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Interview with Daniel Sonenberg
March 26, 2011
Daniel Sonenberg is a composer, performer, and educator. For information about his work, visit www.danielsonenberg.org.
Tibbetts: How long have you composed, and what made you decide to become a composer?
Sonenberg: I started out as a songwriter, actually. Well actually, I started out as a rock drummer, and then started writing songs. When I got to college, I thought I'd ultimately be a singer-songwriter, but I encountered the composer Joan Tower, who was a pivotal figure for me. She thought everyone was a composer, and all music majors at Bard College, where I studied, were given composition assignments, whether they wanted to compose or not. You know, "write a flute piece! see you next week." I was also inspired by a fellow student, Christopher Hume, who was a rock and classical guitarist, but also a composer. He was the first person I knew to really get excited about composers, including living ones, and for a time I think I emulated him in a bunch of ways. So gradually, over the course of my college career, the emphasis for me shifted from songwriting to "composing" (back when I thought the two were different things!)
Tibbetts: What inspires you?
Sonenberg: Well, mostly a deadline! Actually though, lately I work very much on inspiration. An idea will occur to me and I'll just be overcome with it...I'll need to get it down. It can be a dramatic idea, or an instrumental pairing. Most recently I wrote a set of pieces for steel-string guitar and clarinet. I was inspired by the idea of writing myself into a piece (always a dangerous idea, that!), and the music just sort of poured forth.
Tibbetts: Of all you have done, what do you consider your best work, and why?
Sonenberg: Well, I've been working for a LONG time on an opera, The Summer King, about the life of Negro league baseball player Josh Gibson. Some of the music has been performed publicly, but I'm most excited about the material that no one has heard yet. One of the scenes is really the longest piece of uninterrupted music I've written (about twenty-one minutes) and it's something I'm very excited about, but I have to wait... Otherwise, I think I tend to be most excited about the latest thing, which right now is the Seven Jarring Dances for clarinet(s) and steel-string guitar, which I was just out late tonight recording. Coming soon to an iTunes near you!
Tibbetts: What is your 'typical day' like?
Sonenberg: Ha! You really want to know? I have two-year-old triplet sons, mind you. They wake up between 6 and 6:30. And they demand a LOT of attention. Plus I teach full time, have thirteen private composition students (as "overload"), direct a new music ensemble here... My typical day is atypical, and definitely madness of one sort or another. It is a struggle. I love everything that I do, but I have to do an awful lot of that everything, and finding those essential moments of quiet alone time to compose is more challenging now than it ever was. I do my best to make every moment count.
Tibbetts: Do you have any words of wisdom to offer to aspiring composers and musicians?
Sonenberg: Don't get all bent out of shape by fads, or by writing music that meant to fulfill someone else's aesthetic. When you're writing, and you suddenly feel terrified, embarrassed, and thrilled by something you've come up with, all at the same time, when you have the feeling "no! I can't possibly write THAT!" Do it! Lean in to those uncomfortable places. Write the music you most want to hear, and embrace ALL the music you love. Try to write long melodic lines when you can. Don't articulate every downbeat (tie over the barline!) Trust yourself -- you can do far more than you think you can.
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