JAKE HEGGIE | Interview
For the month of April 2023, we have been featuring the art song and work of Jake Heggie, American composer extraordinaire, on our social media channels. Unfailingly kind, he generously answered our questions about composing art song in the 21st century in this beautiful interview.
S&WC: How did you start composing art song? What drew you to this genre and vocal music more generally?
JH: I was making up songs from the time I was a little kid, because I always found immense joy and connection through singing. Back then, in the 1960s, I was listening to the pop music and musical theater all the time. I didn’t know about art song or classical music — it wasn’t in my household at all — but I knew about the power of storytelling through song. My first idols were Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Julie Andrews ... and then Linda Ronstadt, Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Jim Croce, Cat Stevens ... great solo singers who were incredible storytellers. They also had that magical gift of not just singing a song — but becoming the song.
I started composing in earnest — writing down my ideas — when I was about 11 years old. In 1972, just before my 11th birthday, my father died by suicide. With emotional shrapnel and confusion everywhere, I found solace, company, support, and community through music. I sometimes felt lonely — but never alone. By then I had found Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, Mozart, Schubert — I felt like I knew them, and they understood me. I started writing piano pieces and songs to my own texts. I thought I’d grow up to write musicals — and I especially wanted to compose for Streisand. What a phenomenal, inspiring talent she was!
When I was 16, my mom moved us from Ohio to the San Francisco Bay Area. It was there that I took my first composition lessons with the great composer Ernst Bacon. He lived nearby and I was introduced to him through a group of women composers who went to him once a month for a group lesson. After a couple of those sessions, I asked if I could study with him privately and he said yes! He’s the one who opened my ears and eyes to the world of art song and poetry — especially Emily Dickinson. I learned so much from him. (Coincidentally, I studied with him when I was 17 as did Carlisle Floyd ... though 35 years apart!) He also got me listening to great opera singers, opening my ears as I couldn’t have imagined.
From then on, I wrote songs like my life depended upon it — because it felt that way. Still mostly to my own texts, but also to Dickinson, Yogananda, Whitman, Gibran, and others. My dream was still to compose for Streisand, but my ears kept opening to more possibilities. After high school, I moved to Paris for two years and then attended UCLA where I took a mind-blowing art song class and learned the major works of the classical rep, and got to perform them with wonderful singers. There were also great recitalists coming through and I became the page-turner for concerts by Leontyne Price, Kiri Te Kanawa, Renata Scotto, Tatyana Troyanos, and other stars. It was life-changing and it deeply affected the way I thought about songs — the texts I sought out. I also met Ned Rorem at a party and he offered to listen to my songs. I sent him a tape and he listened to all of it and wrote me a letter that helped me enormously.
Ned Rorem’s letter to Jake Heggie in 1988. Click to expand.
By now I’ve composed more than 300 art songs ... I lost count a long time ago. And I remain at heart a song composer — a theater composer for sure, but a songwriter at heart.
S&WC: How do you go about picking poetry? What are the considerations? Does your composition method change based on whether the poetry has been set before or if it is a very famous text?
JH: I find that the text actually chooses me. I can read many poems — but suddenly something jumps out at me and starts singing. That’s when I know I can set that poem or text. If that magic doesn’t happen, there’s no point in trying. It will be an incomplete and dissatisfying song. And it’s interesting how poems will sing to me at different times of my life. A Dickinson poem I passed by in my 20s, suddenly jumps off the page at me in my early 60s. (Good lord am I really already in my 60s??) ...
Also, primary to all of this is knowing who I’m writing the song or cycle for. That has always been the case for me. I never compose in a vacuum. A great part of the inspiration is the singer — their personality, voice, range and style, and what will be particularly meaningful to them. Am I writing a song for a mezzo, or am I writing it for Joyce DiDonato? or Jamie Barton? or Sasha Cooke? or Frederica von Stade? or Susan Graham? Good grief! What an embarrassment of riches! Each of them so inspiring, different, and unique — each a mezzo, yes, but sooooo much more! And each of them a great friend. What’s better than that?
I’ve also collaborated extensively with several fabulous writers on projects — to create new texts for song cycles that are commissioned for a particular artist for a particular occasion. That’s a terribly gratifying collaboration because we will find it together — something that is profoundly meaningful and resonant for all three of us: singer, poet, and composer. It has led to rich and surprising explorations and experiences: Songs for Murdered Sisters with Margaret Atwood; The Deepest Desire with Sister Helen Prejean; Camille Claudel: Into the Fire and Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope with Gene Scheer; and on and on.
S&WC: There seems to be a renewed appetite for new opera in North America. Do you see this same renewal happening in song? Why or why not?
JH: I think there’s been great interest in new operas for decades — but it wasn’t in the mainstream companies.
Look at all the innovative, brave work Philip Glass was doing through the 70s and 80s. Carlisle Floyd and Dominick Argent were writing all that time, too. The Houston Grand Opera bravely led the way and started commissioning new work in the 70s. (My new opera, Intelligence, will be that company’s 75th world premiere when it opens this fall!) But starting in the 90s, other mainstream companies started to recognize the value of developing new work to create excitement, bring in new audiences and keep the art form alive and resonant. That’s how my first opera, Dead Man Walking, came to be commissioned and premiered by San Francisco Opera in 2000. I think that year, it was one of only three operas new operas to premiere in the bigger companies — and now there seem to be dozens. It’s really thrilling. Works from composers of all interests, backgrounds, genders, and ranges of talent.
And YES, that is happening in song, as well. Remarkably so. And the biggest reason for all of this? The SINGERS! There is great interest and hunger for new work, especially from American singers who have the curiosity to explore something current and fresh; something created for and inspired by their unique voice and talent — something they can champion and claim as their own. This isn’t totally new, as great American artists have been championing new songs for decades, but usually, those songs were the exception — the rarity on the program. Now current songs and works are central to recitals and concerts. Composers are eager to explore and collaborate.
“There is great interest and hunger for new work, especially from American singers who have the curiosity to explore something current and fresh; something created for and inspired by their unique voice and talent - something they can champion and claim as their own. ”
S&WC: As a pianist, how is the experience of playing your own compositions differ from playing the works of other composers? How does performing your own compositions change the nature of your collaboration with singers?
JH: I think it actually helps me to play the music of the other composers better — because I know what it’s like to be on the inside of creating a song or a cycle. So I approach each composer’s work as though I know that individual well — so that every piece feels like a living, breathing song and the composer is in the room.
S&WC: What is your advice for emerging composers in 2023?
JH: Write about what matters to you deeply; something you feel to your core. Don’t go for fads or trends. Find what resonates authentically for you. Write it FOR someone you know and care about. Collaborate. Be prolific. Keep trying. Take on projects that both inspire and terrify you — be open to possibility — it will stretch your ear and imagination. It’s about creating a body of work. And please don’t go to the computer right away: start with writing by hand. Make a physical connection with the page. Be a good colleague and treat people well. Remember it’s a privilege to do this. Yes, it’s incredibly challenging and all-consuming, but it’s not hard: it’s a joy. And from the beginning, identify and cultivate relationships with people who love your work and want to support it. That includes singers, instrumentalists, conductors, writers, administrators, and donors... And surround yourself with people who love you for who you are, not what you do.
S&WC: What’s next for you in the world of song?
JH: Projects for soprano Sondra Radvanovsky (to her own texts) and for Key’mon Murrah, a remarkable young male soprano, to new texts by Anita Amirrezvani.
April 28, 2023
