ALL THERE IS IS LOVE (1993)
Music: Roger Bourland
Words: Paul Monette
Performers: Phil Hettema, speaker; Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, Jon Bailey, conductor.
Publisher: Yelton Rhodes Music (Los Angeles)

Paul Monette gave me permission to set an excerpt of the introduction to his collection of early poems LOVE SONGS FOR ROG, recited here by Phil Hettema. Paul and I wrote this piece as a kind of thank you note for the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles’ powerful performances of HIDDEN LEGACIES.

The first and third piece were written as a complement to Lana’s choice to perform the Goldberg Variations, in other words, no counterpoint, and no melody. That’s tricky for me as I’m such a melodicist at heart. The middle movement is a stream of little musical summer daydreams, poignant and catchy and each is very different. But that’s the way summer is.

Three impromptus (2009) for solo piano
1. Orange Download audio file (3Impr1-Orange.mp3)
2. Summer daydreams Download audio file (3Impr2-Three-Daydreams.mp3)
3. Red Toccata Download audio file (3Impr3-Red-Toccata.mp3)

Music: Roger Bourland
Performer: Lana Chae
Publisher: Yelton Rhodes Music
Photo credit: “Green Bay 150″ by Roger Bourland

Diary entry:

This is a busy time of the year for teachers. Final lectures, final exams, final meetings, deadlines for various and sundry things, parties, and grading papers.

I lectured last week, the last week or the term, in MUSIC HISTORY, CULTURE and CREATIVITY about orchestration. The class must orchestrate a little piano piece I’ve assigned. They have a choice of the Ravel “Pavanne,” a movement from Stravinsky’s “Les cinq doigts,” a Schumann children’s piece, and the first Gymnopedie of Satie. On Tuesday I orchestrated two of my own piano pieces using SIbelius notation software. I had the piano piece already copied, so orchestrating involved copying, and filtering layers of the music and assigning and adapting those lines to the instruments in the orchestra. That process proved to be impressive to some and terrifying to others because of the additional terror of not knowing the software.

On Thursday, to balance the technologially-based demonstration on Tuesday, I passed out four blank orchestral pages and had students orchestrate the Stravinsky “Moderato” (from the same set) in class using only paper and pencil while the faculty and TAs walked around and guided them through the process. This was important because a number of students confessed to being terrified of having to write for orchestra. It’s true: I remember the first time I ever wrote for orchestra, having to “stretch” your brain to think for that many instruments, and it kinda hurts in the process. By the end of the class, I’m certain many felt more at ease.

My writing effort of late has been focused on editing and writing our department’s self-review––an exercise required of all academic departments. It is an interesting process to think about what we (the UCLA Dept of Music) are as a department: our strengths and weaknesses, and to see how much we’ve grown.

Last week at Royce Hall, James Conlon conducted the UCLA Philharmonia and Chorale in thrilling concert featuring Schoenberg’s “Survivor from Warsaw.” I remember singing that piece as a freshman and just being amazed by it. I can still sing it from memory. Nowadays it seems like “Survivor” is truly a protest piece, not so far from Bob Dylan, really. The piece was preceded and succeeded by short pieces by Schreker and Zemilinsky. I must say I LOVED the Schreker. It was a momentous day in the history of the department. It was also very cool to have the Schoenberg sons and their wives in the audience, looking very pleased. Neal Stulberg’s narration was captivating if not down-right creepy. It was thrilling. (I would have amplified the men’s chorus btw.)

MISC TO DO/DONE:
I’m gearing up to do Joe Bauer’s new short film, AMBUSH, working on it today.
I graded 80 little piano pieces last weekend and have 80 orchestration to grade next weekend.
I get to go to Palm Springs later this month. Yes!
School has stopped but still a lot of meetings left, then graduation next Saturday, where I get into my Harvard drag and announce the names of our graduating students. My academic life will slow down significantly after that ceremony.

The day after my school’s graduation, my sister in law has her graduation and party at our house, so that will be a lovely way to end the year. Why I remember when she was just a girl! [Julia is SO smart––it's amazing.]

I now have a nephew and a niece who want to move to LA. (These pix from 2000.) It’s an expensive place to move to I’ve warned them, but if they can get on their feet, it will be nice to have family near by.

On Saturday, we had two little families over for dinner, one has a 12 month old boy named Julian, and the other has an 18 month old girl named Julia. Cool symmetry, and they liked each other quite a lot. Good fun to watch the kids and parents interact.

(Our dog) Cody is undergoing chemotherapy. One week injection, the next pills, the next he has off: this for four cycles. He’s doing just fine. Turns out, dogs to much better than humans having chemo, because they don’t know they have a life threatening illness.

Now that Susan’s and my husband have jobs that take them out of the city, we’ve become a fun couple for going to concerts. Last night we went to two: Lana Chae gave a spirited first performance of my THREE IMPROMPTUS for piano followed by a performance of the Goldberg Variations. (I composed the piece to be paired with the Bach.) After a quick dinner in Westwood we zipped back to Royce in time to hear the Missa Solemnis, with Don Neuen conducting the Debut Orchestra and the amassed UCLA Chorale and Angeles Chorale with four terrific soloists.

Last night I watched some foreign film before dosing off. The final image was amazing! It was an aerial shot of about 20 men in a wide open field trying to catch an escaped ostrich. So funny and fun to watch. It put me right to sleep with a smile on my face.

[Photo credits: Stravinsky image in Public Domain; #1,2,3 by Roger Bourland; #4 by Raymond Knapp]

Lana Chae will premiere my Three Impromptus for piano (2009) on June 5, Schoenberg Hall at 5 pm. Admission is free, stop by if you’re in the area.

Three Impromptus for piano was written in the summer of 2009 in Palm Springs.

I love working in the desert in the summer, that is, assuming you have a pool and fabulous house with air conditioning. It’s so hot outside, all you can do is work. So I get up at 5 am and compose all day. Finish around 4:30, go see a movie, eat dinner out, go back, compose a bit, watch TV for a while, read and go to sleep, I do that for four days and get a lot of work done. This piece had such a work regimen.

The first and third piece were written as a complement to Lana’s choice to perform the Goldberg Variations, in other words, no counterpoint, and no melody. That’s tricky for me as I’m such a melodicist at heart. The middle movement is a stream of little musical summer daydreams, poignant and catchy and each is very different. But that’s the way summer is.

If I were straight, Lana and I would already be married or have gone through a nasty break up. Neither ever happened: I am already happily married. I was her teacher for a year in music theory. She always sat in the back row and was very smart. I haven’t seen Lana too much these days, but I hear she is a terrific Teaching Assistant and that her talent as a pianist is increasing at a logarithmic rate. Three Impromptus was composed for Lana Chae, student of my colleague and friend, Walter Ponce.

Daniel and I spent five days in Mazatlàn, Mexico last week. It was the town where the story for my future opera has its end. I revisited the story, made some fun changes.

As I have a commission to compose a piece for Vladimir Chernov,it occurred to me to find Duarte’s arias/numbers in the opera and see whether they work as a vocal set. It turns out that they do.

The first is a song of lust and hormones from the young Duarte hearing Angela sing makes him hot in a way he has never experienced.

The second is a patter song, now a professional in his early thirties, about all of the things he has to offer her should she accept him to represent her as a lawyer, an agent and a music publisher–I imagine the setting to be something between Leporello’s “Madamina, il catalogo è questo” in Don Giovani, and “Not getting married” by Stephen Sondheim.

The third is a soliloquy outside Angela’s door when he realizes how wildly in love he is with Angela, but he is married to Rosa.

The fourth and final number is an aria, a proposal on her death bed. He finally confesses his love, and apologizes for waiting so long.

Today, we went to hear/see the musical CHICAGO at the Pantages. While in Mazatlàn, I was toying with the idea of making THE ROSE AND THE NIGHTINGALE a musical. After hearing CHICAGO, I am clear that this has to be an opera. I can’t express this story in such simple language as in CHICAGO (and all the other Disney musicals). An opera by me will have some populist elements in it which will blur the lines anyway.

An exciting year ahead for me.

I’ll be scoring a short film by Joseph Bauer, and following that a feature on the Young Brothers.

Graham Streeter (of “Cages” fame) has asked me to score his new film “Normal Folk” which deals with the subject of autism.

Pacific Serenades has commissioned me to compose a new work for Vladimir Chernov. I’ve decided to do a prequel set where I take the arias sung by Duarte (a character in my Angela Peralta opera) and make it a set of four songs/arias/number for Vladimir and piano quartet. I’m picking up work on that opera again, making the story even better than it was before.

Since the release of Rufus Wainwright’s new solo album, I’ve decided to postpone my book for another few years to include some of these songs, as well as some arias from his opera. I’d also prefer to make the book an eBook, as this format seems to be gaining in popularity, waiting a couple of years should prove to be a fruitful wait (sorry Rufus fans). After discussing the project with a book agent, I’ve decided to gear the book to fans of Rufus, instead of music scholars. Sadly, I don’t predict music theory teachers teaching Rufus anytime soon.

I am finishing my third year as Chair of the UCLA Department of Music and have been asked to continue, which I have agreed to do.

I see retirement in the not-too-distant future. Smelling better and better.

Clarinet Rhapsody for clarinet and orchestra (1979) mp3
Music: Roger Bourland
Performers: Gunther Schuller conducts Collage (Sanders Theater)
Publisher: Associated Music Publishers
Download audio file (clarinet_rhapsody.mp3)

This piece was commissioned by my old classmate, John Strickler, who at this time was a doctoral student in conducting at USC and wanted a contemporary work for his final recital. It was this connection that later took me to Los Angeles, as I was to rent a room from him when I first moved to LA.

Looking back at this piece almost thirty years later, I hear much. I hear quotes from some of my Soliloquies, especially the flute one and the clarinet one. At one time I had planned my own cosmic “Universe” symphony, and some of the music written for that surfaces here.

In my last year as an undergraduate in music theory at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, we spent an entire year applying different analytic techniques to the Berg Violin Concerto. In retrospect, I hear some of that music peaking through. I also hear myself slowly moving away from atonality, and towards a melodic-based music.

Gunther Schuller published this piece in his Margun Music press, and later assigned it to AMP.

The Smiling Spider by Odilon Redon

The Smiling Spider for soprano, soprano sax, viola, cello, and piano (1983) mp3
Words and music: Roger Bourland (quotes from Charlie Chaplin)
Performers: Composers in Red Sneakers, Karen McVoy, soprano
Publisher: Yelton Rhodes Music
Download audio file (Smiling_Spider.mp3)

The story behind this piece is actually pretty funny. The Composers in Red Sneakers decided to offer their “Concert 8 and a half” anonymously. There was a perception that our faithful Boston Globe critic favored some of us over others. This would solve that.

At the time I was infatuated with the paintings of Odilon Redon, having composed an orchestral piece called “Scenes from Redon.” This was a painting that hadn’t found music yet.

Add to that, I had just watched [I think it was] Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights” and heard this catchy little tune that I couldn’t get out of my head. You’ll also hear a quick quote of “Do Not Foresake Me Oh My Darling.”

Add to that, I had just seen a documentary on TV discussing the mating habits of tarantulas, how the female can eat the male after the mating ritual if he’s not careful. This seemed dramatically pregnant and at least amusing.

Add to that, a friend’s pet tarantula had just died and I asked whether I could have the body. He said yes.

For the performance, I tied the spider to a roofless umbrella which the soprano holds while singing to the spider. The piece opens with the soprano skipping onto the stage with the umbrella inside a guitar case. She opens it, takes out the umbrella, and begins to sing her love song to the dangling arachnid.

There is an amusing little dance break where she dances and spins the umbrella with the spider hurling in circles. At the end, she can’t stop singing “Ta ta ta taaaa…” until the sax player (her boyfriend actually) goes up and tickles her in the armpit.

It shouldn’t have been too difficult for the Boston audience and critic to tell that this piece was by me: who else could be so silly? And I still got a good review.

Ta ta ta ta ta taaaa
Ta ta ta ta ta taaaa

Tarantula my beloved spider
On my shoulder in the moonlight tonight
When your leggies touch my hands I shiver
And I quiver when you whisper my name.

Now you might think it rather odd
To be in love with such a beast
But I really rather like him
And he smiles a lot at least
And if he asks to marry you
You can be sure that he’ll be true
As a husband a tarantula is really quite a feast!

Hand in hand by the edge of the sand
Nuptial bliss, I’ll devour thee with a kiss.
Leggies locked, cosmic kisses of death
Dancing spiders, a crazy kind of love!

Recent Dreams for horn trio (1989) mp3
Music: Roger Bourland
Performers: Richard Todd, horn, Debra Price, violin, Delores Stevens, piano
Publisher: Yelton Rhodes Music
Download audio file (Recent_Dreams-for-horn-trio.mp3)

Commissioned by Pacific Serenades, “Recent Dreams” was written during a period when I was having a lot of vivid dreams. Each morning, after waking up, I made musical sketches that somehow encapsulated those dreams. As dreams can be rather flee flowing and puzzling, so is this piece. Having known Rick Todd to be one of the greatest horn players in the world, I felt free to write almost anything for him. Hearing the piece after 20 years have gone by, I like the piece quite a lot. It could possibly use a little tweaking here and there, but all in all, a good piece.

A hornist discovered that I had written this piece and asked to see it. It’s copied in a piece of dead software, so all that exists now is a photocopy of that score and will need to be recopied someday [the plight of many composers]. I realized that I had not digitized the piece as well, so I’ve now taken care of that.

Glamour & Eros (1987/90) mp3
for alto saxophone and electronics
Music: Roger Bourland
Performer: Greg Chambers, saxophone
Yelton Rhodes Music

Download audio file (glamour_n_eros.mp3)

Glamour and Eros was originally commissioned by Jack Elliott and the New American Orchestra who specialized in orchestral jazz. Jack came up with the idea of including 3 Yamaha DX7s and an EWI (electronic wind instrument, designed by Nile Steiner). With backing from Lloyd Rigler, I set to work on the jazziest piece I have ever written. I grew up hearing jazz, but have never been a jazz musician.

Four months later, I showed up with a new piece called “Broken Arrows” (yes, like Neil Young’s “Broken Arrow”). Jack took a look at the orchestration and said “this orchestration will be difficult to make happen” being afraid of the synths. I was flabbergasted as it was HIS orchestration. Now, the likelihood of performances seemed slim, so the work was reorchestrated for a synthesizer ensemble (8 synthesizers with 3 percussionists). The rehearsals and performance was a blast, but again the instrumentation was doomed for an early death. In 1990, I turned the piece into Portable Rhapsody No.1 for solo alto sax and electronic accompaniment (mp3).

“Glamour and Eros” musically celebrates attraction and the erotic. The saxophone was chosen because it can hold its own against a loud accompaniment, and because it is perhaps the sexiest of all of the orchestral instruments. The musical language draws from rock, jazz, and psycho-classical. A descending (or ascending) four note motive permeates the piece as the predominant melodic figure.

The now historic synthesizers used on the accompaniment were the Yamaha TX816 and TX802, the Proteus/2, the Korg M1R, the Prophet 2002, and the Roland D550. (I still have them gathering dust in the basement.)

The work is dedicated to my friend and teacher, composer and multiple wind player, Les Thimmig.

This recording arrived in the mail today from Greg Chambers. Greg and his wife Chelsea were both in my theory classes many years ago. They hail from Gilroy, CA, the garlic capitol of the world. His performance is terrific and I hope he doesn’t mind my sharing it with you.