Bringing the story of Joan of Arc to life through music

Friday, October 11, 1996

MUSIC:

Medieval group, composer join forces to create innovative
scoreBy John Mangum

Daily Bruin Contributor

Accidents happen.

And, for composer Richard Einhorn, an accident brought him the
greatest success of his career ­ a work inspired by a film
about the final trials of Joan of Arc.

"In the early ’80s I wanted to do a piece about religion, and I
didn’t know exactly what the best way to go about that was,"
Einhorn says. "A friend of mine suggested Joan of Arc as a subject,
and I really didn’t think that was a good idea."

But something happened that changed Einhorn’s mind.

"In 1988, I was researching another project in the Museum of
Modern Art and I came across Carl Dreyer’s film, ‘The Passion of
Joan of Arc’ by sheer accident. The only thing I can say is I hope
you sometime have that experience of coming across something that
great and not really planning for it. You’re just totally blown
away by it, at least I was."

Einhorn’s encounter with the film unleashed a passion for its
subject in the composer. The result of his work can be experienced
this Saturday evening at the Veterans’ Wadsworth Theater, when the
medieval vocal group Anonymous 4 joins orchestra and chorus under
the direction of Lucinda Carver to present Einhorn’s oratorio
"Voices of Light."

The work weds music and film, presenting Dreyer’s work
simultaneously with the oratorio. Before "Voices of Light," more
than 20 composers created scores for the film, most of which
Einhorn believes did not do justice to ‘Passion.’ The composer is
careful to distinguish between these conventional film scores and
his work.

"A traditional film score would never work with this movie,"
Einhorn says. "The best approach I could have was to do something
that combined both the music and the film together, but to have my
music have its own integrity, its own rhythms, its own life. The
only thing, basically, that I did was have it last the length of
the movie."

Fascinated with the film and determined to create a unique
musical work worthy of it, Einhorn embarked on the rigorous process
of research, combing bookstores for material connected to Joan of
Arc. He was specifically interested in her inquisition, abjuration
and execution, the parts of her life featured in Dreyer’s film. He
pieced together several texts, including excerpts from Joan’s
letters and the transcripts of her trial, into a libretto that
reflects his subject’s mystical qualities. He also came upon a
unique way of rendering her voice musically.

"We don’t know whether she had a high voice or a low voice. I
had these texts, texts that I set to music from letters of Joan of
Arc, actual words that she wrote. Whenever Joan of Arc sings she’s
neither a soprano nor an alto. She’s both at the same time."

With such a specific sound in mind for Joan, Einhorn’s "ideal"
proponents were Anonymous 4. This group of four women specializes
in early music and has researched medieval French performance
practice for their own concerts and recordings.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would ever be in
a position to have (Anonymous 4) involved in this project," Einhorn
says. "But then Sony got involved in recording it. During our
planning stages, I remembered that I had Anonymous 4’s sound in
mind, so I spoke to my producer and I said, ‘What do you think?’
and she said, ‘Well, let’s call ’em up.’

"It turned out that we got along immediately ­ I mean
literally, immediately. They walked in the door, they sat on the
floor, laid on my sofa, just basically hung out, and we started to
talk. I showed them a little bit of the movie, played them a little
bit of the music, and the next thing I knew, they were
involved."

In spite of the group’s association with medieval music and the
fact that Joan of Arc hailed from the 15th century, Einhorn reminds
his audience that his work is not an attempt to parrot early music.
He asserts its uniqueness, hoping that for listeners, it will
transcend the limitations of classification.

"My desire is really to write music that floats outside any time
period," Einhorn says. "The whole point of the language of ‘Voices
of Light’ was for somebody who heard the music to say, ‘Gee, that
sounds like medieval music’ and then you go, ‘No, well wait a
minute. Medieval music doesn’t quite sound like that. What’s going
on here?’ and then you say, ‘Well, it’s gotta be modern music, but
wait, if it’s modern music, why does it sound so medieval?’

"People that care about going out and seeing something new don’t
care so much about categories. What they care about is whether or
not the experience speaks directly to them, and I think that that’s
what’s important."

EVENT: Richard Einhorn’s "Voices of Light" with Anonymous 4,
Saturday, Oct. 12, 8 p.m. at Veterans’ Wadsworth Theater. For
tickets or more information, call (310) 825-2101.

UCLA Center for the Performing Arts

Composer Richard Einhorn

"I had … texts that I set to music from letters."

Richard Einhorn

Composer