October 8, 2017

What does music mean to you personally?

I have been singing since I was two years old, and music has always been there for me through the dark times. It has become a friend of mine, motivated and inspired me, created happiness where there was none. It has been a gift, a treasure I hold dear. Music is something that has never turned its back on me though humans have. I sometimes get lost in the music and it is hard to find my way out. There is something about music no human can explain.

Do you agree that music is all about fantasy?

It depends on the way you think about it. Sometimes the composers could have been off in a far land while thinking of the notes they are putting together to create a masterpiece. But when it comes down to it, Bach knew what music was and that is mathematics. Form, and other parts of theory are used to create most works. Now there is genres like Nocturnes, fantasy’s, and improvs ext. that are there for free expression and the “fantasy”/imagination to be used.

If you were not a professional musician, what would you have been?

I’m currently not a professional (as in paid), then again what is the definition of a professional? Though I may be a professional composer/musician one day. If not I also like Business as a topic.

What do you envision the role of classical music to be in the 21 century? Do you see that there is a transformation of this role?

A lot of movies have been putting classical works like Beethoven’s 5th symphony 1st mvt, 7th symphony 2nd mvt, Mozart’s 21st piano concerto 2nd mvt, A little serenade (night music), things to that extent into the backgrounds of famous movies. I expect that to continue, while new composers come into the mix, and take the industry by storm. It is going to take a lot to take the genres of Baroque, Classical, and Romantic down. They’re not going away anytime soon.

When I say that classical music is searching for new ways or that the classical music is getting a new face, what would come to your mind?

Maybe that new composers are being sought, or that new ways of composition/theory is being sought to keep people on their feet/interested.

Do you think that the classical musician today needs to be more creative? Whats the role of creativity in the musical process for you?

It depends. I’m still with Mozart “Nevertheless the passions, whether violent or not, should never be so expressed as to reach the point of disgust; and music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.” I feel Beethoven was a bit right when it comes to the exploration of form. Though as Mozart put it and I agree you should not be over creative so much to create disgust. I do not try to be too creative, I try to compose works that are pleasing to the ear, harmony is one of the greatest gifts we were given.

Do you think we musicians can do something to attract young generation into the classical music concerts? How will you proceed?

There is no real way to do so in my opinion, most people at these concerts are middle aged or older. I for one am young myself. And one of the only reasons I found my passion for classical music is because one day I was very depressed, and I popped in a c.d. of classical music, and I got to a track entitled Mozart’s 4th violin concerto 1st mvt. And it was like I had never heard or felt music the way I did that way over 6 years ago. And I knew from that moment that there was happiness in life, and music brought it back. Mozart brought it back. Maybe if we were to make a connection with the music more often, get the younger people to connect with it that may help. See the reason we like any music is we connect with it.

Tell us about your creative process. Do you have your favorite piece (written by you)? How did you start working on it?

I’ll sit there and think, a lot. And I mean a lot. I start pieces all the time, but I do not finish all of them. I would say it would be a tie between My second piano concerto, and my Viola sonata (though the joke piece I recently composed isn’t too far behind). The reasoning for that is because they are two of my most developed works, I am always learning. And also, because they made a special connection with me. It was mid-June this year, and I started composing the work set up for 2 oboes, 2 horns, solo piano, and string with the second mvt switching the oboe part for 2 flutes. And I composed the theme A for the 1st mvt, and I found out my mother had been diagnosed with cancer, and I let that effect the second theme. But in the second mvt was dreamy to express the fact it seemed as a dream, then the third was a peppy mvt to express I knew it would be okay. It was completed in three weeks, and is one of my best. Then the viola sonata was composed to commemorate the removal of the cancer, and dedicated to a friend of mine who plays the instrument, who composed a work for my mother.

We, Moving Classics TV, love the combination of classical music with different disciplines: music and painting, music and cinematography, music and digital art, music and poetry. What do you think about these combinations?

It’s an excellent idea, arts go together better than people know. It takes an amazing eye, ear, and brain to pair a picture or a video up with the correct music.

Can you give some advice for young people who want to discover classical music for themselves?

Well, I personally started with Mozart, so I would tell anyone to start with him. Him and Haydn were the two top composers of the Classical era for sure. And Bach, and Vivaldi for baroque era, and Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Hummel (lived in the romantic era composed classical) Liszt, and Schubert for Romantic. I would tell them not think of it as such a boring subject, there are plenty of works that are exciting, goofy, peppy, plenty that are angry, mad, and sad, and plenty that are mellow, and beautiful. There are so many emotions that could go along with what you feel if you open your heart and mind up. They also help you study! Mozart’s K 448 has been studied and proved to increase your IQ while listening to it known as the “Mozart Effect!” And I would let them know music also heals, which it does!

Now it is a common practice in the media to talk that the classical music is getting into the consumption business, do you agree? We are speaking about the supply and demand rules and how to sell your “product” in your case your compositions. How do you see it?

In all honesty the world has indeed become very greedy, but it has always been like that, Mozart, Beethoven ext… They all needed to make money to live, and orchestras are all in the same boat sometimes. In truth we all need money to exist, and continue doing what we love. The problem is when you over charge. And I see that happening on sheet music websites. I don’t feel like classical music is getting into the consumption business as much as popular music is. Classical tickets in my area sell for $30, that’s a huge difference between a lot of the popular music tickets selling for hundreds even thousands of dollars.

Do you have expectations what regards your listeners, your audience?

Not really, though I compose inspired by Mozart, and Beethoven. Anyone can enjoy my works no age, wealth, ext. required!

What projects are coming up? Do you experiment in your projects?

I’m always starting, and stopping random compositions or finishing them. I’m currently composing a bright piano work. I try to only experiment with preset forms, and I am inspired by classical, and romantic era composers so I tend to try and stay in their guidelines

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Posted in Piano and tagged contemporary piano, Fantasy Notes

October 3, 2017

What does music mean to you personally?

Music is, in my eyes, a wonderful language of love for others. It is shared from heart to heart, it is all made up of emotions, impressions and feelings.

Do you agree that music is all about fantasy?

Fantasy is an essential part of music, It opens the doors of freedom.

If you were not a professional musician, would would you have been?

Only musician !

The classical music audience is getting old, are you worried about your future?

This is one of the consequences of the cultural abandonment in which the world has been plunged for several decades. Much of the youth consumes music in a “Kleenex” way as if all things were ephemeral, devoid of roots. Fortunately, classes in conservatories and music schools are frequented by another part of the youth who want to learn and play classical music. We must also favor the “classical” music of our time.

What do you envision the role of classical music to be in the 21 century? Do you see that there is a transformation of this role?

It is always difficult for composers to be heard and appreciated by their contemporaries. The 21st century does not escape this observation and it is a pity. But I think that our century can and must make room for new classical music, especially by promoting the dissemination of works of contemporary music.

When I say that classical music is searching for new ways or that the classical music is getting a new face, what would come to your mind?

In my opinion, it is the marriage of the two. On the one hand, classical music must be used without complexity of all current technologies, therefore all new ways that favor the creativity and the widest possible diffusion. In the same way, it must also adopt a new face, closer, more accessible, less rigid, more human, more sensitive and above all, less elitist.

Do you think that the classical musician today needs to be more creative? Whats the role of creativity in the musical process for you?

Creativity is the essential quality of the composer. It is the essential breath of freedom that the composer must know how to use with talent so that his music touches the receptivity of the listener and better, surprises him to seduce him afterwards.

Do you think we musicians can do something to attract young generation into the classical music concerts? How will you proceed?

This is an important question, which leads to complex answers that can not be developed in a few words. On the other hand, as I have already said, in a hyper-mediaized society, part of these responses lie in education, but also in the dissemination of classical works by the media in a way that is uncomplexed and accessible to as wide a public as possible.

Tell us about your creative process. Do you have your favourite piece (written by you) How did you start working on it?

It is difficult to answer this question because the creative impulse does not correspond for me to a fixed process. Creativity is not controlled; it is often imposed when it is least expected; I think we can talk about “inspiration”. As for quoting a favorite work, it’s just as difficult, because I’m never completely satisfied. I would say: the house of Monfort-l’Amaury; I heard this music coming into me just after visiting the house of Maurice Ravel in Montfort-l’Amaury.

We, Moving Classics TV, love the combination of classical music with different disciplines: music and painting, music and cinematography, music and digital art, music and poetry. What do you think about these combinations?

I love these artistic combinations. Being myself the son of a painter, Pierre-André de Wisches, creator of subconscientism in the mid-1960s. I participated as a composer in a pedagogical project with the conservatory of HYERES in France, which featured my father’s canvases, chosen by the students and the music I composed especially for each painting. I also think it’s a very good way to spread classical music.

Can you give some advice for young people who want to discover classical music for themselves?

The advice I would give young people to discover classical music is to open not only their ears but also and especially their hearts.

Now it is a common practice in the media to talk that the classical music is getting into the consumption business, do you agree? We are speaking about the supply and demand rules and how to sell your “product” in your case your compositions. How do you see it?

I still have a lot of difficulty comparing a work of art to a consumer product. But it is true that to want to ignore the profound transformation that has undergone and continues to suffer our world of consumers “connected”, “connected”, is a bit like wanting to continue to light with candles while has electricity.

Do you have expectations what regards your listeners, your audience?

My expectations are those corresponding to the greatest possible sharing.

What projects are coming up? Do you experiment in your projects?

I have many projects in progress, including a trio suite. Music for a documentary, a work for a set of clarinets and compositions for piano. Experimentation is inseparable from each new composition; it constitutes the essential part of the evolution of musical language.

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Posted in Piano and tagged contemporary piano, Fantasy Notes