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William Carlos Williams' Paterson: Episode 17 ("beat hell out of it, beautiful thing") is the inspiration for the title. However, my composition is really inspired by the small upstate town of Hudson, New York.
This little town on the banks of the Hudson River about a two hour train ride from New York City, is presently at 7000 people, but despite its small size Hudson has led a very out-sized life. From it's founding by Quakers in the late 17th century, a center of whaling activity, almost becoming the capitol of New York State (missed it by one vote), the 8th largest city in the US by 1790 (the 4th largest in NY as late as 1820), and famous in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, as THE notorious center of vice, especially gambling and prostitution, in the Northeast. Described very colorfully in Bruce Edward Hall's book, Diamond Street: The Story of the Little Town with the Big Red Light District, those rackets were mostly broken up in 1951 after surprise raids of Hudson whorehouses by then-Attorney General Thomas Dewey and the State Police netted many people including several local policemen. After a serious decline in the 60s and 70s, Hudson, which boasts the "finest dictionary of American architecture in New York State," underwent a major revival with the renovation of many houses and buildings and now boasts a wonderfully active arts scene, many antique shops, art galleries, and restaurants.
Beautiful thing (she has no actual name, just this honorific), the protagonist of the William Carlos Williams' poem, is a woman "first beat up then molested in the course of a three-day drunken debauch." Despite her difficult life, she does possess a spirit which cannot be taken away from her and while reading the poem, I thought of many similarities between "Beautiful Thing" and an imagined prostitute early in Hudson's history. Proposing the idea to Joy, we worked together on a possible "story" of a young woman without many opportunities or choices, who despite having to sell herself is "waiting for a wonderful moment" that will lead her to her dream of the "great glittering world down the mighty river."
Joe
The title says it all! I returned this morning from the National Performing Arts Convention (NPAC) held from June 10-14 in Denver and had a wonderful and inspiring time. This was the second NPAC Convention and it brought together thousands of arts administrators, musicians, dancers, actors, executive directors of theater, opera and orchestra, to meet and "lay the foundation for future multi-disciplinary collaborations, cooperative efforts, and effective advocacy." The first convention was held four years ago in Pittsburgh and apparently it was mostly attended by administrators and executive directors of organizations, not the most diverse crowd to tackle the above issues. This time the American Music Center, the American Composers Forum, and Meet the Composer spearheaded a successful effort to achieve more participation by individual artists, so our particular voices and issues could be heard.
I enjoyed sitting in small cross-disciplinary caucus sessions and as often is the case, talking with people after the "official" duties brought some of the most interesting discussions on what is new music, the philosophy of the LA Philharmonic, micro-brews, and Madonna (ok, I made that last one up). One night after all of the meetings, with a few other composers, I headed uptown? to hear a wonderful new music group called The Playground (in residence at the University of Denver) perform Paul Hindemith, George Crumb, and Tom Waits in an art gallery/design studio/former garage with free beer and cookies! The closing session featured a great two song performance by jazz singer Dianne Reeves (although it was a little disappointing to see so many people leave as she was beginning; I hope they just had to catch their flights rather than leaving because it was (gasp!) "jazz").
Overall it was inspiring to meet other composers from all over the country (as well as from NYC) as well as other non-musicians. I want to thank Molly Sheridan, Joanne Hubbard Cossa, and all of the good folks at the American Music Center who asked me to be apart of the composer coterie.
For an overview of NPAC as it was happening, straight from the bloggers fingers, go to the Arts Journal weblog or NewMusicBox (good reading, I promise).
Joe
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