cheating, lying, stealing (1993/95) 11'
Commissioner: Meet the Composer/Readers Digest Commissioning Program for Present Music, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and Collage
First Performer: 29 March 1993 by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble
Revision premiered 1 May 1995 by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Lincoln Center, New York City
Instrumentation: bcl,vc,pf,perc,and 2 antiphonal brake drums
Special Features:
Program note:
A couple of years ago, I started thinking about how so often when classical composers write a piece of music, they are trying to tell you something that they are proud of and like about themselves. Here's this big gushing melody, see how emotional I am. Or, here's this abstract hard-to-figure-out piece, see how complicated I am, see my really big brain. I am more noble, more sensitive, I am so happy. The composer really believes he or she is exemplary in this or that area. It's interesting, but it's not very humble. So I thought, What would it be like if composers based pieces on what they thought was wrong with them? Like, here's a piece that shows you how miserable I am. Or, here's a piece that shows you what a liar I am, what a cheater I am. I wanted to make a piece that was about something disreputable. It's a hard line to cross. You have to work against all your training. You are not taught to find the dirty seams in music. You are not taught to be low-down, clumsy, sly and underhanded. In ''cheating, lying, stealing,'' although phrased in a comic way, I am trying to look at something dark. There is a swagger, but it is not trustworthy. In fact, the instruction in the score for how to play it says: Ominous funk.
—David Lang
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