in alarge acoustic is a thrilling experi-ence, as if you are playing the “wholebuilding.” Many organists are suc-cessful at doing this, but the real art isto make the instrument, the building,and the music itself sound as one liv-ing and breathing entity.

Nico, for organists unfamiliar withyour oeuvre, are there any specificworks you would suggest performers

AGO BOSTON 2014 COMMISSIONSAN INTERVIEW WITH NICO MUHLY AND JAMES MCVINNIE

Christian Lane

Nico Muhly (photo: Matthew Murphy)

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engage first? Do you have any advicefor organists who wish to learn andperform your works?

I would say that my organ music ispretty straightforward, but I woulddefer to Jamie on that. I think the Hud-son Preludes are pretty demonstrablysolid . . .

Jamie, what about Nico’s organ mu-sic entices and excites you? Whatabout it is challenging?

I love performing music written byliving composers. I guess it was as anorgan scholar at Clare College, Cam-bridge, that I first began to be regular-ly involved in performing new works.Giles Swayne, John Rutter, TarikO’Regan were just some of the peoplewho regularly wrote music for thechoir. Their physical presence at per-formances and recording sessionssomehow made their music more im-mediate and more vital, and to be ableto marry a musical style through per-sonality with a bond of friendship isone of the great privileges to have as amusician. Crucially also, these kindsof responses and connections contin-ue to shape how I relate to music bycomposers of the past.

Getting to know each new piecefrom Nico has been a fascinating voy-age of discovery for me as a per-former. Interestingly, in some cases ithas taken a considerable amount oftime for a piece to settle into a coher-ent interpretation; but of course, aswith all great music, the more youdig, the more you continue to discov-er. My new recording takes its namefrom the inherent cyclic quality ofNico’s music, much of which is ob-sessively driven and often concernedwith just one or two musical ideas.These smaller ideas or “cycles” aredeveloped and molded into larger-scale cycles that form the structure ofeach piece. The musical figurationsthat make up many of the textures areoften similar but never the same,which presents some very challeng-ing moments. A tongue twister for themuscle memory, if you like!

Yes, the new recording of Nico’s organworks is fantastic, Jamie. How didyour collaboration—and specificallythis Cycles project—come about?

Nico and I met in late 2004. He hadwritten some music for Clare CollegeChoir, and he came over for the firstperformance in Cambridge. We met in

the organ loft and talked a little aboutorgan registrations—and then afterEvensong, we all went out for drinks.Later that year, Clare Choir was on atour in the States, which culminatedin a wonderful joint concert with theBoys of the Choir of St. Thomas FifthAvenue. For that trip, Nico composedthe Hudson Preludes for me to playon the organ and A Good Under-standing for adult chorus and chil-dren’s choir with organ and percus-sion. Nico has written pieces for me,about one per year, ever since.

The idea behind Cycles really cameabout by accident. Early in 2012, JohnRutter (composer and recording spe-cialist) agreed to record some promotracks of my playing the organ of Ton-bridge School Chapel in the UK. Oneof the things I put down was Nico’s

Seven O Antiphon Preludes, whichended up as the centerpiece for therecording. Nico wrote these short, in-tense musical reflections on each ofthe O Antiphons for me to play at theservice of meditation for Christmas in2010 at Westminster Abbey. John cap-tured both the chapel’s magnificentacoustic and lavish four-manual Mar-cussen organ so successfully that wewent back later in 2012 to record allthe other music that Nico had writtenfor me over the past eight years. Afterall the editing, I realized I’d ended upwith a cohesive program that seemedtoo good not to release as an album.Three dear friends make cameo ap-pearances on the recording: ChrisThompson (marimba) and Nadia Si -rota (viola) are both at the forefront of

new music in New York City, andtenor Simon Wall (of WestminsterAbbey and The Tallis Scholars) singseach of the seven plainsong O An-tiphons. The first track, Rev’d Mus-tard His Installation Prelude, waswritten as a service prelude for the in -stal la tion service of a mutual friend,the Rev. James Mustard, on the occa-sion of his installation as rector ofEast Barnet in April 2012. Fast Cyclesdates from 2009 and is an austere andobsessively driven toccata. Towardthe end of the piece, the music freezesin a constellation of G minor againstF major, which in turn spits out aFrenchly voiced and ferocious tocca-ta. The disc spirals to its conclusionwith Beaming Music, scored for organand marimba, which was written in2002.

Jamie, having premiered many neworgan works, how would you charac-terize the ideal role of the performerwithin the compositional process?What advice would you give organ-ists interested in working with com-posers, and ultimately premieringworks?

I’ve been lucky in that many of thecomposers who have written worksfor me have been familiar with the or-gan and its repertoire, and the com-posers who have been less knowledge -able have immersed themselvesfastidiously in the genre. Put plainly,I always like to have as little to do aspossible in the actual compositionalprocess, and I also love to receive PDFscores with very little in terms ofregis tration directions. I’ve found that

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(photo: Matthew Murphy)

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I’ve had to encourage composers to bebold enough to write real music ratherthan a stoplist on a score, and also totrust the performer to make decisionsabout registration: it’s what organistsare trained to do, after all. On the oth-er hand, I constantly have to remindmyself of how specific someone likeMessiaen is in his writing for the or-gan, so you also have to be able to of-fer advice about what a tierce is to thenonorgan-savvy composer: it’s a deli-cate balance. If you are playing apiece by a composer whose work youdo not know so well, you must im-merse yourself in their music, too!Above all, a long-lasting and fruitfulrelationship between performer andcomposer is as much about knowingand trusting each other as people andfriends as it is about being just musi-cal colleagues. I instantly know howto bring alive a musical gesture bysomeone such as Nico, because weknow each other so well. For me,making music this way is the mostfun and the most creatively inspiring.

Nico, I know your opera Two Boyswas recently staged at the Metropoli-tan Opera in New York. What majorprojects are you working on now?

I’m writing a big piece for baritoneand orchestra about Frederick LawOlmsted, as well as a bunch moredrone-based pieces.

If people want to learn more aboutyou and your music, where can theyturn?

My website—Nicomuhly.com.

To hear Nico Muhly’s organ music,check out James McVinnie’s new re -cording, Cycles. Purchase from Ama-zon, go to Bedroomcommunity.net, ordownload on iTunes.

Christian Lane is AGO Councillor forCompetitions and New Music.

30 THE AMERICAN ORGANIST

Jamie McVinnie (photo: Samantha West)

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