Behind the Curtain with Brennan Stokes - Part 3

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 97: Behind the Curtain with Brennan Stokes (part 3)

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 continue our conversation with E4TT Assistant Director and For Good Measure podcast cover artist Brennan Stokes. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Brennan Stokes, check him out here: https://soundcloud.com/brennan-stokes.

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.

Co-Producer, Host, and E4TT co-founder: Nanette McGuinness
Co-Producer and Audio Engineer: Stephanie M. Neumann
Podcast Cover Art: Brennan Stokes
With assistance from Hannah Chen, Sam Mason, Renata Volchinskaya

Transcript

Nanette McGuinness  00:00
[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists sponsored by a grant from the California Arts Council. I'm Nanette McGuinness, artistic executive director of Ensemble for These Times. Today we continue our interview with E4TT assistant director and For Good Measure cover art designer, Brennan Stokes. [INTRO MUSIC ENDS] I get that you get a lot of your ideas from the text, both musically and thematically. Do you get them other ways? Or is that the primary way? And would you consider yourself primarily a vocal composer right now?

Brennan Stokes  00:45
I think right now, yeah, most most of my, my recent output has been vocal and again, I think vocal music kind of encompasses my, my flair and fondness for theatrics and drama and words, and the you know, the the lines that are being being delivered along with the the musical component that's helping to drive or, or be that kind of outside force that's maybe fighting or in conflict with the vocalist. There's lots of kind of fun shades of music and drama that can be brought out with, with these, these kind of the warlock, like the ensemble and the vote in the voice. And I can that's, that's been really fun to, to dive into and, and explore kind of how, how these how these things can can support each other and they can be in sync and in step with each other supporting the same emotion or idea, or one, you know, undercutting the other or being somewhat at odds or being maybe a different element to what the other is doing.

Nanette McGuinness  02:03
Showing the conflict in the characters or the speakers thoughts, perhaps?

Brennan Stokes  02:08
Or it's always fun to to have two entities interacting with each other.

Nanette McGuinness  02:17
Yeah. Are there any poets you're currently reading and interested in?

Brennan Stokes  02:22
Tyler Kent White is a really phenomenal poet with some kind of shorter verse and, and things. His poetry, I think the book Songs With Our Eyes Closed, is a really wonderful book. And Sarah Kay is another really great poet kind of similar to Teasdale - reminds me very much kind of this really kind of concise, beautiful, poetic language and especially the way it sounds, because reading poetry out loud, especially as always a fun, fun thing to kind of hear and kind of how the mouth moves around the structure and the kind of the dance of of how these poets you know, craft, craft language, it's especially the the language that we that we use every day. But you know, when it's intentional, and just when it's when it's elevated into this more artistic form. It just makes even reading it out loud, that much more, more fun,

Nanette McGuinness  03:33
Creative and all that productive. You grew up in Southern California; you got your Master's in Composition from the Conservatory here in San Francisco - are the musical or composition scenes different in the two parts of the state? What's to like? Does one region do something better than the other? And has the musical landscape changed during your time here?

Brennan Stokes  03:55
Yeah, I definitely have always felt that the kind of the greater Los Angeles area and particularly Hollywood has been a scene for looking for a kind of what I call like music for media. You know, you have music for the movies or for short films, you have people needing music for their podcasts and, you know, intros, you have people, you know, ads and TV streaming, there's there's music that's needed for something. And having talked to even a few composers down there. The there's a classical music scene, but I think especially in the Bay, the Bay Area just has such an incredible thriving new music, especially new classical music scene

Nanette McGuinness  04:40
That's for sure.

Brennan Stokes  04:41
And just, they're well supported and well attended. There's so many kind of, there's so many events, I think just smaller venues in a concise area that people can attend so many concerts featuring new music with new ensembles and existing ensembles - I think there's a really supportive nature in the Bay Area with kind of camaraderie in the new music scene. That's, that's been really beautiful to experience and witness and continue to kind of watch. I think just due to the the sprawling nature of Los Angeles County, it does make it a little more difficult to have people, you know, if you're saying, Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna host an event down in Long Beach. But you know, if most of your friends live in North Hollywood, in Pasadena, or all the way up in Santa Monica, you know, depending on the time of day and traffic, and there's many, many elements that go into the scheduling even, you know, going out for coffee with friends, let alone concert attendance.

Nanette McGuinness  05:46
Yeah.

Brennan Stokes  05:49
And the I just have my, my, even though my years here, starting at the Conservatory in 2017. To now there's just still been such a, a gracious and open new music scene. That's always been really inspiring to know that, you know, new music is very much alive and well here in the Bay Area, and there's lots of great talent and room; there's always there's always there's room for new and emerging composers to get their their music out there.

Nanette McGuinness  06:22
Yeah, you're right. Who or what were your major compositional influences? Who are you listening to? Who were you listening to?

Brennan Stokes  06:32
I think composition wise, particularly for my in my undergraduate years, I did a lot of listening to solo piano repertoire of Beethoven, Ravel, Chopin, are definitely major influences. I think for for me, I always appreciated Beethoven's ability to continue to just push the envelope of his time, from the first Sonata all the way to the last one, there was there's always a moment where you go, "what?" He just surprises he just kind of just shakes you up a little bit and you go like, my, like, how did you manage to surprise me at Sonata 32 when I thought I was you know, I just thought we were you know, in this together. And I thought I'd you know, I heard all your tricks - and there's, there's always a fun twist that I'll throw in there. That is just really inspiring, and kind of some of the larger being able to kind of look and kind of see like, like, "how did he do this? Like, what did he do that makes us so effective?

Nanette McGuinness  07:46
[In Agreement] "How do you set it up?"

Brennan Stokes  07:47
Yeah. And then Chopin: there's a small book called I think Chopin's Musical Style that later that Chopin was very invested in interested in Belcanto opera. And then kind of made it made me kind of realize, like, "oh, well duh, ike that makes total sense" with just the, the fluid and florid nature of you know, these just cascading right hand, you know, serpentine just, you know, beautiful lines that he creates, over a kind of an agenda, kind of a steady kind of left hand for the most part. And just yeah, just the being able to appreciate just this very free, yet metered approach to, to piano music. Again, we're Beethoven is definitely think in the on the percussive side of the instrument most of the time, and the rhythm and the rhythmic. The rhythmic side of things. Chopin just brings us just immense lyricism and a lyricism that's not strictly bound by the voice, but really kind of finally kind of gave the piano its own its own voice and just having this really I mean, if there was a singer that could have the same flow, florid range of the piano and be able to sing some of these lines that would also be incredible.

Nanette McGuinness  09:13
Yeah.

Brennan Stokes  09:15
But just really appreciating the kind of that tender fluid quality that that has been, you know, kind of gifted to us via Chopin. And again, and also realizing that most of his music is in kind of song form that there's largely kind of a large ABA structure to even like most of the skirt says, and even some of the larger pieces, there's still this overarching kind of a song form organization. But I think also just you know, continues to have mass appeal to those of us who listen to it because when, when you know, we have this really cool first theme or section then he manages to take us on a journey in between and then when we come back so that, you know that first melody, you know, we we definitely know where we're at - it's not quite as I think disorienting or as confusing as the some, like larger architectural structures and things. So I think there's a level of kind of keeping it on the simple structure side that I also have learned to appreciate, with Chopin and you can still do really fun and fancy things. But not let it get lost in the sauce.

Nanette McGuinness  10:32
No mystery so that you can focus on the lyricism or whatever, instead of on trying to puzzle out the structure.

Brennan Stokes  10:38
 Yeah.

Nanette McGuinness  10:39
[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Brennan Stokes, 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, or 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 co-producer and audio engineer Stephanie M. Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure." [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]