Hi, Line.Hi, Clara.And hi to you, too, who's listening.What you're about to hear is a second episode of two special episodes that we've made in collaboration with Copenhagen Phil, who paid us to make these two episodes.Ooh.Yes, fancy.
Theater influencers.Yes, that's right.
Then they got rid of the right-wing haters.
And they have, because they want to reach a wider, perhaps a younger audience than they're used to.And that's why they've switched to a project they call Melodrama.
If you haven't listened to the first episode of the series with instructor Christian Lolle, we recommend that you listen to it first, because then you can get a better idea of what kind of work this is, from the new world, melodrama number one, as it's called.
Yes, because in this episode we will go into more depth with the music.Yes.Dvorak's Ninth Symphony.It sounds very big and fancy.Did you know it beforehand?
No, when Copenhagen Phil and Mathias Westergaard, the composer who combined the new music, said that he was one of the big ones, I was like, mhm, give me this mic.
I also read, it's spelled D-V-O-R-A-K, I read it as Dvorak.Dvorak.Because how would you know it's Dvorak?And then swung.
If you don't know he's from the Czech Republic.
And who can speak Czech nowadays? I've heard a lot of Dvorak now.Have you heard four movements in this symphony? Not immediately.It's so crazy.It's really cool.It's very cinematic.But it's also cinematic in a way.
It's the theme of George, if you know it.
Is it real?It's not real.But you can hear that it's not exactly that, but it's the same concept.Let's call it that.Okay, funny. You can listen to it later in this episode, I would like to tease you a little.
And I have also searched if they are inspired by it.There is nothing that can say if it is.They are really inspired by it.But I'm sure it's him who wrote the theme for Jaws, he has heard it.
Yes, he has.I feel like film composers have heard all classical music.
Yes, and especially because this is obviously a well-known work.And I have to say, when I hear it, as I have with a lot of classical music sometimes, I think, oh, it's that one!
Yes, yes, 100%.And you also have that feeling, like when you hear a pop song that has been played in the background in many places, you think, I know it well.I didn't know it was that one, but I know it well.
And I just think this is insanely cool music, and it's no less cool to listen to composer Mathias Westergaard Tell us about Dvorak and how he wrote the new music that should... Pack the old in.Yes, pack the old in.
Lie between the old Dvorak pieces in his symphony.
You'll hear more about that in a moment.We've been to the first rehearsals of this piece, Melodrama No.1, at the Musikhuset in Vesterbro.
His fingers hammer over the tangents of the piano at a staggering speed, as he sits there by the big black plane.The tones rumble in the big, beautiful, rumbling concert hall in the music house in Vesterbro.
Around him are three different singers, who have gathered for the first time to sing the music he has composed for the Copenhagen Philz concert performance from the new world, Melodrama No. 1.
My name is Mathias Vestergaard, and I wrote the music for Dvorak's 9th symphony.We took the existing symphony by Dvorak, which is one that many people know in the classical world, and it is in four parts, four movements, and I was asked to write
five new movements around and in between the Dvorak symphony, where Christian Lolleke, the instructor, has written a text that is told in my music.In other words, a new narrative, a new narrative around and in between Dvorak's famous symphony.
Antonín Dvořák was a Czech composer who lived in the last half of the 18th century.His famous Ninth Symphony from the New World was performed in New York in 1893.His music was very popular and is still played in many concert halls today.
It's typically something really nice, beautiful, melodic, romantic, a bit sad music. Dvorak was really the shit in the end of the 20th century.One of the world's leading composers.
In the US, the classical music world was lagging behind, and many people thought that the US didn't really have an independent voice in classical music.
So there was a rich lady who paid Dvorak to come to the US and try to listen to what was going on there. and then write a symphony that could be a tribute to what is American music.
And Dvorak did that, he actually went out and talked to the local population, but also, what was it called, the Indians and the black liberated slaves, and listened to their music, spirituals and folk music, and so on, and found out, okay, it's actually here, Americans, this is where you should find the answer to your own independent American music.
And he proved to be right.So he used some of these melodies himself.He was inspired by these melodies in this symphony.
The 2-6-9 symphony is played a lot, because I think there's a really good story behind it, and it has that really good title from the new world.Already there, you're like, okay, there's something exciting about this.
And then there's that story, relatively sympathetic, about going out and trying to figure out what is the music of the American population, and how do we get the Americans to take all the serious music that is right around them.
And at the same time it's just filled with good melodies.
One of the sentences, the second sentence, is a slow sentence, which just has an incredibly beautiful melody, which is one that always ends on top 50 greatest classic adagios for spinning class or something like that.
So he was really, really good at writing good melodies.And also things that sound very spiritual-like.It's all very catchy and good musical drama and high tempo and great ideas.
I really love the beginning of the finale, because we've had these three first movements, which are each their own character, and express different emotions.
And then finally we get to this finale, which is supposed to release all this pumped up energy.And it starts with a crazy, pretty violent introduction, and then the biggest banger of a melody comes.
A really epic place, with all the horns playing unison.It just sounds really, really good every time.I never get tired of that place. ♪♪
And that is the famous piece Mathias is going to write new music to.Music that can play up to Dvorak's work, and maybe get people to listen to it with new ears.And he's not just going to write music.
He's also going to write music that can be performed by three very different singers.
This piece is about the story of how a voice fits into an orchestra.And what I think has been really exciting is that we have casted it so that these three performers have their own vocal starting point.
A classical soprano, a rapper and an actor with a musical voice.And it has been really fun for me to find Tonight we start undoing the future.
Tonight, we start our darkening flight.
Of course, I've studied every single bar and note in the symphony.And then I fell over two bars in the finale, and they go so fast.They last a split second, but there was a chord progression that was so poppy.
I thought, okay, I'll have to use that for something.So I took what was maybe 3.5 seconds in Dvorak and stretched it out so it was 3 minutes.And then I thought, okay, Simon is in.I had heard him sing in school comedies.
He's a fantastic singer too, and has that voice he has.And I thought, okay, I can make a big number with these sickly popped chords from Dvorak.And he can get permission to go all out on that.
There's a part in the piece where you get used to this more classical, film-like atmosphere.And then suddenly there's a real pop song where Simon can be a total rock star for a moment.It was simply too good a opportunity to miss.
Do we have a bigger potential? Consciousness still left room for opportunities Maybe we have yet to explore half of the rooms.Maybe we can go further, we can go longer, we can go
But even though there are rock stars in it, Mathias' music also has to go with Dvorak's 9th symphony, as the concert performance appears as a whole.
I think more or less 97% of the music somehow comes from Dvorak.It's simply another version of a melody or some chords or harmonies that I have worked on.So I use some of his melodies, stretch them, distort them and take them to new places.
So the music is my music, but all the material comes from Dwarfshark.So it's a very ecological symphony.It's all about reusing old melodies in new environments.
There are some pieces that you absolutely shouldn't play, but I think that Dvořák's Ninth Symphony is so much everyone's own in the classical world of music, that I haven't had any bad intentions to go in and play it, because this symphony is so famous.
And he was such a successful composer, so I can tolerate that.And that's also because a part of the task for me was that my work had to merge seamlessly with Dvorak's.So there are no breaks in the music at all.So I also had to constantly
At the end of my first movement, I knew I had to move to a place where it sounded natural for the Dvorak symphony to start.So I had to keep making this transition music back and forth.
I like to think of composition as something very plastic, where you modulate, take some chords and play with them in a direction, until they turn into Dvorak music. With this piece, I wanted to see if I could go in a cinematic direction.
Both because Christian's narrative is so strong, and there's also video on it.It was fun for me to experiment with how far I could go with this. It's a bit of a Hollywood-like direction.So I think it's been very successful.
There are some beautiful, quiet, lyrical places, and at the same time there are also these brutal, criss-crossed and big-shot moments along the way.But all the time where I've tried to There once was a man.His name was Antony.
He lived in a small town in Bohemia in Europe.As a child he fell in love with music and started playing the violin.
Soon he became more interested in writing music and at the age of 20 he finished his first composition.Soon he was composing in many genres and styles.He became very recognized, world famous even.
I think my work process is a pretty funny thing to talk about, because I always forget when I've actually done the work.Because often I go with my ideas in my head for months without writing anything down.
And then first, when I notice that there is a deadline approaching, it fades out of me.And that's also how it's gone with this piece.
I've had the text for a long time, and then I've gone and thought, okay, it's probably going to be like this and this and this. In the last few months, before the deadline, I thought, I have to start writing it down.
Luckily, I've been able to trust the first drafts I've received.I didn't want to change anything after I finished it.I think it holds up as I had hoped.
But one thing is to sit and let the ideas roll over the paper and become new compositions that make up half of Copenhagen Phil's melodrama project.
Another thing is, when it suddenly has to be formed and performed by the three singers of the project, Simon Matthew, Ala Ghaemi and Julianna Sarah.
Not to mention when it has to be transformed into a collected work by instructor Christian Lolke, who primarily has worked in the world of theatre.
I knew that because I was going to work with Christian, who is an instructor that I really respect, there were probably some places in the work where I had to be a little flexible.
Because there were things I thought, okay, this could well be that we continue to work with this when we have the singers or performers in the room.
And we've also found out that it's actually the case here in the rehearsals, that there are places where there are some transitions that we could make fatter and things like that.So there are some places in the notes where it's also flexible.
Okay, should we use that chord or should we not use that chord?Should we have this strange music or should we have something less strange music while he says this?So it's a work that can come from different places.
But I would say that most of it is solid.
Especially because it's not just Mathias who will play at the concert.His compositions will be performed by Copenhagen Philharmonic, a very large orchestra.
The orchestra is really not excited if you want to change things at the last minute.It's a huge machinery.100 people have been practicing for months to do it really well.
So if you come on the day before the concert and say, hey, let's just cut these ten bars.I'm not going to say that it can't be done, but it's just not a good style.
So you'd better be aware of how it all should go in a good time, so they have time to get it into their heads.
And it's still a good time?
Yes, I think it's still a good time. I don't want to start correcting the notes, but all the adjustments we're doing now are things where you can just cut somewhere else in the music or just repeat a beat or something.
Try to make as many of those kinds of solutions as possible, because it's a little easier than when the whole orchestra suddenly has to have an extra half side to cut and paste somewhere else.With this work, I've tried to think
as safe as possible, so we don't have to stress too much about the music.So I think the musicians will probably accept it.And Comet Greenfield is famous for being a very open orchestra.They're not very conservative, and they're in for the worst.
So I think they'll probably accept my ideas.I love writing for symphony orchestras.Personally, it's just an amazing feeling when there's 100 people, work with what you've made yourself in your underpants at three o'clock at night.
So I'm actually looking forward to it.I have a pretty good feeling about this work.I think every time I've presented something, people have received it well.And I think the musicians should do the same.So I'm really looking forward to it.
It's been a lot of fun to work with.Sometimes I've been a little stressed about finding find out what exactly the right idea was, the one that could get me to the right place.But I actually think that it has been a lot of work to put it all together.
You imagine a 3x4 meter cross in a way.It's a lot of work, so it's also that satisfaction you get when you just guess one word, without noticing that you're still missing one billion fields, but just that joy of getting that one thing in place.
It's a lot like I've experienced here as a composer, this cross-work.
Mathias Vestergaard, Christian Lolleke, the three singers and Copenhagen Philharmonic still have a few months to solve the big puzzle before the premiere on November 9.
I dream that this work will be a huge surprise for the audience, because in a way it is a symphony that has been played a billion times, so the audience is used to it, knows it by heart, but then there are all kinds of new things, elements without it.
And those who have never heard a symphony before, they will first hear Can we cease to be individual beings?Can we alter our minds?Can we change color?
Can we stop war?Can we change our destiny?Can we avoid disaster?
Can we rip open the gates of the future?And change time?And change time?
And there I will scream my dreams, scream
It's like we're going to a pop concert.It's a mix of pop and classical music.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Dvorak's old music is mixed with Mathias' new composition, and how he's worked to weave it together.I'm excited to see if you can sense when it's going to be one or the other.I think it's going to be beautiful.
Especially when there's the cinematography, which we also make videos of.And something with some projections and stuff.Something we've only seen pictures of so far.It looks really cool.I'm looking forward to it.
It's November 9th, as I said, you can experience this work.And if you're under 30, there are actually crazy discounts at the price.It only costs 75 kroner.
for the very best seats.And I have to say, it's a one-day-only opportunity.It plays twice on Saturday, and then the next melodrama comes out.
Yes, exactly.So you shouldn't sit and think, I can't wait to see what the reviews say.You have to, when you've heard these two podcasts, if you think it sounds very exciting, then you have to go for it.
Well, Clara, that was our special episode, which was made in collaboration with Copenhagen Film.Yes, and it was made with support from the AP Møllerske Støttefond.
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