Guest Artist Spotlight - An Interview with Emma Lou Diemer
Jeannine: I am fascinated with the story of your life – your "knowing" from an early age that you wanted to play the piano and compose. I find it is rare for a person to "know" so clearly their life's course. How did you come to the decision to focus on composition as your life's work?
Ms. Diemer: Making music at the piano was one of the most important activities I liked to engage in as a young child. Of course I loved being in/with my family first of all, and also was very active in physical activities of the home-grown variety: biking, sledding, softball, running, etc. And I liked to read, and even had an early ambition to be a writer. And we had many experiences as a family taking trips together. And I loved going to the movies--who doesn't? But there were no home computers at that time to take me away from the piano.
And there was a lot of musical activity in my family: all able to play instruments and sing. Going to the piano, creating sounds, was my principal interest from perhaps 4 or 5 or earlier. If there is not a piano, or some other instrument, but especially a piano, in the house a young person with creative musical ability will not be discovered nor will she/he discover that she has it. My first piano teacher, Mabel Payton, in Kansas City, wrote down my first little pieces and taught me bigger pieces by rote until I learned to read music.
Singing is important--and most of us do that in school and church--but for a composer to develop there must be an instrument on which to explore harmonies and melodies and ranges and textures. When I was 13 or so--a crucial age in one's life--I decided to be a composer, and have never waivered from that goal. Making music allowed me to create sounds of my own and to express all manner of feelings and to create something that no one else had created.
Jeannine: You are known as "one of America's most gifted women composers." What was it like working in what was primarily a "man's occupation?" To find your own voice? To quote, "When I decided to be a composer, I knew there were great men composers and naturally I would become a woman composer."
Ms. Diemer: Thank you. I don't know if that is true, but the first desire and motivation was to create music, and one doesn't really think of gender when that is the case, so I didn't discourage myself from being a composer even though the music I liked, played and heard was almost always by men. And in music school, at the time, women composers were a bit rare. Again, that wasn't a deterrent to me, and I wasn't aware of discrimination on the part of the male faculty .
I think if one is sure enough of one's self and one's ability, and determined enough, the path is pretty clear. That doesn't mean that through a long life one accomplishes all that one sets out to do, but "never give up" is a good motto to live by.
Jeannine: You have composed prolifically for organ with works numbering in the hundreds including 18 collections of hymn settings. With my interest in the music of early America, your organ settings of 19th-century American hymn tunes are some of my favorites. How did you choose the tunes to include?
Ms. Diemer: It was the composer and editor, Dale Wood, who encouraged me to set more 19th century hymn tunes. One reason may have been that they are public domain. But also I think there was a need to appeal to church goers who knew the familiar, tuneful music, and the "old tunes", particularly those with an American background, have a comfortable presence. Dale may have suggested some of the tunes, but I believe I looked up most of them, choosing ones that were well-made, or catchy, or that needed "sprucing up" to make them more interesting.
Jeannine: Your hymn tune settings for the organ are at once accessible yet challenging for the performer and listener alike. Would you please elaborate on your compositional philosophy in these organ works?
Ms. Diemer: Every composer is told by publishers of church music to write for the average player and to make it accessible. But it is sometimes hard to limit oneself to simple harmonies and rhythms, and much more "fun" to be creative and let imagination run its course in using counterpoint and variation. I like to use different styles and explore a bit in form and contrast, and to write pieces of varying levels of difficulty.
I noticed that Dale would arrange the pieces in a collection with a rather easy one first, saving the more challenging one for last. Hymn settings are almost the only instance of my use of "borrowed material" since I try to be original and "think up" new melodies for my other music. When I'm writing a hymn setting I am very influenced by the text and its meanings, and play the hymn over a number of times before beginning a setting that will be in a certain mood and have a certain character and make use of the motives and structure of the hymn.
Jeannine: I find that your organ music places emphasis color and timbral interest. The registrations with your music take the player "out of the box" and encourage the use of the organ's colors in new and inviting ways. Also, many of your pieces include MIDI suggestions. Would you elaborate please?
Ms. Diemer: The beauty of organ music is indeed the possibility of varied color and timbre. Registrations aren't always indicated but one hopes that the player will be inventive and know which parts, which lines should have a certain color or emphasis. I became interested in synthesizers in the 1970s and was happy to add available sounds to the pipe organ at church. These have become better through the years with the use of digital sampling, and perhaps the time has come that organists are more willing to experiment "out of the box" and be less "purist" in regard to pipe organ sound. Of course there is nothing to equal the sound of a fine pipe organ, but to be able to add very low pedal sounds or guitar or strings is an enhancement.
Jeannine: In addition to being known for your compositions, you are also an organ recitalist. What is it like to play concerts of your own organ repertoire in places like the National Cathedral?
Ms. Diemer: Like every composer, I always felt that some of my concert pieces were made for a large organ in a big setting with a lot of reverberation, so it has been exciting to play in some of the cathedrals that offer that. As you know, one of the most enjoyable aspects of playing a new organ is trying to be creative in registration, much like orchestrating. But it's rather amusing that even with the largest instrument one can imagine there is always some particular sound that is wanted and can't be found. I have never had a position of organist in a large, reverberant cathedral, and believe it would have inspired some different inspirations of texture and effect.
Jeannine: You were recently at Eastman School of Music as the Composer-in-Residence at the 2010 Women in Music Festival. What an honor. Are there women following in your footsteps as composers for the organ?
Ms. Diemer: Eastman has probably the largest organ department in the country with c. 40 organ majors and several fine pipe organs in the school and community. When studying on my doctorate in composition there I had one year of organ study with David Craighead and learned so much! Dr. Craighead came to the concert of my works at the Festival and the organ students lined up to talk with him. The organ works were played by students on the Craighead-Saunders organ at Christ Church. Some women have written organ music, both concert works and church pieces. There should be more. But learning to play and to write for organ is, as you know, a specialized field and requires quite a bit of knowledge about how an organ works. But some women have written at least one work for organ. It is interesting that not many major MALE composers have written much for the instrument.
Jeannine: What are your goals for the future? More organ music, I hope.
Ms. Diemer: Yes, I need to write some more organ music. A new tack, just recent, was my taking one of my organ pieces and orchestrating it for the Westmont College orchestra, here in Santa Barbara, for performance at the end of April. I would like to orchestrate more of the organ pieces because the music is already written!
Jeannine: Where can an organist find your music and recordings?
Ms. Diemer: A good source is joandeveedixon.com. Joan commissioned many of the organ and organ plus instruments works and has all the recordings on her website. I have some listings at amazon.com. If you type in my name they come up. My website is emmaloudiemermusic.com. A lot of my music is published by Zimbel Press, and that publisher has many organ composers in its catalog and would be of interest to many organists. Augsburg Fortress is another source, and the Lorenz Corp. which has put the older collections from their Sacred Music Press division on print-on-demand including the early American hymn settings that you like.
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Jeannine: I am fascinated with the story of your life – your "knowing" from an early age that you wanted to play the piano and compose. I find it is rare for a person to "know" so clearly their life's course. How did you come to the decision to focus on composition as your life's work?
Ms. Diemer: Making music at the piano was one of the most important activities I liked to engage in as a young child. Of course I loved being in/with my family first of all, and also was very active in physical activities of the home-grown variety: biking, sledding, softball, running, etc. And I liked to read, and even had an early ambition to be a writer. And we had many experiences as a family taking trips together. And I loved going to the movies--who doesn't? But there were no home computers at that time to take me away from the piano.
And there was a lot of musical activity in my family: all able to play instruments and sing. Going to the piano, creating sounds, was my principal interest from perhaps 4 or 5 or earlier. If there is not a piano, or some other instrument, but especially a piano, in the house a young person with creative musical ability will not be discovered nor will she/he discover that she has it. My first piano teacher, Mabel Payton, in Kansas City, wrote down my first little pieces and taught me bigger pieces by rote until I learned to read music.
Singing is important--and most of us do that in school and church--but for a composer to develop there must be an instrument on which to explore harmonies and melodies and ranges and textures. When I was 13 or so--a crucial age in one's life--I decided to be a composer, and have never waivered from that goal. Making music allowed me to create sounds of my own and to express all manner of feelings and to create something that no one else had created.
Jeannine: You are known as "one of America's most gifted women composers." What was it like working in what was primarily a "man's occupation?" To find your own voice? To quote, "When I decided to be a composer, I knew there were great men composers and naturally I would become a woman composer."
Ms. Diemer: Thank you. I don't know if that is true, but the first desire and motivation was to create music, and one doesn't really think of gender when that is the case, so I didn't discourage myself from being a composer even though the music I liked, played and heard was almost always by men. And in music school, at the time, women composers were a bit rare. Again, that wasn't a deterrent to me, and I wasn't aware of discrimination on the part of the male faculty .
I think if one is sure enough of one's self and one's ability, and determined enough, the path is pretty clear. That doesn't mean that through a long life one accomplishes all that one sets out to do, but "never give up" is a good motto to live by.
Jeannine: You have composed prolifically for organ with works numbering in the hundreds including 18 collections of hymn settings. With my interest in the music of early America, your organ settings of 19th-century American hymn tunes are some of my favorites. How did you choose the tunes to include?
Ms. Diemer: It was the composer and editor, Dale Wood, who encouraged me to set more 19th century hymn tunes. One reason may have been that they are public domain. But also I think there was a need to appeal to church goers who knew the familiar, tuneful music, and the "old tunes", particularly those with an American background, have a comfortable presence. Dale may have suggested some of the tunes, but I believe I looked up most of them, choosing ones that were well-made, or catchy, or that needed "sprucing up" to make them more interesting.
Jeannine: Your hymn tune settings for the organ are at once accessible yet challenging for the performer and listener alike. Would you please elaborate on your compositional philosophy in these organ works?
Ms. Diemer: Every composer is told by publishers of church music to write for the average player and to make it accessible. But it is sometimes hard to limit oneself to simple harmonies and rhythms, and much more "fun" to be creative and let imagination run its course in using counterpoint and variation. I like to use different styles and explore a bit in form and contrast, and to write pieces of varying levels of difficulty.
I noticed that Dale would arrange the pieces in a collection with a rather easy one first, saving the more challenging one for last. Hymn settings are almost the only instance of my use of "borrowed material" since I try to be original and "think up" new melodies for my other music. When I'm writing a hymn setting I am very influenced by the text and its meanings, and play the hymn over a number of times before beginning a setting that will be in a certain mood and have a certain character and make use of the motives and structure of the hymn.
Jeannine: I find that your organ music places emphasis color and timbral interest. The registrations with your music take the player "out of the box" and encourage the use of the organ's colors in new and inviting ways. Also, many of your pieces include MIDI suggestions. Would you elaborate please?
Ms. Diemer: The beauty of organ music is indeed the possibility of varied color and timbre. Registrations aren't always indicated but one hopes that the player will be inventive and know which parts, which lines should have a certain color or emphasis. I became interested in synthesizers in the 1970s and was happy to add available sounds to the pipe organ at church. These have become better through the years with the use of digital sampling, and perhaps the time has come that organists are more willing to experiment "out of the box" and be less "purist" in regard to pipe organ sound. Of course there is nothing to equal the sound of a fine pipe organ, but to be able to add very low pedal sounds or guitar or strings is an enhancement.
Jeannine: In addition to being known for your compositions, you are also an organ recitalist. What is it like to play concerts of your own organ repertoire in places like the National Cathedral?
Ms. Diemer: Like every composer, I always felt that some of my concert pieces were made for a large organ in a big setting with a lot of reverberation, so it has been exciting to play in some of the cathedrals that offer that. As you know, one of the most enjoyable aspects of playing a new organ is trying to be creative in registration, much like orchestrating. But it's rather amusing that even with the largest instrument one can imagine there is always some particular sound that is wanted and can't be found. I have never had a position of organist in a large, reverberant cathedral, and believe it would have inspired some different inspirations of texture and effect.
Jeannine: You were recently at Eastman School of Music as the Composer-in-Residence at the 2010 Women in Music Festival. What an honor. Are there women following in your footsteps as composers for the organ?
Ms. Diemer: Eastman has probably the largest organ department in the country with c. 40 organ majors and several fine pipe organs in the school and community. When studying on my doctorate in composition there I had one year of organ study with David Craighead and learned so much! Dr. Craighead came to the concert of my works at the Festival and the organ students lined up to talk with him. The organ works were played by students on the Craighead-Saunders organ at Christ Church. Some women have written organ music, both concert works and church pieces. There should be more. But learning to play and to write for organ is, as you know, a specialized field and requires quite a bit of knowledge about how an organ works. But some women have written at least one work for organ. It is interesting that not many major MALE composers have written much for the instrument.
Jeannine: What are your goals for the future? More organ music, I hope.
Ms. Diemer: Yes, I need to write some more organ music. A new tack, just recent, was my taking one of my organ pieces and orchestrating it for the Westmont College orchestra, here in Santa Barbara, for performance at the end of April. I would like to orchestrate more of the organ pieces because the music is already written!
Jeannine: Where can an organist find your music and recordings?
Ms. Diemer: A good source is joandeveedixon.com. Joan commissioned many of the organ and organ plus instruments works and has all the recordings on her website. I have some listings at amazon.com. If you type in my name they come up. My website is emmaloudiemermusic.com. A lot of my music is published by Zimbel Press, and that publisher has many organ composers in its catalog and would be of interest to many organists. Augsburg Fortress is another source, and the Lorenz Corp. which has put the older collections from their Sacred Music Press division on print-on-demand including the early American hymn settings that you like.
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