Remembering Daniel Pearl
Los Angeles DownTown News,
January 22, 2007
by Lea Lion
Steve Reich and the Los Angeles Master Chorale Celebrate the Late Journalist's Life
Composer Steve Reich is best known for minimalist works such as "Clapping
Music," a composition for two musicians clapping, and "Drumming," an hour-long
percussion-only piece. Based on these and other works, one might assume that a
conversation with the man regularly referred to as one of the greatest living
composers would be a bit, well, sparse.
As it turns out, that is not the case. In fact, during a recent conversation
with Reich about his new composition "Daniel Variations," written in memory of
slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, the 70-year-old composer
recounted the work's genesis in a fast-paced cascade of words.
The Los Angeles Master Chorale will perform the West Coast premiere of Reich's "Daniel Variations" at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Sunday, Jan. 28. In light of Pearl's tragic story, it may come as a surprise that the concert is billed as a celebration. But that is precisely what it is, said Reich. The sentiment was echoed by Pearl's father, Judea.
"We did not want it to be a eulogy or a requiem," Judea explained recently in a thick Israeli accent. "The tragedy, of course, is a tragedy, one cannot escape from that, but... tragedy also evokes inspiration."
Reich said the seed for "Daniel Variations" was planted after the 2004 Los Angeles Master Chorale world premiere of his composition "You Are," which Judea and his wife, Ruth, attended. After the concert, Judea approached Reich with a proposition.
"[Judea] had a couple of books under his arm and we immediately hit it off," Reich recalled. "We started talking and he said, 'Did you know that my son was a musician?'"
At the time, Reich knew what most people knew about Pearl. He knew that Pearl was a journalist. He knew that Pearl had been abducted while on assignment in Pakistan and he knew that Islamic extremists had murdered Pearl in 2002.
But he soon learned that Pearl was a classically trained musician who played the violin, mandolin and fiddle, and that Judea wished to commission a work in his son's honor. The timing worked out perfectly. Reich was already working on a commission for Carnegie Hall and the Barbican Centre in London, and saw an opportunity to combine the efforts. The only glitch, Reich said, was that he had been envisioning a text-based work.
"Judea Pearl smiled and said, 'I'm gonna bring you your text,' and I smiled and I said, 'I think you will,'" Reich remembered, adding that Judea then gave him the books that were under his arm. One was a collection of Pearl's articles for the Wall Street Journal. The other was a compilation of personal reflections inspired by Pearl's last words.
Later, as Reich looked through the books, he decided to incorporate Pearl's words into the composition, but his thoughts also wandered past the reporter's writings to his name, Daniel.
"What kind of a name is Daniel Pearl?" Reich asked rhetorically, and then answered his own question. "It is a perfect jewel of a name.
"It occurred to me that everyone whose name is Daniel is basically named after Daniel in the Bible," he continued. "So I thought, okay, time to read the 'Book of Daniel.'"
Daniel's Words
"The Book of Daniel," Reich soon learned, concerns an Israelite named Daniel who possesses the power of prophecy. He becomes an advisor to the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, after interpreting the ruler's dream. The text portion of the first movement of "Daniel Variations" is taken from the apocalyptic vision of the king.
"This dream of Nebuchadnezzar is really the world we live in. You can stick your head in the sand and pretend that it's not, but it is," Reich said.
"I thought, okay, that's the first movement of this piece and I am going to contrast that with the writings of Daniel Pearl both harmonically, musically speaking and in terms of what they say."
For the second movement of "Daniel Variations," Reich chose to use the final words Pearl uttered before his execution, "My name is Daniel Pearl," which were captured on videotape. In the composition, Pearl's simple statement is sung repeatedly, reaching an emotional crescendo that Master Chorale Music Director Grant Gershon said brought the chorus to tears during rehearsal.
"I think a lot of people who are aware of the subject matter of the piece might be surprised by the fact that there is nothing mournful about it at all," Gershon said. "The idea of creating this piece was not at all about Daniel's death, but in the larger sense, about his quest for truth."
In the third movement, Reich returned to the "Book of Daniel," borrowing a phrase from Daniel's response to the King's dream. In the fourth and final movement, Reich chose another phrase from Pearl's writings.
When Reich explained how he selected the last piece of text, his voice picked up a note of excitement and his words fell even faster.
He came across a story in one of Judea's books that was written by an old friend of Pearl's. According to the story, when the friend asked Pearl what he thought would happen after he died, Pearl responded with the cryptic statement, "I sure hope Gabriel likes my music."
From the moment he read it, Reich knew Pearl's answer was the appropriate text for the fourth movement. But there is one footnote, Reich said, that made it even more fitting.
"In Jewish mysticism, when a dream that is going to affect the whole population, Pharaoh's dreams or the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, happens, that dream is transported from its source to its recipient by the angel Gabriel. He's the messenger," Reich explained.
"So I thought, this is it, that's the ending."
The Los Angeles Master Chorale performs Steve Reich's "Daniel Variations" on Sunday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., (213) 972-7282 or lamc.org.
Contact Lea Lion at [email protected].
page 22, 1/22/2007
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rieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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