Da Capo Conversations 2.0 with Corinne Whitaker and Elinor Armer

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 179: Da Capo Conversations 2.0 with Corinne Whitaker and Elinor Armer

Looking for a way to listen to diverse creators and to support equity in the arts? Tune in weekly to For Good Measure!

Today we revisit Corinne Whitaker’s and Elinor Armer’s perspectives on their artistic process. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Corinne Whitaker and Elinor Armer, check them out here and here. Parts of this episode originally premiered in July 2023, click here, and in January 2021, click here.

This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors, like you. Want to support For Good Measure and E4TT? Make a tax-deductible donation or sign up for our newsletter, and subscribe to the podcast!

Intro music: “Trifolium” by Gabriela Ortiz, performed by E4TT (Ilana Blumberg, violin; Abigail Monroe, cello; Margaret Halbig, piano), as part of “Below the Surface: Music by Women Composers,” January 29, 2022
Outro music: “Lake Turkana” by Marcus Norris, performed by E4TT (Margaret Halbig, piano), as part of “Alchemy,” October 15, 2021

Transcription courtesy of Otter.ai.
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1903729/episodes/18118935

Co-Producer, Host, and E4TT co-founder: Nanette McGuinness
Co-Producer and Audio Engineer: Stephanie M. Neumann
Podcast Cover Art: Brennan Stokes
Interns: Renata Volchinskaya, Sam Mason, Christy Xu

Chapters

• 0:31 Today we revisit Corinne Whitaker's and Elinor Armer's perspectives on their artistic process. Here's what Corinne Whitaker had to say.
• 3:03 Here's what Elinor Armer had to say.

Transcript

Nanette McGuinness  00:00

[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists, sponsored by a grant from the California Arts Council. I'm Nanette McGuinness, Artistic Executive Director of Ensemble for These Times. In this week's episode, we continue our Da Capo Conversations, a mini series where we'll be giving familiar segments a topical twist [INTRO MUSIC ENDS]. Today we revisit Corinne Whitaker's and Elinor Armer's perspectives on their artistic process. Here's what Corinne Whitaker had to say.

Corinne Whitaker  00:40

I have often been asked if the images used in my books are illustrations. In the usual sense, no, they do not refer specifically to any line or page. On the other hand, their location in the book is carefully chosen, and they all, like the artwork itself, reflect the heart and mind of a particular artist, at this time, in this place. Together, they form a picture of who I am, and what I am thinking and feeling. All art is autobiographical, in some sense. We may not always have the key to decipher it. If the work is compelling, it may, in fact, take years to understand fully. It helps to remember that photography as a fine art took 150 years to be accepted. I should add that I have always been passionately curious about tomorrow and the unknown. Where will it take us? What mysteries will we uncover? I can remember going through the birth canal with great anticipation, what's going on out there in the big world and excitement. Let me out of here. Don't restrain me. This is the spirit that fills my life to this day. I love experimenting with new materials and new processes. This is why I began, some three years ago, composing music using AI, artificial intelligence. It is what has prompted me, over the years, to try new materials like mirrors and brass for digital painting. It is why my newest body of work starts with a raw selfie, projects it into artificial intelligence, alters it digitally just to see where it will go. I have often been asked how long I will continue using the computer to create. I answer, as long as the magic continues, and the magic never stops.

Nanette McGuinness  03:03

Here's what Elinor Armer had to say.

Elinor Armer  03:06

My process, at least in terms of, I'll talk about setting poetry, because that's quite a specific process, not necessarily the same as my process with, you know, pieces that do not have words. I very much want to honor the poet and find the poet's voice, so I always start with setting the words. I, you know, I don't, I don't generally, you know, go to the piano and and, you know, poke around for chords or anything of that sort. In fact, I usually take the book that has the poem in it and write all over the poor damn book. I have, I have mutilated and marred many a poetry book just by doing this. I then sometimes also do what I tell my students to do, which is to copy the poem out triple space, you know, on a piece of paper, where they can then mess with it, and and before they write a note, write on that piece of paper, or nowadays, I suppose, they can do it, you know, at the computer, but somehow underline the important words, put bar lines before syllables that you think should be downbeats, sketch in little rhythmic motives that some of the words suggest, decide in larger terms, you know, A section, B section, that kind of thing, uh, and the poetry. Don't, don't mess, don't mess with it. I mean, iambic pentameter, it can only be pulled this way or that. It's not, it's not taffy. You know, you have to, there's a reason that poets use certain rhythms and meters, and you want to try to honor those. I do, however, sometimes have the musical phrase set an entire sentence or an entire clause, even if it stops short of a line ending, or goes beyond a line ending, because I think that helps convey the meaning when the poem is heard. In other words, it's kind of parsed according to actual sentences and clauses rather than line endings. Because I think the last thing I want to do in setting a poem is is to just be sing songy. I don't want the poem to set me and then, and then at that point, having having analyzed the poem and heard it in my mind a number of times, I then start sketching. But even then, the vocal line tends to come first. And you know, but I'm a harmonic fool. I'm just so crazy about harmony, that's been, that's been my curse and blessing all my life. Then I can't resist, of course, starting to graze at the keyboard and, you know, find sonorities that will, that will suit, but it's very important, I think, to have the overall, the large rhythm and the small rhythms of the vocal line before you have anything else. Sometimes I then, having, you know, found accompanimental material or or piano material that helps the imagery and also serves the vocal line, I then, you know, adapt it to the rhythmic needs and try to keep it, on the one hand, out of the way of the singer, but on the other hand, supportive of the singer. And in fact, occasionally I am at pains to have the piano part prepare the singer with a pitch that she's going to have to come in on. I hope I did that enough for you. You know, it's hell for singers to have to just find something out of thin air.

Nanette McGuinness  08:09

Yours was very easy to learn, so you did exactly what you were hoping. I've worked on some pieces where I really had to struggle to find pitches in the learning stage, and yours wasn't like that at all.

Elinor Armer  08:21

That's good, thank you.

Nanette McGuinness  08:23

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure's Da Capo Conversations, and a special thank you to our guests for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast by clicking on the subscribe button, and support us by sharing it with your friends, posting about it on social media, and leaving us a rating and a review. To learn more about E4TT, our concert season online and in the Bay Area, or to make a tax-deductible donation, please visit us at www.E4TT.org. This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors like you. For Good Measure is produced by Nanette McGuinness and Ensemble for These Times, and design by Brennan Stokes, with special thanks to Co-producer and Audio Engineer Stephanie M. Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure" [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS].