The Grey Land (Premiere Fall 2018)
“… he made all the world…a vast grey land where neither night nor day was, peopled by strange men and women whom he could not understand, but with those lives he longed to mingle once before he went.”-Richard Wright, Native Son
The Grey Land is a monoopera that explores universal themes of humanity and identity through the intractable triumvirate of race, class, and power in American society. The Grey Land will integrate a variety of writings, archival and contemporary video footage, dance, set and lighting designs, as well as dramatic elements in order to advance a non-traditional narrative that will embrace the musical and social multitudes and “dichotomies of high and low, inside and outside, tradition and innovation” within black culture, fusing various African-American and other popular music influences within a contemporary post-classical musical language. While I have always been interested in transmuting diverse inspiration into a single voice, this recent personal exploration of black culture and music creates an “impressive stylistic synthesis…a new style...not as an established idiom, but rather as a new approach, a happy merging of apparently disparate traditions.” Working with writer/director Isaac Butler, choreographer Edisa Weeks, electronic musician Michael Hammond, film and video artist Malik Isasis and Xuan Zhang, The Grey Land will ruminate and comment more specifically on the larger longstanding systemic societal, economic and cultural issues the various police shootings and protests since 2014 have brought to a wider public consciousness. The composition is scored for 1 Mezzo Soprano Soloist, 1 Narrator/Speaker and the 26 musicians of Numinous, approximately 65 minutes in length and eventually recorded for New Amsterdam Records after the premiere.
Examples of themes The Grey Land will explore are: a choral lamentation on the concept of the boogeyman and “the fear of the Black male in America”; through the lens of “The Talk”, a meditation on the crisis of opportunity and expectations for minorities and their seemly narrow borders of identity in the broader social construct; a video and audio collage celebrating the resilience of blacks throughout history by, as James Baldwin wrote, “groaning and moaning, watching, calculating, clowning, surviving, and outwitting” with “some tremendous strength...nevertheless being forged, which is part of [black] legacy today”; a humorous fantasy that deconstructs the myth of the “magical negro” in contemporary media. Like Junot Díaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The Grey Land will be a compelling and vertiginous vision unifying the vernacular and the learned; it will strive to be a work of art that attracts not only the standard new music enthusiast, but also the communities of color who are so often absent from the stages and audiences of today's concert halls.
The Grey Land is a monoopera that explores universal themes of humanity and identity through the intractable triumvirate of race, class, and power in American society. The Grey Land will integrate a variety of writings, archival and contemporary video footage, dance, set and lighting designs, as well as dramatic elements in order to advance a non-traditional narrative that will embrace the musical and social multitudes and “dichotomies of high and low, inside and outside, tradition and innovation” within black culture, fusing various African-American and other popular music influences within a contemporary post-classical musical language. While I have always been interested in transmuting diverse inspiration into a single voice, this recent personal exploration of black culture and music creates an “impressive stylistic synthesis…a new style...not as an established idiom, but rather as a new approach, a happy merging of apparently disparate traditions.” Working with writer/director Isaac Butler, choreographer Edisa Weeks, electronic musician Michael Hammond, film and video artist Malik Isasis and Xuan Zhang, The Grey Land will ruminate and comment more specifically on the larger longstanding systemic societal, economic and cultural issues the various police shootings and protests since 2014 have brought to a wider public consciousness. The composition is scored for 1 Mezzo Soprano Soloist, 1 Narrator/Speaker and the 26 musicians of Numinous, approximately 65 minutes in length and eventually recorded for New Amsterdam Records after the premiere.
Examples of themes The Grey Land will explore are: a choral lamentation on the concept of the boogeyman and “the fear of the Black male in America”; through the lens of “The Talk”, a meditation on the crisis of opportunity and expectations for minorities and their seemly narrow borders of identity in the broader social construct; a video and audio collage celebrating the resilience of blacks throughout history by, as James Baldwin wrote, “groaning and moaning, watching, calculating, clowning, surviving, and outwitting” with “some tremendous strength...nevertheless being forged, which is part of [black] legacy today”; a humorous fantasy that deconstructs the myth of the “magical negro” in contemporary media. Like Junot Díaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The Grey Land will be a compelling and vertiginous vision unifying the vernacular and the learned; it will strive to be a work of art that attracts not only the standard new music enthusiast, but also the communities of color who are so often absent from the stages and audiences of today's concert halls.
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The Loves of Pharaoh (2012)
score for Ernst Lubitsch’s 1922 silent film, commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) 2012 Next Wave Festival (Flute/Piccolo/Alto Flute, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet/Saxophones, Trumpet/Flügelhorn, Horn, Tuba, Vibraphone, Piano/Electric Piano, Harp or Celtic Harp, Acoustic & Electric guitar, 2 Female voices, String sextet (2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos) and Acoustic & Electric Bass) (also available for Orchestra) 100 minutes |
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Lost for decades, a landmark silent film lives again. Meticulously reconstructed, revered German auteur Ernst Lubitsch’s The Loves of Pharaoh (1922) returns to near-original form for Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)’s 2012 Next Wave Festival. A new score composed and conducted by Joseph C. Phillips Jr. and performed by 18 members of his acclaimed new music ensemble Numinous accompanies the screening of the film at the Festival.
Set in ancient Egypt, this monumental, super-spectacle features lavish sets and costumes and a cast of thousands. Emil Jannings (winner of the first Academy Award for Best Actor) stars as the brutal Pharaoh Amenes, who leads his country into war for the love of a Greek slave girl. With its six Acts flowing into one another over 100 minutes, the film weaves an integrated, almost operatic narrative. The new score, commissioned by the Next Wave Festival, mirrors and enhances the film’s dramatic and emotional themes in a more contemporary musical language and aesthetic.
“I am approaching the music in a different way than Eduard Künneke’s original score,” says Phillips. “Whereas the original score was a product of late-19th century Romanticism, my new score reflects a more diverse 21st century mixed music language. The music is more subtle and less melodramatic than the original, and also resonates with an emotional expressivity that more fully connects the actions of the characters with their subconscious thoughts and feelings.”
In this, Phillips cites Claude Debussy's Pelleas and Melisande as well as John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer as musical touchstones. “With their rich musical means serving the dramatic actions of characters, both internally and externally, those two operas are influential on some of my thoughts in scoring Pharaoh,” says Phillips. “And while moments are reminiscent of those influences, my score, however, is really more representative of my own voice and style.”
Set in ancient Egypt, this monumental, super-spectacle features lavish sets and costumes and a cast of thousands. Emil Jannings (winner of the first Academy Award for Best Actor) stars as the brutal Pharaoh Amenes, who leads his country into war for the love of a Greek slave girl. With its six Acts flowing into one another over 100 minutes, the film weaves an integrated, almost operatic narrative. The new score, commissioned by the Next Wave Festival, mirrors and enhances the film’s dramatic and emotional themes in a more contemporary musical language and aesthetic.
“I am approaching the music in a different way than Eduard Künneke’s original score,” says Phillips. “Whereas the original score was a product of late-19th century Romanticism, my new score reflects a more diverse 21st century mixed music language. The music is more subtle and less melodramatic than the original, and also resonates with an emotional expressivity that more fully connects the actions of the characters with their subconscious thoughts and feelings.”
In this, Phillips cites Claude Debussy's Pelleas and Melisande as well as John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer as musical touchstones. “With their rich musical means serving the dramatic actions of characters, both internally and externally, those two operas are influential on some of my thoughts in scoring Pharaoh,” says Phillips. “And while moments are reminiscent of those influences, my score, however, is really more representative of my own voice and style.”
The Fall of the House of Usher (1991)
A chamber "opera" based on the short story by Edgar Allan Poe.
(Tenor, Bass, Mezzo-Soprano & Chamber Orchestra)
A chamber "opera" based on the short story by Edgar Allan Poe.
(Tenor, Bass, Mezzo-Soprano & Chamber Orchestra)