COMPOSER MICHAEL GANDOLFI’S ‘ASCENDING LIGHT’ REMEMBERS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

14:42, 23 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The commission of Michael Gandolfi’s “Ascending Light,” the organ
concerto that the Boston Symphony Orchestra will premiere on March 26,
began with influences long ago and far away, according to The Artery.

The BSO had originally conceived of a new organ work back in 2004,
after the passing of Berj Zamkochian, the orchestra’s organist for
nearly four decades. In an effort to remember both Zamkochian and
his Armenian heritage, the BSO had approached the Gomidas Organ Fund,
and the idea began to take shape.

The BSO officially commissioned Gandolfi three years ago, during the
waning days of the James Levine era at the BSO. Levine, whose tenure
in Boston got derailed by health issues, “was going to conduct the
work,” says Gandolfi, “but things changed.”

And then, as the years passed, the centenary of the Armenian Genocide
was approaching, and remembering all these events became part of the
intent of the commission.

Now the work will finally be performed, with the BSO’s new music
director, Andris Nelsons, at the podium. Incorporating a historic
remembrance of the Armenian tragedy, paying tribute to Zamkochian
and the orchestra’s legacy and still finding his own voice for an
instrument that rarely receives concerto commissions–all these
factors faced Gandolfi before he had composed a single note.

“I wanted to write a solid piece, first and foremost,” Gandolfi says.

“It did not have to have any overt connection to the genocide–in
fact, it could have simply been an inscription on the cover page of
the score. I knew the tragedy was not something that I could simply
brush aside, but still, I did not want to make it a requiem.”

Gandolfi, born in Melrose, now lives in Cambridge. He chairs the
composition faculty at the New England Conservatory, and serves
on the Tanglewood Music Center faculty as well. He has had dozens
of commissions from major orchestras and ensembles, and a Grammy
nomination for the recording of his orchestral work, “The Garden of
Cosmic Speculation.”

Categorizing his music in a simple way would be risky business, but
it’s safe to say that he shares ideas with contemporary composers like
his friend Osvaldo Golijov, facilely blending musics that originate
in multiple styles. Many of his inspirations, like in “The Garden
of Cosmic Speculation,” have come from the scientific sphere. He has
also written a substantial amount of music for children.

But this commission broke new ground. “I’m not an organist, and
I hadn’t written for organ or paid much attention to the issues
involved,” Gandolfi says. “So I had to give it a lot of thought,
and go through a lot of research on the instrument, and organ works.”

“And Armenian folk music as well. I have a lot of Armenian friends
and colleagues, and have been aware of the culture. And also how
invested they are, and supportive of their own musical tradition.”

Who would sit at the console of the BSO’s restored Aeolian-Skinner
organ was another decision to make.

“It took us a while to settle on a soloist,” he says. “I relied on
Tony Fogg (BSO artistic administrator). He was prescient. He knows
what’s going on, and he’s a genius at matching people. We eventually
settled on Olivier Latry, who has great stage presence and is a
brilliant organist.”

It wasn’t until this past October that Gandolfi actually met up with
the French organist, who was on a North American tour.

“I hadn’t written any music at that point, but I had been doing some
research. I wanted to incorporate some Armenian folk music, and I was
thinking that a lullaby might be appropriate. I found this melody,
‘Lullaby of Tigranakert,’ in instrumental and vocal versions, but
I couldn’t find any printed music. So I transcribed it for organ,
and brought it with me. It was a productive meeting.”

The lullaby became the focus of the second movement of “Ascending
Light,” transformed into a set of variations that includes a scherzo.

“I had also envisioned how the piece would start,” he says, “but
I was reluctant to reveal it at that time. I work visually, and
after reading and viewing photos of all these folks who had died,
I envisioned projections of these folks on a screen.

“Suddenly I just started hearing music, powerful and defiant music,
and the piece started forming in my mind. It was full of energy. We
had this terrible event, and lost these incredible people. But the
life force is winning, and the music supports that.”

Another melody from the Armenian folk tradition found its way into
the work as well: inspiring the title and leading to a surprising
coincidence about the commission itself.

“Shortly after I found the lullaby, I heard this simple, elegant
melody. It dates back to the Renaissance. The melody is sung to a
lyric that translates as ‘Ascending Light,’ and I uncovered some
harmonizations for it as well.”

“They were done by an Armenian musicologist, and I first found his
name to be Komitas. I found a nice recording of the harmonizing, but
I couldn’t find much about the tune. Later I found out that his name
was really Gomidas–the same person that the commissioning foundation
is named after.”

“Ascending Light” gets paired with Mahler’s Sixth Symphony,
a continuation of the ambitious programs that have characterized
Nelsons’ first full season as music director. Paired with an outsized
work like the Sixth, Gandolfi tries to take advantage of the strengths
and unique quality the organ can bring to orchestral performance.

“I don’t really consider this a concerto in the Romantic sense,” he
says. “The soloist plays a lot, and he drives the piece. It’s almost
like the piece is built out of the organ, and there’s a way in which
the organ informs the orchestra.”

“But the organ also has the potential of overwhelming the orchestra,”
he says. “It’s not the virtuoso instrument that the piano is. It
has to release the notes, and it’s a wind instrument after all. It’s
like writing for a wind orchestra and an orchestra. I had to work to
mitigate too much wind sound.”

“If the harmonies get too complex, it gets too dense. It reminds me of
using distortion with electronic signal processing on the guitar. You
have to revert to simpler harmonies, or things get out of control.

Based on the feedback I’m getting from Olivier, it’s working out well.”

The Boston Symphony Orchestra performs Michael Gandolfi’s organ
concerto “Ascending Light” March 26 through 31 at Symphony Hall. The
soloist is Olivier Latry and BSO music director Andris Nelsons
conducts. Also on the program is Mahler’s Sixth Symphony.