For this year’s Walter Harding Lecture at Doty Recital Hall on Wednesday Sept. 25, composer Gregory Spears gave a lecture on “Thoreau and Music.” This talk followed a public musical coaching session between Spears and musical theatre major junior Rocky Nardone.
Gregory Spears began his studies at Rochester’s own Eastman School of Music and has since studied composition at Yale, Princeton and the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen. Spears has composed several critically acclaimed works, including Fellow Travelers and Paul’s Case.
The subject of Spear’s talk was Walden, a five-part song cycle which premiered in 2018 in Washington, D.C. The cycle captures Henry David Thoreau’s exit from and eventual return to society by utilizing direct passages from Thoreau’s Walden.
Before discussing his own works, Spears began his talk by describing past composers who had been influenced by Thoreau. Among these composers were important figures such as Charles Ives, Morton Feldman and Hans Abrhamsen.
Spears played several clips from compositions based on Thoreau’s work. The Thoreauvian pieces all maintained what Spears described as a “dreamlike, question-mark-quality.” According to Spears, the goal of the pieces was to realize Thoreau’s idea of the world as a symphony of music with a focus on nature.
Prior to Walden, Spear’s first foray into Thoreau began with his OPERA America sponsored work, Where I Lived and What I Lived For. This piece utilizes vocal baritone and piano. It is essentially composed of sung passages from Walden with piano melodies that echo a dreamlike quality, similar to other Thoreauvian compositions.
For Spears, the inspiration for Where I Lived and What I Lived For came from exploring the idea that “home is wherever you are at the moment.” This, in part, was a product of the sponsorship itself, which called for compositions to focus on the theme of home. Thoreau’s passages served as the perfect vehicle to explore this idea due to Thoreau’s journey outside of society to make his own home in the woods.
Spears elaborated on his fascination with Thoreau’s work, noting that composers typically avoid working with Thoreau on account of the long sentences, paradoxical arguments and the odd structuring of his writing. Spears, however, has accepted these challenges on account of Thoreau’s beautiful prose and interesting arguments deriving from anti-bourgeoise, anti-capitalist and queer traditions.
For Walden, Spears wanted to compose something “more austere” compared to Where I Lived and What I Lived For. Walden is a series consisting of four fragments and a coda that all come together to tell the story of Thoreau’s leave and subsequent return to society in Concord, Mass.
The first and second parts of Walden represent Thoreau’s initial exit from society. The parts utilize piano and vocal baritone, while the lyrics come straight from Thoreau’s Walden. After playing clips from these movements, Spears noted that songs represent how “labor can transition into something transcendent,” reflecting Thoreau’s own sentiment recorded during his time alone.
The third part of the Walden song cycle focuses more heavily on Thoreau’s meditations, specifically those related to time. Spears explained that the lyrics describe an experience in which Thoreau observed a melding of the sky and a stream bed near him. This thought process functioned as a meditation of the temporal relationship between objects, thinking of the past and present as a single idea.
Walden’s final parts tackled Thoreau’s return to society. The fourth part of the cycle features several of Thoreau’s texts together, essentially merging several of the writer’s ideas into one final, complete act.
Walden was an immersive and skillfully composed cycle that managed to capture Thoreau’s prose in a new, interesting light. English major senior Hannah Bentivegna was particularly moved by the composition.
“The piece offers a new perspective on the written word,” Bentivegna said. “To see words just written as words set to music totally changes and expands on the meaning of the work.”
For Spears, Walden and other Thoreauvian compositions represent something akin to a moral undertaking, embodying “humbleness, generosity and gratitude” in service to something more than a single performance. Spears noted these performances “feel like the singer is Thoreau speaking to the audience.”
Spear’s talk, as well as Walden itself, represents a phenomenal synergy of literature and music. By combining these, Spears manages to build on and respect the tradition set by Thoreau and those inspired by him.