For Good Measure

Darian Donovan Thomas - Part 4

November 14, 2022 Darian Donovan Thomas Episode 24
For Good Measure
Darian Donovan Thomas - Part 4
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For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 24: Darian Donovan Thomas (part 4)

Looking for a way to listen to diverse creators and to support equity in the arts? Tune in weekly to For Good Measure!

In this week’s episode, we talk to Darian Donovan Thomas about his works “Fluid” (written originally about the Guano River) and “Etudinal Caprice” (performed on E4TT’s 2021/22 season opener). If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Darian Donovan Thomas, check him out here: darianthomas.myportfolio.com . Parts of this episode originally premiered on December 2021, found on Youtube, click here.

This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors, like you. Want to support For Good Measure and E4TT? Make a tax-deductible donation or sign up for our newsletter, and subscribe to the podcast!

Intro music: “Trifolium” by Gabriela Ortiz, performed by E4TT (Ilana Blumberg, violin; Abigail Monroe, cello; Margaret Halbig, piano),  as part of “Below the Surface: Music by Women Composers,” January 29, 2022
Outro music: “Lake Turkana” by Marcus Norris, performed by E4TT (Margaret Halbig, piano), as part of “Alchemy,” October 15, 2021

Transcription courtesy of Otter.ai.

Producer, Host, and E4TT co-founder: Nanette McGuinness
Audio Engineer: Stephanie M. Neumann
Podcast Cover Art: Brennan Stokes
Interns: Roziht Edwards and Merve Tokar

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Nanette McGuinness:

[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists sponsored by grant from the California Arts Council. I'm Nanette McGuinness, artistic executive director of Ensemble For These Times. In this week's episode, we continue our conversation with by Darian Donovan Thomas, who we spoke to in November 2021. [INTRO MUSIC ENDS]. Water is such an important issue for the Western Southwest becoming even more so now with the increasing impact of climate change. Could you talk about your moving work"Fluid" and its inspiration? What was it like bringing it to Iceland?

Darian Donovan Thomas:

There's a bit of a funny story about that piece, actually. So in San Antonio, in particular, like we care a lot about the river and the school, I went to the University of Incarnate Word, there's like a whole curriculum based on the river that gets inserted into all of our schooling, which is interesting. And so it's just a thing that also because like the origin of the river is actually at my school, the Blue Hole, like the wall, where it starts is that Incarnate Word. And that's part of why people started settling there. But it's, it's weird, because it's like, it's the thing. That's the origin of the city. It's like the spine of the city, but also, it's so commodified, and so touristy, but no one really goes there who lives there. So it's a weird relationship if you live there. And one day, this venue that I loved for a long time, and was on the river on like a cooler part of the river. The owner had called me up and was like, hey, the San Antonio River Authority is going to be having like a party here. And I wanted to make it kind of fancy, because the bar was very much dive bar vibes. And he was like, I want to make fancy. And if you could, like, make something, that'd be really neat. And I was like, Yeah, sure. When When is this? And he's like, it's like, this weekend? And I was like, oh, okay, how much music do you want? He's like, Yeah, like 45 minutes. And I was like, okay, so and you, you probably don't have a budget, right? He's like, no, no, like, okay. And in my head, I was like, this is an absurd ask. I should probably say no to this. But also, I'm about to move to New York. And I have all these ideas of like merging pop music, and like, electronics and sound and all this together. But I don't have an example of it in practice. And I don't really have like, I don't, I felt like I didn't have a piece that really represented me at that aesthetic moment in my life. So I kind of just stayed silent for a bit and then was like, Okay, well, I'll do it and locked myself in my room and created that three movement work. And the workflow just felt kind of beautiful. It was easy to base it off of like, this entity that I've been around all the time, the river, and also basically kind of on its history, right of like, here's something that was originally on the guano River, which means refreshing waters, and create that refreshing sound of like before people interfered with the river. And then create this poem, spacey, hazy, identity, tight, middle movement of like, here's the river being segmented off and interacted with by so many different people who are using it for such different purposes. The time that the river was just like a source of crime, the time that the river was cleaned up, and no one could go there, the time that the river became like tourists Trappy. And then the last moment of just like, I guess, it's touristy now. And that's what it's gonna be. But also knowing that like the river can change into something else in the future. This constant movement of water anyway, so it's really readily in firing and help me get through the scenes the somatic work of what the piece was supposed to be. I just sat there in my chair with my laptop open was rebellious, and my violin in my lap and to my left with my midi controller, and on my desk was my computer with logic, my producing software open. And I would just do that for the whole week. And then I performed it and it worked. Very happy. But it actually worked. Like it's good to know that I can do this before I go to this major city where this may be asked me more often. And then later taking it to Iceland was really remarkable. The earth there is just so strong. It's uh, you know, I don't really know how to explain it still, but like to know that the land is so calm, and so pretty, and there's so many rainbows everywhere, but also that it's extremely volcanic and underneath the soil, and underneath the earth, like all these crazy tectonic things are happening is really humbling. And to be on a waterfall and performing this work, it's about this river back home, which is not, it doesn't feel as viscerally intense as the landscape in Iceland, Philly, really beautiful amplification of the piece. And like, here's a way to feel this in a deeper way. And also like being nested on and there's a video of me performing it, and I'm in short sleeves, but it definitely was like 20 degrees and freezing cold when I was recording it, but it just felt like okay, I'm becoming a part of this, like, river identity, a part of this thing that's just constantly moving and free. And despite its environment, it's going to keep going, you know? Yeah, I really love that piece. And I'm really glad that other people are performing it now to kind of feels like the logical next step of I performed it and I've performed it around the world. And now people are taking it and performing it for a little festivals we like for digital premieres during the past year, and I'm just so happy for the other violinist Hans.

Nanette McGuinness:

E4TT's 2021-22 Season opener included your beautiful "Etudinal Caprice"? Could you tell us about it?

Darian Donovan Thomas:

Sure. That work is really old. That it's like being performed and recorded, and then finding this new life now. There's something really comforting about that. Actually, the people are down to just go to my SoundCloud and find things and be like, Oh my god, can we perform this? Like, wow, yes. You know, anyone who would want that? It's, yeah, the process of making it was definitely more I would say like, academic almost, it was kind of a self assignment during school where I wanted to make something, I had this idea of what piano music sounded like in my head. But I realized I'd never written it. And so I wanted to figure out, okay, well, what can I do to pull this sound out, and to prove to myself that sound actually even exists. And I thought, like making an etude would be cool. But I also kind of want it to be flashy. So it should be a priest type thing. And then, when I tracked that, I wanted to be two priests, like, I thought of the as violinists the Panini 24th. And I was like this, this is cool, because it's segmented off into different sections. So it gets to be a lot of different things. And maybe it'd be cool to make an etude. That's like, asking a person to work on a lot of different things at the same in the same piece, but with the same theme, you know. And then also knowing that like, as a composer, I'm participating in a tweet as well, because it's like, can I create these different worlds? Can I create these different spaces and sounds in the same piece, but make it all feel connected. And if I can do that, then I think I have a shot at being a decent composer. And yeah, and then I just kind of wrote it very swiftly, lots of pieces in college happened very fast for me. And when I was done, I was really happy with it. But I couldn't find anyone near me to play it. And then I kind of just gave up on it for years. But of course, as many of my composition teachers have told me, like, never throw anything away. Always keep the file nearby. And like, just keep things in the drawer because you never know when you might need something. And yeah, like this year, people started reaching out about performing it and using it, like Wow, really gifted to be surrounded by a lot of amazing pianists who can pull it off. And yeah, just got its allies now.[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Darian Donovan Thomas for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast by clicking on the subscribe button and support us by sharing it with your friends, posting about it on social media and leaving us a rating and a review. To learn more about E4TT Our concert season online and in the Bay Area where to make a tax deductible donation, please visit us at www.E4TT.org. This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors like you. "For Good Measure" is produced by Nanette McGuinness and Ensemble for These Times, and designed by Brennan Stokes. With special thanks to audio engineer extraordinaire Stephanie Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure." [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]

Water is an important issue for the West and Southwest, becoming even more so now with the increasing impact of climate change. Could you talk about your moving work, “Fluid” and its inspiration? What was it like bringing it to Iceland?
E4TT’s 2021/22 season opener included your beautiful “Etudinal Caprice.” Could you tell us about the piece?