Reprinted with permission from New Millenium Guitar
Eric Sessler with composers Ned Rorem and David DiamondReview of Sonata #1 Overall this sonata has thematic cohesiveness throughout. It skirts tonality like true masters of the language at this time in history. It gets visceral and into quick shifts like a sick romantic of Werther's stature. It is through composed and tight formally.
Mr. Sessler's reference to a gem of information from the great American composer, David Diamond, illustrates the use of tonality he uses in Sonata #1. "Use 12 tones." Diamond didn't mean to use serial technique although Diamond uses it in his Eighth Symphony, what he meant was to use all notes within a tonal reference. This is what is so refreshing about this piece from a harmonic standpoint, it skirts tonality in a very natural way!
The first and last movements are nicely arched, using common material which contrasts the second movement which is lighter in its expanded tonal implications. The second movement uses a conventional progression of chords and direction but again does it share of skirting the usual landmarks. The first movement is vibrant with implications of something I've always thought the guitar did to form. There is a condensation of the overall working out of the form's requirements. On the guitar you have limited resources so time is essentially short when you set up a certain statistic of change.
All of the movements exhibit the same formal behavior which leads me to say that Mr. Sessler has created a perfect piece of guitar compositional art. If I played other composer's music I'd play this one for sure. Shoot, I might someday but I've got my own issues to deal with at the moment.
With Ned Rorem and David Diamond as composition mentors you've got a cohesive take on tonality that is in step with the new millennium. I know that sounds like a slogan but we're talking about the progression of any material over time. David Diamond is one of the deans of American symphonic art and Ned Rorem is that for the American art song. To be in contact with these icons of American classical music is invaluable to a young composer.
Last I'd like to say that Jason Vieaux's live performance of the piece was brilliant and was extremely well received by the audience! What a marvelously expressive and clean performer. If you're reading this Mr. Vieaux, please let me send you some pieces.
I'd venture to say that both "deans" would say they had little to do with Mr. Sessler's good work in composition and that would be true. That's why it is my pleasure to do this site and to talk with and introduce you to Eric Sessler.N.M. -What was it like working with David Diamond?
E.S. - Mr. Diamond was (and is) a great source of inspiration for me and having the opportunity to study with him was a great honor. He taught me the craft of composition., as he knew it from his own studies with Nadia Boulanger (who he idolizes) and from decades of experience. He would always say when I was stuck or something wasn't right, "I see so clearly what you need to do there but I don't want to finish your piece for you. I could finish all of my students pieces in five minutes." So he would try to lead you in the direction of solving your own problems. (Good teachers make themselves extinct by teaching students to teach themselves.)
He helped me a great deal to learn how to deal with large-scale forms. Its easy to write a melody and make a short piece but how do you turn that into an hour-long symphony that's not only interesting but also a cohesive whole?
The one thing I never understood about him was his aversion to commissioned pieces. I was lucky enough to have commissions while I was studying with Diamond but he never seemed pleased. He would say, "when are you going to finish that damn commission so we can start on the symphony?" I guess he felt that there were certain types of genres that one should compose in without waiting for someone to commission them. I always worked better and had more inspiration to write knowing that I had a deadline and a particular performer in mind. He's probably right though, I still haven't written a symphony.
To those that only viewed him on a superficial level, Mr. Diamond was all about fugue and counterpoint but his teaching was much more than just inane species drills. His dogmatic personality was refreshing in an era when too often anything goes.
N.M -What was it like to work with Ned Rorem?
E.S. -Studying with Rorem (whom I worked with before Diamond) was a completely different experience. He was less interested in the details and viewed your music more from a wider perspective. Except for songs. He loves to write them, critique them, analyze them, and show you how to write them. Many times his three students at Curtis would all set the same text to music and he would compare and contrast the varying results. This was never a problem for me because I love vocal music. In fact, I believe that one of the reasons he accepted me as a student was that I was one of the few that had submitted a vocal piece.
On a different level, I was fascinated with Rorem's many associations with famous people. At our lessons in his New York apartment, we always had lunch together before we began looking at our music. Usually at our prodding he would recount tales of artists that we only knew through music and books. I'll never forget when he told us about when Poulence played for him his newly composed opera, dialogues des carmelites.. Rorem's first reaction to the piece was negative and it was only later that he realized that it was a masterpiece. It just goes to show you how wary you have to be of even the most educated person's first hearing of a new work.
N.M -What is your earliest association with the guitar?
E.S. -I began to play the guitar when I was nine. I started on electric guitar because I had no exposure to classical music. Later, in my teens I found a teacher who introduced me to classical guitar and I never looked back.
N.M -: Talk about your earliest attempts at composing for guitar.
E.S. -: My first pieces were largely unsuccessful. Since I played the instrument, I quickly fell into the trap of writing what I could play and using standard guitar figures and textures. It became apparent that I needed to intentionally avoid writing for the guitar in order to develop my compositional technique past this point. Since then, I've written orchestral, choral, solo and chamber works and even a one-act opera. When a commission came last year to write for Jason Vieaux, I knew the time had come to return to the guitar. I plan to spend much of the future writing new works for it.
N.M -What influence did Diamond and Rorem have on your compositions for guitar?
E.S. -Sad to say, but they both dislike the instrument and even discouraged me from writing for it. Both have written their owns works for the guitar but when asked about them they were less than enthusiastic. Many composers that I've encountered still view the guitar as a second-rate instrument, although they feel it is difficult to write for and respect those that can do it well.
N.M - Do you actively play guitar in recital?
E.S. -No, I haven't since I was an undergraduate at Manhattan School of Music. Nowadays, I perform mostly in chamber works. I often play with a flutist in the Philadelphia area. By the way, I'm planning to write a flute & guitar piece soon.
N.M -: Do you find that composing gets in the way of performing?
E.S. -Sure, that's probably why I stopped giving solo recitals. There just wasn't enough hours in the day to compose, teach, spend time with my wife and still practice five hours a day. I don't miss the pressure of concerts plus after I heard Jason play my Sonata I thought, "Now there's someone that's good!"
N.M -So what were you trying to do with the Sonata?
E.S. -My first thought was to compose a piece which would highlight the unique talents of Jason Vieaux. Within the framework of the traditional Sonata structure, I wanted to give Jason a chance to showcase his incredible technique while at other moments displaying his rich artistic sensibility. The second movement certainly reveals Jason's more lyrical side while the ending of the last movement leaves no doubt in the audience's mind that Jason is a technical wizard.
From another viewpoint, my intention was to compose a piece which develops musical material in an almost Beethovenian manner and one without any obvious Spanish overtones. The guitar literature is saturated with character and moods-type pieces and lacks the type of repertory that the more standard instruments like piano and violin have. Guitarists need more serious works that have immediate audience appeal and that can be programmed alongside of the more traditional pieces. My Sonata was written to fill this void. It is a tightly constructed composition which is written in an accessible language that lets the performer communicate directly with their audience.
N.M -What harmonic material does it primarily consist of?
E.S. -My music is tonal. Even if there are dissonances present there is always a logical tonal center lurking about somewhere. I only write music that I am able to hear and comprehend inside my mind clearly (including music that intenionally blurs the tonality).
I have struggled a great deal to come to this conclusion, which many composers and even some performers find passe. My dilemma was: Is my music modern enough sounding if it uses good-old tonality as the basis for my compositions? I've tried many times to work with other systems or harmonic languages but always ended up hating the result. I finally realized that I didn't get into composition to write pieces that I didn't like. So now I won't finish something until I'm convinced about it one hundred percent.
Plus I figure that if I don't love it why should anybody else. One of my inspirations is a composer like Durufle. If you listen to his music and then look at his dates you would think that the two don't coincide. However, he's written beautiful works which are timeless and eminently valid.
N.M -In your guitar pieces, do you ever serialize anything?
E.S. -After reading my answer to the last question you would think that I haven't but actually I did use serial technique in an incidental music score that I composed for The Changeling (by Middleton and Rowley). Within the confines of the separate theatrical situations which were presented to me in the play, the serial technique provided easy material for me to work with and manipulate. However, even here I used the row tonally like for instance Britten did in the Turn of the Screw.
N.M -Did Diamond ever encourage you to use serial or other related techniques?
E.S. -At times Mr. Diamond thought that my harmonic language was too limited and he suggested that I should think more in terms of the 12 chromatic pitches. But he always warned me to pick out these pitches carefully. Recalling a conversation he had with Schoenberg, he said that the Austrian master always insisted that his students explain to him what the reasoning was behind any of their serial rows. If they could not do so, it meant to him that the pitches were selected randomly and without logic. And that was bad.
N.M -What do you plan to do in your next guitar piece?
E.S. -I would like to write a flute & guitar piece soon. There has been some interest in commissioning a work from me but nothing concrete has been worked out yet.
Each new composition is a unique challenge for me. I try to always use a new perspective for each piece rather than fall into formulaic situations. Also, I assess my compositional weaknesses and attempt to further develop my craft with every work.
Writing for guitar is at the same time both a joy and a frustration. Since I play the instrument reasonably well, it is nice to be able to pick it up and test out what I've composed (see how it falls under the fingers). Something you obviously can't do when writing for the orchestra for example (I wish I could pick one of those up). Meanwhile, it is frustrating because of the guitar's limitations. Let's face it, there are certain volume issuses that everyone is aware of and that the guitar as an instrument always has to deal with. Additionally, the guitar's tendency towards the sharp keys can be a little maddening at times. I love the flat keys and wish that I didn't have to totaly retune my guitar to play comfortably in the key of G-flat. Of course you can use a capo but that also has its disadvantages. I guess that's one of my challenges, to write harmonically adventuresome works for guitar that still feel idiomatic to the performer.
N.M -What compositional models do you use?
E.S. - I often look at the structural devices of any of the master composers of the past. During the composition of the Sonata No. 1, I was studying the Beethoven piano sonatas and string quartets. Borrowing form is like using the outside frame of a building, once you get the house to stand up on its own then you can fill it with whatever you like. I've read that Ravel use to say that he never really saw pieces with amazingly interesting forms whereas he saw many with bad ones. The point being that form is not going to make a composition standout all by itself but it can certainly make it incomprehensible if it lacks a good formal foundation.