A link to the full concert on Youtube is below…
Interview by Carter Schmelz 6 JUN 2023
After the 21 APR 2023 Little Creek Navy Base Concert of Beyond Courage, Kakehashi: That We Might Live
General Questions:
What inspired you to be a composer, and how long have you been one?
I began writing music all the way back in 1975 when I was in high school. Since then, I have written 1,329 pieces. (as of today.)
What is your favorite aspect about working with younger ensembles rather
than more professional groups?
I actually consider those to be the same thing, believe it or not. The truth is that I love kids. Younger groups have the heart that is necessary to tell the stories in the music, but so do properly conducted/inspired professionals. The 52 STORMWORKS Albums are testaments to that.
Beyond Courage Questions:
Were you asked by the Japanese government to write this piece or was it a project you had been pursuing on your own?
After having written “Musashi”, a work about a famous Japanese swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer, artist, and rōnin, the Japanese government contacted me and said, “We want to make a Stormworks CD”. Having just written a work for the ex-POWs, I challenged the Japanese Military Musicians. “You know how people talk about Music being a universal language, and healing, and bridging worlds? Well how would you like to do something that ACTUALLY heals, actually pushes the Brotherhood of Humanity forward?”
Can you imagine it? I asked them to record, of all things… “BEYOND COURAGE!” This boldness went through many channels, and eventually to the Ministry of Defense. No longer just a “musical” question, it now involved the government, namely, the Military of Japan. This process took 2 years of translated email communications with the Japanese Ministry of Defense. In fact, I kept documented records of the exchanges, called “The History of History”. This book holds 200 pages of discussions with the Japanese government over 2 years. We literally rehashed all of WWII in the Pacific. It is a compelling piece of History, then, now, and always.
How much historical research had to be done in order to write the piece?
Much! I have many books on the subject, over 40 hours of archival footage, and all sorts of personal paraphernalia given to me by the Men. I asked several WWII veterans and others alive during that time what they heard on the radio. Remember, this is all PRIOR to their 3.5 years of imprisonment. If you listen to the piece again, you will hear selections leading up to the Surrender… but then, after that, they are lost in Time. All of the pieces we normally associate with WWII are not in the “Documentary”. Do you see?
It is historically accurate from the perspective of the ex-POWs. That is why I use the “Meanwhile, Back in America!” section, to show what Americans at home were experiencing. In that section, and much needed, was an original song that Hannah sang, called “In the Stars”. It is a love ballad emanating from Rockefeller Center, and from the perspective of a POW’s wife; specifically, Ms. Niña Bañegas. Lorenzo Bañegas begins the work, singing with his brother, the only song (a corrido) ever written in captivity. Mrs. Bañegas gave me a cassette with the only recording!
Alternatively, you take the song “Slap the Jap''; so offensive; but, it was part of American propaganda during World War II. All of these emotions and events and propaganda and racism, and yes, outright lies, which are documented in the DVD, are what prompted these young Men, and those to follow, into action.
I understand that you wrote a sequel to Beyond Courage. Could you explain a little bit about the piece?
Last World Standing - (from Chapter 13) - A 33-minute piece received an 18-minute standing ovation at its premiere in Linz, Austria at the Brucknerhaus. You have to remember that at the time (WWII), around 50% of Austria supported the Nazis, and the other 50% supported the Allies. Even in that mixed audience, I went for the TRUTH about War and how Evil it is. The piece uses a technique I invented called PhotoRHYTHM™. A percussionist “plays” the Photographs.
There were precisely 1000 photos used, spanning War from the Time of the Revolution to the present. The work illustrated, quite viscerally, just how disgusting and devastating War is. Following “Beyond Courage, Kakehashi: That We Might Live”, “Last World Standing” is a Plea for Peace; In other words, what is our world like when all War is finally done… What is the “Last World Standing?”
Other Questions:
Have you written or are writing any other long historical works? -
There are so many works. Look at Chapter 3, an album that lays out the history of the Bible. “Godspeed” is followed by, “In the Beginning”. Then, in the Timeline of the Bible, we find pieces called, “DAVID”, “The Speech of Angels”, and “WAIT of the WORLD”. Yes, there is much History. Also, check out “FOREVER STRONG, a Tribute to the USS Indianapolis”, another historically accurate 33:17 piece dedicated to the survivors and legacy of the USS Indianapolis.
What advice do you have for young composers and musicians?
Write something every day. If you want to be a composer, you cannot fake Real. If you think it’s “cool” to be a composer and that you’re going to create the next style or the next trend or fill a marketing niche, don’t even bother, because it’s all going to be fake. You’ll fool the current, transient “in crowd”, but as Time passes, your music will be long forgotten. You must listen to and understand WHY Beethoven is played today, 253 years later.
Imagine if I had written Beyond Courage, Kakehashi: That We Might Live, a piece about the Bataan Death March, and I didn’t include the true history… didn’t eviscerate myself, suffer in some tiny fraction of what THEY suffered, surrender myself to the Music those Men needed? Real Music is Blood.
Do not write it unless you offer the world a needed message. That would be like writing a piece about the latest invasion, or homelessness, and not including any of the pain of actually being invaded or surviving on the streets; just so that the “composers” (note the small “c”) can pat themselves on the back and say “Look how sensitive I am. Look how compassionate and wise I am.” Gobbledygook! In MUSIC, you cannot fake Real. You cannot hide your Heart and True purpose. All is revealed!
Coming up with a nifty title, a splashy piece of cover art, and a “story” for the program notes, do NOT a piece of Music make. (I may have inadvertently started this trend with photo-covers and Music deployed in PDF as far back as 1992-93. Everyone wants to be first to be second. I may go back to simple titles and opus numbers. We shall see. I used EPS. PDF came from Adobe in 1996.)
Regarding “Beyond Courage”, the idea from the commissioners was originally for the piece to be six minutes! What?!? Six minutes? How do you tell such a complex, layered story, and give those Men what they deserved, having survived and not survived, such great Suffering and Sacrifice, in that short amount of time?
Of course, now the work is 93 minutes in total on the DVD. But, you see, the people who write and play music for trends and markets and “spaces on the program” would probably have preferred the 6-minute version. No! If that’s your motivation, you’re missing the entire point of writing Music! Remember, every day is a triumph for the mediocre. But like Musashi, you must deeply contemplate what you will set to ink. After you have developed your craftsmanship of course.
For Music-makers of any kind, instrumentalists, vocalists, conductors, and composers, there are two elements that you must have simultaneously. On the one hand, you have tuning, intonation, and all of the technical skills and knowledge, etc. On the other hand, you have the Heart, the emotion, the psychology, the mind, and Soul. Neither can exist without the other.
Extract the technical, the craft, and architecture of the Beethoven 9th Symphony, and we are left with people screaming and crying on stage. Two-hundred and fifty-three years later, all is long forgotten. Extract the emotional outpouring of Beethoven, his intensely compelled need to share his Vision, and we are left with an exercise in the first 5 notes of the major scale. But carefully joined together, Humanity is left with a treasure, a reminder about itself, that all Men shall be Brothers.
Thank you for this interview!
Godspeed!
Stephen Melillo
See the full 21 APR 2023 Little Creek Navy Base Concert, featuring JFK HS Wind Ensemble, directed by Walter Avellaneda, and Clarence HS, with chorus directed by Amy Fetterly & Wind Ensemble by Louis Vitello. here:
Kakehashi: THAT WE MIGHT LIVE is a part of STORMWORKS Chapters 5:8 - Writings on the Wall, recorded in Japan by 143 World Class Musicians of the Japanese Military and 300 Chorus members from Shenandoah and Old Dominion Universities in Virginia. Listen on STORMTracks. Investigate the piece here: KTWML.