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Interview with John Michael-Albert
April 12, 2012
John Michael-Albert is a composer and poet. For information about his work, visit www.johnmichaelalbert.com.
Tibbetts: How long have you composed, and what made you decide to become a composer?
Michael-Albert: I always considered composition as part of the "big picture" of music. Plato said that the ideal man would be the musician athlete because what athletics does for the body, music does for the mind. I began with a deep appreciation of music (and poetry), proceeded to learn performance, proceeded to conducting choral groups in college and afterward, and proceeded to arranging works for those choirs, then started composing for them as well. The artist should engage completely with every experience life has to offer, then turn it into art. As Mahler wryly said, "You don't turn into a cow by eating beef."
Tibbetts: What inspires you?
Michael-Albert: My motivation for the creative life is simple: nothing is ordinary. Most people feel it is necessary to be very selective about what they value in life. They're afraid of the unknown, the unfamiliar, the forbidden. I think it is the obligation of the creative artist to value everything, then discover a way to communicate that value to others through his art.
Tibbetts: Can you describe your compositional process?
Michael-Albert: I've written under all sorts of conditions. Sometimes a musical idea comes to me that I want to preserve, sometimes simply to see what it looks like on the page. I've often arranged music to match the available forces that I have and preserve the character and tone of the original composition. I've written pieces (text and music) to fill out the narrative of a program, and I've composed music in response to commissions. A matter of personal discipline is my requirement that I complete a new work in my head, to the point that I can play it through from beginning to end when I'm out walking or waiting for a bus. Then and only then do I commit it to paper. Then and only then do I play it on piano or whatever.
Tibbetts: Of all you have done, what do you consider your best work, and why?
Michael-Albert: To Friends and To Life, Op. 33. A friend had just attended a concert I'd conducted and called me to commission this work. As he was talking, the whole work came to me--all I lacked was the 40 or 50 hours to write it out. It's for men's chorus and piano trio (violin, 'cello, piano). What I like most about it is that it is extremely organic, making the most of minimal materials. And I like the fact that it flows easily from beginning to end. Performers invest themselves completely in the piece and that makes it much more accessible to audiences.
Tibbetts: What is your 'typical day' like?
Michael-Albert: How about "week." I work a full time job to cover food, clothing and shelter. Then, every evening and all weekend I devote myself to creative work--music and/or poetry. It's important to me that the yin and yang of my life oppose each other in a state of balance. When one becomes more demanding, I devote more time to the other as well because, I have discovered, they make each other stronger, better.
Tibbetts: Do you have any words of wisdom to offer to aspiring composers and musicians?
Michael-Albert: What you do you must do with your whole being. You should do it because some un-nameable thing inside you leaves you no alternative. And you must do it 100% of their time. I tell poets that they must, first, read other people's poetry 100% of the time. Then, and only then, they should devote 100% of their time to writing. In musical terms, you must stay immersed in other people's music at all times, and you must compose at all times.
Only dilettantes "wait for inspiration" or devote themselves exclusively to their "favorite" style of music or composers. And the resulting work shows it: it has a sort of narrow selfishness, a lack of imaginative generosity that reflects their stinginess of themselves to their art. If you keep yourself completely immersed in all aspects of your art and produce new work at all times, "keep your pencils dull," your work will be open-handed, generous, fully available to anyone who wants to perform it, anyone who wants to listen to it.
You'll know you've passed through "the creative wall" (which is much like the marathoner's 18 mile wall) when you start creating new compositions in your dreams.
There is nothing easy about being an artist. If 100% commitment is too taxing, do something else for your life's work, your legacy to the human race. (And join the people who support creative artists in the audiences in theaters, concert halls and museums.)
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