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Interview with Chuck Holdeman
February 7, 2011
Chuck Holdeman is a composer. For information about his work, visit www.chuckholdeman.com.
Tibbetts: How long have you composed, and what made you decide to become a composer?
Holdeman: I became serious about composing relatively late, at about the age of 46, though I had always written a little. I am a bassoonist, and out of a fascination with spontaneity, began to spend more and more time improvising. Finally it became more satisfying to crystallize my thoughts on the page, and indeed my process as a composer is like very slow improvising.
Tibbetts: What inspires you?
Holdeman: A variety of things, poetry or a libretto in the case of vocal music, hearing a group or getting a suggestion and sometimes a commission from the musicians, identifying a fragment or aspect of a piece by another composer which seems to be asking for further development, or expressing the feelings attached to a friendship. Maybe I will someday try something inspired by that intensely musical painter, Kandinsky.
Tibbetts: Of all you have done, what do you consider your best work, and why?
Holdeman: Like many composers, I tend to think of most recent things as the best, because they are what I feel most intensely about now. However, two works which are not quite new which have a level of both complexity and clarity are Quintetto and the eight At the Bend songs based on Merwin poems. I think the vitality of the 2000 piece Lyric Seasons could make it worthy of sticking around. The first Hamill song represented what felt like a breakthrough.
Tibbetts: What is your 'typical day' like?
Holdeman: I'm a morning person and like to do some physical exercise and some composing after coffee and before breakfast. After that it varies.
Tibbetts: Do you have any words of wisdom to offer to aspiring composers and musicians?
Holdeman: Just do it!!
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