THE RETURN OF 'FUN CHRIS'

There was roughly a four year period where I was composing a lot of serious material. The Lost Birds was heavy subject matter that required a lot of emotional investment. That was followed immediately by two high pressure commissions, both of which were creatively restricting in different ways: first, my completion of Giacomo Puccini's unfinished opera Turandot (commissioned by Washington National Opera), in which I had to somehow fill the shoes of one of the greatest opera composers in history in my very first opera commission. And secondly, filling my own shoes in the next installment of the Civilization franchise, while working under a new design team that was much more hands-on in directing the concept, lyrics, and even the melodies themselves than in previous Civilization iterations.

I was chomping at the bit to for a project that would let me compose free of creative restraints, and to frankly write something a little more uplifting and joyous. What really made up my mind was a pair of concerts I conducted in Vilnius, Lithuania with the Bel Canto Chorus Vilnius and Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra. The setlist featured a lot of my serious material, including The Lost Birds and To Shiver the Sky. But when it came down to standing on the podium, I found the most happiness in conducting my 'bangers', so to speak: "Baba Yetu", "Waloyo Yamoni", "Kia Hora Te Marino", and more.

I decided after that concert that I wanted to get back to writing more fun material--and fortunately, I had the perfect commission waiting in the wings for me to do so. Joel M. Rinsema, Artistic Director of Denver's Kantorei, had approached me with a commission for a 25-minute choral work with absolutely no creative strings attached. I was free to choose the subject matter, the text, and musical style I was going to compose in, with absolutely no restraints other than to keep the accompaniment to about 4-5 instruments.

This is, of course, the type of commission that brings out the best in me, and the reason why a lot of my best pieces are the ones written for my albums, like 'The Drop That Contained the Sea'. It's also the reason why in the last few years, I've gradually been declining more and more scoring projects, even parting ways (amicably) with my film and video game music agents. I just want to write music with the sole purpose of being good music, and to be the sole musical authority, while choosing the themes and concepts that I want to compose about. Total artistic freedom.

GET BACK TO WHERE YOU ONCE BELONGED

It was also around this time when I rediscovered my childhood love of The Beatles. Peter Jackson's 3-part documentary "Get Back" had recently come out, and all my musician friends were raving about it. I watched it, and something powerful happened--I was reminded why I became a musician in the first place. Watching John, Paul, George and Ringo come together for three incredible weeks and write song after song under immense pressure was inspirational, and motivated me to channel a bit of their creative energy into my commission.

What I also particularly love about The Beatles, and indeed, the entire era of classic rock, is that there was an eagerness to experiment with pairing rock music with other genres of music: from world music, to gospel, and even to classical music. There was also an enthusiasm for thinking in high-concept ways--whether through cutting social commentary ("Animals" by Pink Floyd), religion ('Tommy' by The Who) or even paganism ("Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin), there was a certain creative fearlessness that appealed to the rebellious side of me.

So after obsessively rediscovering The Beatles catalogue for a few weeks, and after filling my sails with a creative energy that I hadn't felt since I was a teenager, I was finally ready to start composing. I wanted to write a choral piece with a bit of that classic rock flavor: with great melodies, that was relentlessly fun to belt out as a singer, and with lyrics that maybe even leaned towards the psychedelia of the 60s a little. I said to Joel "I'm really sort of feeling like I just want to write a ton of ear worms for this one," and he said: "Go for it." I needed a great set of poetry to set, though... and fortunately I had one tucked away in the back of me head that was perfect for this commission.

GITANJALI ("SONG OFFERINGS")

'Gitanjali' is a gorgeous book of poetry by Rabindranath Tagore that I first encountered when my friend Garry Schyman set a text from it. It was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, which made Tagore the first non-European (and to date, the only Indian) to receive the award. The first time I heard an excerpt from it, I knew I had to set it to music someday. Check out this stunning verse, from Gitanjali 69:

'Gitanjali' was the perfect text for this new commission. The poems were filled with beautiful images and sentiments that cascaded in endless rhythms, and just leant themselves to being sung. The subject matter was perfect as well for choral music; it's a collection of poems that are about love of the divine (and what's particularly great is that it's left vague as to who exactly your deity actually is). And frankly, as lyrics, they don't sound out of place next to a lot of the songs from The Beatles catalog (e.g. "Across the Universe", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Strawberry Fields Forever").

One notable little songwriting trick I learned from watching Paul McCartney and John Lennon at work in 'Get Back' was a particular way they had of combining disparate ideas for songs with each other by just, well, throwing them together. There's a scene in the movie where Paul has written the main verse and chorus for "I've Got a Feeling", and knows that there needs to be something new in the middle, but doesn't have an idea what it is. John says he's started writing a song called "Everybody had a hard year", but it was just some scattered repetitive fragments, and didn't have any sort of structure. So they basically combined their two songs, sticking John's contribution in the middle of Paul's.

Inspired by these guys (my heroes, I have to admit), I employed this exact same technique in three out of the five movements of 'Song Offerings' (I. Let My Country Awake, II. This Rhythm, and V: Joy):

MUSIC FOR BELTING WITH YOUR FRIENDS

"Song Offerings" differs in a major way from my other works; it was written with live performance in mind. And I don't necessarily mean by choirs, on a stage, in a formal concert. On a certain level, I was channeling another formative childhood musical memory--impromptu singing with my friends, jam session style.

I did my undergrad at Stanford University, where I music directed an incredible a cappella group called Talisman. We had an amazing run when I was a part of the group; we recorded an album, got an invitation to sing at the 1996 Olympic Games, and even did a short tour as the backing choir for Sinead O'Connor and The Chieftains. But my best memories of that group were actually the relaxed, casual moments just jamming; someone would start to sing a pop song, everyone else would join in with their harmonies, someone else would do a little vocal percussion, and suddenly we'd all be having a great time making music and just being goofy about it. (Most musicians probably know what I'm talking about.)

I poured a little bit of that love into "Song Offerings". There is a lot of call-and-response, which is sort of one of Fun Chris' go-to devices. There are effects like vocal dives and 'whoa-oo-whoa' moments that come purely from the a cappella arranger's playbook. And there's a whole lotta belting.

Kantorei seemed to have a lot of fun with it too. They even got their meme game on:

THE INSTRUMENTAL LINEUP

Instrumentally, I had a hard time deciding what instruments I would use to back up the choir, as having an orchestra handy is sort of my default state. So to keep within the parameters of the commission, I had to find a handful of instruments that would let me write idiomatically the same way I like to write for orchestra. That ensemble turned out to be a rather unusual one: piano, two cellos, and a double bass. (It can also be performed with just piano, by the way.)

The accompaniment is very heavy and insistent. The piano bangs out a lot of full chords, rock anthem style, to really hammer out the syncopated rhythms. The double bass is highly active (I played jazz bass in high school and college, and I always liked to be extremely melodic like my hero, Paul McCartney). The two celli give me lyrical counterpoint when I need it, but also power-chord-style accompaniment when necessary. And if I ever needed three part harmony in bowed strings, the bass would just shift to arco. And finally all these low strings would reinforce the bottom end for those high school and community choirs that might be a little thin on tenors and basses.

This is a piece, by the way, that I'd love to see covered and rearranged in wild ways. I believe that great music should be transplantable to any and all ensembles, genres, and singers, and still hold up as great music. Someday I'd love to hear it covered by a gospel choir, or a cappella group, or done almost like staged musical theatre. I'd love to hear an arrangement with a rock band: with guitars, rhodes, hammond, semi-hollow bass, drums, with lots of delay pedals and leslie speakers. I'd love to do it with a full orchestral arrangement as well, and have that on my long-term to-do list.

I also believe that great music should be impossible to get out of your head. That once you start hearing the opening notes of a great melody, you can't help but sing it to yourself all the way through. That's what I learned from The Beatles, and that's what I was going for with "Song Offerings".