#26
Posted: 8/8/06 at 6:56am
What excites me about LaChiusa's work is that it is so truthful and loyal to the characters. At no point do you get songs that are just "stuck in", all the songs push the plot forward, develop the characters and are completely and utterly justified in the overall structure of the play. He takes the stories of his characters so seriously and never looks down at them or two-dimensionalises them - he looks at the world through their eyes.
His music can sometimes seem like he is "making it up as he goes along" if you don't know about music. But, mate, harmonically that is TRICKY stuff. He is such a clever composer, looking at the piano parts for songs from Marie Christine or Wild Party it is HARD. It is not just scribbled down as he goes along.
I believe that his music is written in respect of his characters' feelings at that moment. It changes and swirls around and makes sharp turns because that what the character's emotions are doing at that particular time. He is building on principles used by people like Blitzstein and then furthered by Sondheim. He doesn't write pretty show tunes, though his music can be exquisitely beautiful, he writes the music that character NEEDS to say what they have to say.
Also, he works on pieces that most composers would shy away from. He is BOLD and UNAFRAID. In a time when most people work under the constant worry that their work wont be produced - working to the lowest common denominator - Michael John LaChiusa works purely for artistic reasons. He see's something that excites him and he creates art. That is to be applauded in these increasingly self-censoring times.
His music can sometimes seem like he is "making it up as he goes along" if you don't know about music. But, mate, harmonically that is TRICKY stuff. He is such a clever composer, looking at the piano parts for songs from Marie Christine or Wild Party it is HARD. It is not just scribbled down as he goes along.
I believe that his music is written in respect of his characters' feelings at that moment. It changes and swirls around and makes sharp turns because that what the character's emotions are doing at that particular time. He is building on principles used by people like Blitzstein and then furthered by Sondheim. He doesn't write pretty show tunes, though his music can be exquisitely beautiful, he writes the music that character NEEDS to say what they have to say.
Also, he works on pieces that most composers would shy away from. He is BOLD and UNAFRAID. In a time when most people work under the constant worry that their work wont be produced - working to the lowest common denominator - Michael John LaChiusa works purely for artistic reasons. He see's something that excites him and he creates art. That is to be applauded in these increasingly self-censoring times.
