Noel Zahler rushes home from school. A junior at Francis Lewis High School in Queens, N.Y., he’s been thinking about his final project in music theory all day: He has to write an original composition that has a beginning, middle, and end—and works melodically and harmonically. Like many teens in the late 1960s, Zahler plays rock and roll and has hair that falls to his shoulders. He’s used to writing songs for his bands, Just Us and Statutory Grape, but this time, the classically trained guitarist faces a real challenge. His composition must incorporate all of the instruments that the students in his class play: flute, cello, tuba, trumpet, string bass, piano, and guitar.
He locks himself away in his bedroom and gets to work. He considers the function of the instruments and how they will be heard. As he writes lines of music, he hears the sounds in his head, much like the voice he hears in his head when he reads a book. Soon, the task commands his entire attention. Time disappears. His room disappears. Background noise disappears. He hears only piano chords; a thumping string bass; a bright trumpet trill; and a smooth, steady cello. Eight hours later, an entire orchestra plays in his head. “It was overwhelming,” he says. “There was clarity of thought and a focus that eluded time.”
Fast forward a few years. It’s 2007, and the New York Sinfonietta is premiering Zahler’s Concerto for Clarinet, Chamber Orchestra, and Interactive Computer at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University. As the soloist plays in a dialogue with the orchestra, the sound of the clarinet passes through six speakers surrounding the audience, all automated by a computer—the newest instrument Zahler has added to his compositions. He smiles, realizing that the piece he heard in his head, much like that time in high school, has been recreated. “I think that using technology in my music is one way in which I am able to create imaginary worlds that might not otherwise be possible,” he says.
Eager to bring his knack for converging the artistic and technological worlds to Pittsburgh, Zahler—who was the director of the University of Minnesota’s School of Music—now heads Carnegie Mellon’ s School of Music.
Editor’s Note: Brittany McCandless is one of only two recipients of the 2007 Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh scholarship.
