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René Pape Chats about Becoming Wotan, King of the Gods

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Pape Debuts as Wotan at La Scala Milan in May, in New Production of Wagner’s Rheingold under Daniel Barenboim René Pape is just settling down in his Berlin hotel room to talk about becoming King of the Gods, when he is interrupted by the Devil. The malevolent cackle gets too insistent to ignore, but luckily it’s just the ring tone of Pape’s cell phone, set to a bit of Gounod’s Méphistophélès – one of the German bass’s signature roles. Pape is a creature of the stage, so having a little ironic theatricality follow him around is only right. But the singer is also a man grounded in regular life. When not thrilling audiences the world over, he relishes time spent at home by the river in Dresden, cooking to relax. Pape has been a member of the Berlin State Opera since 1988, and – as he turns off his phone to discuss the King of the Gods, aka Wotan, his latest Wagnerian challenge – he is in the German capital for runs as Prince Gremin in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and as King Mar...
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The Art of String Quartets by Brian Ferneyhough

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When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works of art like the Mona Lisa . Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear away from the structure, so only the music is heard . The subtlety is so fine it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught, studying scores from Boule...
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Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

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In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
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