For Good Measure

Valerie Liu - Part 1

March 27, 2023 Valerie Liu Episode 43
For Good Measure
Valerie Liu - Part 1
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For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 43: Valerie Liu (part 1)

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 Valerie Liu about how her connection to the natural world, visual arts, literature, and ancient cultures, inspire her compositions and her process for her composition “Cassandra Effect" (written for E4TT’s “Cassandra Project”). If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Valerie Liu, check her out here: www.valerieliumusic.com . Parts of this episode originally premiered on April 2022, 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're joined by Valerie Liu, who we spoke to in April 2022 [INTRO MUSIC ENDS]. Your compositions are inspired by a strong connection to the natural world, visual arts, literature, and ancient cultures. How do these affect your music? What's your process for a new piece such as your excellent"Cassandra Effect," which you wrote for E4TT is "Cassandra Project"?

Valerie Liu:

Okay, composing passes. I'm not sure if this is true for others, but I always find that I spend majority of my time working on the beginning part of the piece, I want to find an idea, I really like that everything else comes after it just naturally flows from it. Therefore, the initial idea of a piece has to inspire me deeply, so that I feel compelled to develop it and finish it. Since subjects that deal with nature, visual arts, literature, ancient culture always inspired me. I want to write music that expressed or celebrated for the Cassandra Project, I turning to the subject immediately. Cassandra was courageous, passionate and powerful. Her story was very inspiring to me and deeply affecting my muse, I will approach it from an emotional perspective, structure in four sections. The first section is meant to be powerful, passionate character. To express the idea, you have this gift, your imagine this power can change the world. The second section is quiet the more reflective pondering on this idea, not being believed by anyone. But speaking the truth is perhaps worse than not being able to speak it. Your gift is your curse, you don't have peace, you start to lose hope. The third section shows power and passion returns, you feel hopeful. Again. The last section is really hard for me to write. The musical structure was really simple. But it was emotionally difficult. It is haunting. To express the idea. You have to make peace with your powerful gift, even though no one was a knowledge it. And you briefly wonder if death is the only solution to your curse so that you can finally rest. I was thinking of Cassandra, how alone she was with her gift. But I also think it applies to an artist lifestyle. You create an art to express but people may not understand. They may even reject what you have created. But in the end, I think that's okay. Because artists understand their gifts they believing in their work. So it is okay to be alone in this.

Nanette McGuinness:

Very profound. And that fits"Cassandra Effect," too. Do most of your pieces have a dramatic arc, or was that specific to"Cassandra Effect?"

Valerie Liu:

Majority of my piece always have some kind of dramatic arc. But Cassandra has a bigger heart has a bigger effect. I just really love her story, and how you can relate to her?

Nanette McGuinness:

Yes. A voice crying in the wilderness. Yeah. No, that's true. I think every woman I've spoken to relates to Cassandra and feels her to be a touchstone in one way or another. When you use Visual Arts for your inspiration, how does that work? Do you have a picture in mind?

Valerie Liu:

Usually, I do have a picture in mind. Like for the Tosi effect, I will was actually had this picture because I saw this picture at a museum. And he was such an interesting picture. So that night, I was thinking of the picture, and he was just, you know, I'm hearing something in my head. And so I thought maybe I should write a piece about that picture, or how it affects me. So yeah, it's usually something I encounter upon on or, you know, notice, that is around me. Yeah. Because I think my struggle is always at the beginning of a piece, just to find a great idea to start, it's, once I started, everything else kind of went pretty smoothly. It's just the beginning, I had to do a lot of researching. And if I do know, the instrument I'm gonna be writing for I would do a lot of research. Before I start, yeah. Or if you know, someone you're writing for, you will really research on that person. And just, you know, kind of see how that performance is. So then you can buy something that they might like to do. Or they might like to play. Yeah.

Nanette McGuinness:

And then the piece tells you what it wants to do how it wants to end once you figured out how it should start.

Valerie Liu:

Yes, that's so true. Because I was writing my orchestral piece, the middle section, I wanted to go somewhere else. But the piece speaks for itself. He I need to go here. It's really weird, but I really want to go somewhere else. But the piece said, No, you have to go here and you it has to be this way. It has to be the strings were together and has to be this, this kind of sound. So I just kind of went that way. And then it turned out better than the

Nanette McGuinness:

Writers talk about a character that pops in and won't do what they want, insists on going in a different direction, and even takes the story or the plot completely differently from what they'd planned. I imagine it must be very much the same kind of thing.

Valerie Liu:

It's it's a very strange feeling. Yeah.

Nanette McGuinness:

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Dawn Norfleet 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]

Your compositions are inspired by a strong connection to the natural world, visual arts, literature, and ancient cultures. How do these affect your music? What’s your process for a new piece, such as your excellent “Cassandra Effect,” which you wrote...
Do most of your pieces have a dramatic arc, or was that specific to “Cassandra Effect?”
When you use visual arts for your inspiration, how does that work? Do you have a picture in mind?
And then the piece tells you what it wants to do, how it wants to end, once you’ve figured out how it should start.