By Isaac Hamlet
Like all art, music is a catalyst for memory, meant to replicate the emotions of the writer and performer, to some extent, in its audience.
For composer David Lang, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and UI alum, these emotions are the ones that took hold of him following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
At 7:30 p.m. today, Hancher will host cellist Maya Beiser as she premières the day, a piece composed by Lang.
Beiser and Lang have worked together for decades. Their collaboration began when Beiser became the first cellist in Lang’s band Bang on a Can All-Stars. From the early days working with her there, Lang admired her performances.
“She plays really emotionally,” Lang said. “She’s fearless and will do anything for the sake of expression. When you meet a player you really love, you imagine how you’re going to write for them.”
In imagining what to write for Beiser, he eventually composed the world to come, around 2003. As he says, “It’s not exactly a post-9/11 piece.”
Still, it is a composition that was inspired by the tragedy, one that attempts to imagine what the existences of those who died might look like.
“The music follows traditional Jewish thinking,” Lang said. “This idea of the soul and body being separated in death, then coming back together when the messiah arrives. [Beiser] is singing and playing at the same time — gradually her voice disappears, consumed by the cello playing.”
Recently though, Lang decided to compose an introduction to the world to come, titled the day. Ironically, however, the day is longer than the piece it introduces.
For the performance, pictures are projected behind Beiser as she plays, showing images of the lives the music is meant to reflect.
“Both pieces are very beautiful, very meditative,” Beiser said. “[day] starts with a very lonely melody and grows slowly. A video of faces comes in and out, and text comes [on screen] every six minutes — like a heartbeat.”
On stage, Beiser herself is meant to represent a woman who died; her singing is meant to represent the soul of this woman and the cello plays the part of her body.
“There’s something in David’s music that I’m really drawn to,” she said. “It’s very direct and powerful in its simplicity, really beautiful in a way that isn’t self-indulgent.”
To help create the piece, Lang posted a phrase online, asking for the public to complete it: “I remember the day that …” Based on the responses, he decided what images to include in the projection and what stories to evoke.
“I like the idea that music is the gateway to a more emotional well,” Lang said. “I try to take advantage of that when I can.”
