Evenings with the Stars, Part 10 of 10

(Hallo, I’m Kathryn Hudson, and I’m here with award-winning composer, conductor, and scholar, Peter Boyer, who is involved with the “One World… of Peace Through Music” benefit concert, at the Shrine Auditorium. Welcome, Peter. Thank you for being here.) Thank you. Nice to be here. […]

(So, when you were composing Suma (Supreme Master) Ching Hai’s poem, “Love Melody 4,” did you have the full opportunity to do it however you wanted to do it?) Yes. I’m actually just about to begin the process of orchestration. I’ve just completed the short score, which is four lines plus the line which the singer will sing, in this case a soprano. So, I tried to find the structure of the poem, match that musically, create a short score, which is basically like piano and voice. And now the next step in the process will be to orchestrate that and decide what each member of this 60-piece orchestra will play. […]

(And would you like to share any of the poems?) Sure. It’s organized in quatrains, in groups of four lines, and so I’ve organized my music in these four-line groups. So for example, a recurring theme in the poem is the three words “How many miles?” And this recurs several times. The first time is in the second quatrain, where the poem reads, “How many miles to the west side? How many miles to paradise? How many miles to your heart? How many miles to mine?” So, I’ve actually taken those three words and made that sort of the theme of the song. […]

Wonderful. This is going to be an amazing event. Amazing, and some wonderful, wonderful guests, Bill Conti, Fred Karlin, the Gaelic Storm who will perform music from Titanic as well. (Right.) And the Al Jardine, Family & Friends. It will be quite a mixed bag. I can’t think of any other event where so many different kinds of diverse music will be together on the stage. So, I think that reflects the title of “One World” very well. […]

(So how do you feel about working with the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Organization?) Well, there’s certainly a very dedicated bunch of people. I don’t think they sleep very much. I think they mostly work around the clock. And it’s certainly been, I think, a warmer kind of feeling than you get from just working for your average client. […]