Bridge Podcast Episode 55 - Lewis Nielson

I'm joined by composer, educator, and activist Lewis Nielson. We talk coffee, counterpoint, Lachenmann, and more.

In Episode #55 of The Bridge Podcast, I speak with composer, educator, and activist Lewis Nielson. Lewis served as the chair of the composition department at the Oberlin Conservatory until 2012 and has had his music performed all over the world. His discography includes Vortex: Music by Lewis Nielson (2000), The Twittering Machine: Ecritures (2008), and Lewis Nielson: Axis (2015).

While Lewis is supposedly retired, he continues to compose and will be teaching composition at the Manhattan School of Music this year. Much of his time is also currently spent volunteering in Vermont's state prison facilities working with inmates.

Here’s one of Lewis’ compositions for percussion and string ensemble:

Axis/Sandman (2000)

In our conversation we discussed:

0:00 - Introduction

0:35 - Coffee habits and preferences

3:00 - Evaluating compositional technique without stylistic bias

8:10 - Composition as a trade or as Art

12:28 - Film composers are brands and businesses

13:58 - Our ever-modernizing conception of instrumentation

18:18 - A story about Helmut Lachenmann’s quest for a certain sound

19:32 - New performance technologies and various notions of “hyperinstruments”

23:33 - The gluttony of the orchestra

27:00 - Increasing complexity from composers and putting performers under pressure

31:50 - Xenakis’ formalist poetics and resources for composers

37:35 - Technique

43:00 - Provocation

46:53 - Counterpoint

53:00 - Form

57:00 - Interaction between Lewis’ activism and composition

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Here’s the full episode in video format: