The Major Undertakings of Meredith Monk

Interview, News, Meredith Monk, John Hollenbeck

By Robert Ham I Jan. 22, 2020

Vocalist Meredith Monk says she’s blessed to be “discovering new things and new ways of producing sound and new ways of putting music together that are very complex little forms” after a decade’s long career.
(Photo: Christine Alicino)

That’s why it is so important for you to have your ensemble; that you have people who have worked with you and know your work well.

I’ve had the privilege of working with amazing, extraordinary artists that have stayed with me for many years. And so, when I’m working on a new piece, they understand my language and we have a kind of shorthand of the language of the voice, and my compositional language and vocabulary. Then I can just go in with my material and we’re on the same wavelength. I can work on it directly and hear it, and then go back and work on it some more myself. They’re so good at imprinting something and then erasing it and then imprinting something else. I remember when Nurit Tilles, a wonderful pianist who worked with Steve Reich for many years, came into the ensemble and she was so amazed that I would do one thing in one rehearsal and everybody would embrace it. And then the next rehearsal, I might change it and they could just let that go and reimprint. It’s a kind of muscle memory thing.

Is that something specific that you were looking for as you were putting the ensemble together?

Absolutely. I also look for a very individual voice. I don’t really want the people in the ensemble to sound like me. I want them to sound like themselves. We have the same philosophy of music, and vocal music particularly. Even instrumental music. I have wonderful instrumentalists working with me. John Hollenbeck is one of the great percussionists and he understands my music so well. We have a wonderful time, because I present the piece to him, and we work on the soundworld of the piece. And then what he ends up doing is just so magical and adds another element that’s so rich. But I really want each of the voices to be very distinct.

There’s a physicality to your work, as well, a kind of choreography that goes with it. I’m thinking of Cellular Songs, in particular, which you’re doing a concert performance of, rather than the full theatrical version, a few times next year.

We’re all sad that the last time we’ve performed the complete work—that includes the film and all the other elements—was at Stanford last spring. We really enjoy doing a concert version and audiences really enjoy it. But I’d love to be able to get a few more chances to do the whole piece because, visually, it’s so beautiful. We have a white hexagram floor that reflects light and we project film on that. It’s very spare and elegant but still visually beautiful. With the concert piece, we can’t bring the floor with us. I usually have the film projected on the wall when the audience comes in. The concert version is a little more concise, physically. The way I’ve been working over the years is much more gestural. Not big, full out dance choreography.

The music has become more and more complex over the years. I’ve had to simplify the other elements, so that the music doesn’t turn into accompaniment. The music is the forefront and you can hear the complexity through the transparency and the simplicity of the other gestural vocabulary. It doesn’t cause a blurring of perception, so you don’t hear the complexity of the music.

Looking over the chronology you have listed on your website, it seems like the time between new works and commissions has been getting longer. Is that by design? Are you slowing down in some way?

I wish I could say we were slowing down; I’ve never worked so hard in my life. The more that I try to slow down, the more that I’m doing. I don’t even know how I’m doing all that I’m doing. It just goes on and on. But, you know, the large pieces do take a few years to make. I don’t think it’s very different from, say, the late ’80s. It took me five years to make Atlas. It took me five years to make Book Of Days. So, I actually don’t perceive much slowing down. But it’s wonderful. I just feel so excited that new ideas are coming. What more could you ask for as a composer?

At the same time with MEMORY GAME and the revivals of your work, you have been asked to look back a lot recently. As someone who is looking forward and wanting to create new music, does that create friction?

It can. You know, when painters or writers work, they can take out their early work and go, “Oh, I’ve grown so much since that time.” But when you’re doing live performance—short of videos or recordings of it—you have to remount it to actually see what you did and where it’s changed. I revised and reorchestrated and added a few more instruments to Atlas. It was very risky for me to have another director do a production, because I was creating all the elements simultaneously and weaving them together. And that weave was very important.

I guess I’ve always been a very curious person. Curiosity is something that drives me. DB