If globalism were an artistic category, it might be a good fit for local composer Hilary Tann and her music, at least judging by the facts. “I'm a Welsh woman living in America with influences from Japan,'' she says.
But when Tann speaks, it's with a calm, thoughtful centeredness, a quality that also characterizes her music. And so Tann doesn't really bring to mind globalism with zipping and pinging electronic networks, frenzied free trade zones, and all that so much as she evokes the Earth itself.
“I can't write if I don't have the image. That's the seed,” Tann says, and her imagery is almost always nature. For example, her large catalog of works includes orchestra pieces with titles such as “Adirondack Light,” “The Open Field” and “Through the Echoing Timber.”
Tann's latest work in the genre, “From the Feather to the Mountain,” was commissioned and premiered by the Empire State Youth Orchestra in March and will be given an encore performance Saturday night at the Palace Theatre in Albany, where the ESYO performs on a program of the Albany Symphony Orchestra.
“From the Feather to the Mountain” was inspired by pen-and-ink drawings by the late local artist Arnold Bittleman. Both composer and artist communicate a breadth of perspective but also an immediacy of time and place.
“I really like the piece,” says Helen Cha-Pyo, ESYO's music director and conductor, who approached Tann last year with the idea of a concerto for orchestra. “She really captured the essence of what we wanted, but she had enough freedom to imagine what she wanted.”
The ESYO project is one of a series of recent and upcoming events in the Capital Region for Tann, who has been a faculty member of Union College in Schenectady for more than 20 years. Also in March, Max Lifchitz premiered her piano piece “Light from the Cliffs.” And on Thursday May 26, the Meininger Trio of Germany will perform a concert at Union College featuring Tann's “The Gardens of Anna Maria Louisa de Medici” for flute, cello and piano. That concert will mark the release of the trio's new CD featuring four Tann works.
“I can only describe both her and her music as charming, kind and peaceful, and with a soulful inner depth,” says flutist Christiane Meininger, who first approached Tann through her Web site (http://www.hilarytann.com). “I simply felt that a person with such a beautiful home page, a charming picture of herself with her dog, surrounded by nature … could only write beautiful music. This turned out to be absolutely true.”
Handy at haiku
When Tann speaks, she often uses her hands. As she describes the ESYO piece, its landscapes and mountains, she rolls her hands and arms in the space on either side of her body. When she gets to the clouds and mentions Debussy, her arms are extended high and her hands are gently, slowly turning.
“That sound of a single line, the landscaping of a single line,” she says as a hand circles in the air.
Simplicity of expression is a fascination for Tann. It's rooted in her Celtic heritage she was born in a coal-mining village in South Wales and has found fulfillment in the culture of Japan, specifically the shakuhachi, a bamboo flute, and in haiku poetry. Both have become more than mere pastimes.
Tann took up the shakuhachi in 1984, and six years later went to Japan, where she taught traditional Japanese music. “She knows more about it than most Japanese, and that's no hyperbole,” says David Bullard, Tann's husband of three years who is also a longtime student of Japanese language and culture.
As for haiku, the little poems take up a relatively large space in Tann's creativity. For almost 10 years, she has been part of the Route 9 Haiku Group, a collective of four poets that meets monthly at Tai Pan restaurant on Route 9 in Halfmoon. Their leisurely meetings usually last five to six hours; each member brings a dozen or more new haiku, which are read aloud and discussed. Food and fellowship are also part of the mix.
“Simplicity is a strong value in haiku,” says John Stevenson, a member of Upstate Dim Sum, who is also editor of Frogpond , the journal of the Haiku Society of America. “Hilary's clarity of expression is very marked … and she really focuses on the way the poems sound when they're recited,” he says. Stevenson also edits Upstate Dim Sum , the semiannual journal of the Route 9 Haiku Group. (See box on Page XX for information on obtaining a copy.)
“Haiku keeps me in the moment,” says Tann. “With composing, one is always projecting ahead. It pulls me back to the `a-ha!' of the day.”
Predates United States
In her office at Union College, Tann's desk and piano are covered in scores, recordings, student assignments and administrative paperwork. That's where she does business. But Tann's composition studio, located in the “Apple Cottage” behind her home in Schuylerville, Washington County, is a model of order.
On the music rack of her upright piano where she composes are a half-dozen snapshots and postcards of Welsh landscapes and coastlines. The room is decorated with a mix of traditional Japanese and early American furnishings.
The swirl of nationalistic flavors continues in the property's main building. Known as the Marshall House, it was built in 1763 and is the vicinity's only surviving building that predates the Revolutionary War.
It's been in the family of Tann's husband since 1930.
“The living room was a field hospital for the British during the revolution,” says Tann. “As a Brit, I come over and have this idea that I know history … but this house predates what we know of as America, and I have a sense of belonging to this house.”
As she speaks, Tann perches on the bench of a small pipe organ in the living room. Displayed on the mantel are three fist-sized cannon balls that hit the house in battle. Bloodstains from wounded soldiers are said to be hidden by the rug.
“I think of the people that came over with hope and vision. … When prayerful people wanted to establish a new land. … I like being here. This land. This house,” she says as she jabs her finger at the space in front of her.