On Sunday, July 28, Interlochen's World Youth Symphony Orchestra will give the Interlochen premiere of "Condense Eternity" by composer Alex Berko.
Co-commissioned by Interlochen Center for the Arts and the New York Youth Symphony, "Condense Eternity" had its world premiere at Carnegie Hall earlier this year.
This weekend, the musicians of WYSO and conductor Rebecca Tong will take their turn at the piece.
Listen to Classical IPR's conversation with Alex Berko about "Condense Eternity" in this podcast episode, or read an edited transcript of the conversation below.
Amanda Sewell: This piece is actually about bridges - the Mackinac Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge. How did you choose that concept for the piece?
Alex Berko: When I was in high school, I spent some time in both Michigan and New York for summer programs. I actually was a student at Interlochen. This is very exciting to be able to come back as a guest composer and work with the students myself now on the other side of things.
The concept of bridges was intriguing because I know that both Michigan and New York have very important structures. Their bridges unify different parts of their land and really capture the story of the building and unifying of cities. I was inspired by the structure and wanted to try to create a piece that more or less sounded like a bridge.
AS: In this case, did the commission itself inspire the idea of the piece?
AB: That's correct. It's not super common that two organizations [Interlochen Center for the Arts and the New York Youth Symphony] will come together and commission a piece. So I wanted to make sure that I wrote something that felt like it each commissioning organization got to be a part of the piece.
The other component of the piece is the representation of bridges as these points of connection. They're a symbolic way to talk about people and generation and traditions connecting over time and creating a channel of understanding
AS: The title of the piece, "Condense Eternity," comes from a poem by Hart Crane. At what point in the composition process did this poem and this particular line come to you?
AB: I write a lot of music that has text in it already. So I have a bank of poems that I pull from.
Often, even if it's instrumental music, I'll find inspiration through poetry. So I can't remember if it was that I found the poem and then decided to write a piece about a bridge, or if I decided about the bridge and then found the poem, but I did find the title through this poem.
AS: You said you tried to make this piece sound like a bridge. How does one do that musically?
AB: Actually, while I was writing the piece, I had videos of both the Mackinac and Brooklyn Bridge playing. I just found YouTube videos of people driving through the bridge really slowly. And I thought of myself like I was scoring a film.
The music has these really long arches where it sounds like it's climbing for a long time and then descending for a long time, as if to mimic the actual shape of a bridge, and the the poles on each side and the cables.
I'm trying to imagine that if you're listening to the piece, you're going through the bridge as someone who's driving or walking through it.
AS: What else would you suggest people listen for?
AB: I usually don't like to tell people necessarily how to listen to music. For me, I'll spend a lot of time writing on the piano and writing into my software on my computer and then playing the music back, closing my eyes, listening to it, stepping back.
So whatever sort of washes over you in terms of that emotion that's attached to driving through those bridges or walking through those bridges is welcome.
Interlochen's World Youth Symphony Orchestra will perform "Condense Eternity" by Alex Berko on this weekend's program, along with Edward Elgar's "Enigma" Variations. The conductor is Rebecca Tong.
Listen to the concert live on Classical IPR Sunday, July 28at 7:30 p.m. EST, or attend in person.
