Douglas J. Cuomo Signs with Schott Music

Douglas J. Cuomo, one of today's most versatile composers writing music for concert and theatrical stages, television and film, is now published exclusively by Schott Helicon (BMI). Cuomo studied world music and ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Miami (Coral Gables). After two years of recording and touring as a jazz guitarist, he decided to switch his focus to composition. He began by writing music for downtown New York theater productions, student films, documentaries, and went on to create award-winning scores for TV series such as Sex and the City (title theme), Homicide, and NOW with Bill Moyers.

Arjuna's Dilemma is his most ambitious work to date, being a 70-minute staged oratorio incorporating an Indian vocalist, a classically-trained tenor, a four-member female chorus, a tabla player, an improvising tenor saxophonist, and a ten-piece chamber ensemble. A work of both sweeping grandeur and piercing intimacy, Arjuna's Dilemma seamlessly melds classical, jazz and traditional Indian musical idioms as it explores ancient themes that remain startlingly topical: the claims of conscience and duty in a time of war and the search for self-knowledge in a changing world. The libretto is based on the Bhagavad Gita and the poetry of Kabir. A 2008/09 tour of Arjuna's Dilemma will soon be announced. Cuomo has also just completed a new choral work, Fortune, which sees its world premiere at Columbia University's Miller Theatre by the Young People's Chorus of New York on Sunday, April 27, directed by Francisco Nunez.

EAM's own James Albright sat down for a conversation with Doug Cuomo to learn more about the composer's background and career:

JA: Having received a formal jazz education and spending part of your life as a full time jazz musician, how has your background in jazz and as a performer influenced your composing?

DC: One of the things that has influenced it the most is the idea of improvisation, which I use in a lot of my work. A certain strain through some of the pieces that I've done is the idea of using improvisation within a more notated setting. My familiarity with the idea of being an improviser has informed my ability to figure out what kind of musical settings an improviser would like to play over. I always try to do something where its comfortable enough for the improviser so they feel free to do their thing, whatever their particular thing is, but not so it's too similar to what they always do so they say, "oh, this is just a jazz tune and I'm just playing over some changes."

JA: You've enjoyed success composing for film and television. What drew you to this medium in the first place?

DC: At first it was partly a result of being in New York and trying to figure out ways to earn a living writing music. I eventually found that I had some sort of affinity for matching sounds with image. Instinctual is too strong of a word, but there is a certain response I get from looking at pictures that I'm able to use to start writing the music.

JA: What are the major differences for you between composing for film and television and composing your concert music?

DC: In film and television there are many more constrictions, and you obviously have less creative freedom because you're serving some other vision. In some ways that's easier because very specific things, like the timing of the music that you're working on for example, is all predetermined by the picture. So it's a little easier because that formal consideration is already decided.

There's also a different sort of gratification for each one. For instance, in film and television, the gratification is that the process happens really fast. Your work goes up on the show pretty soon after you're done with it. Also, while in film and television producers and directors are often breathing down your neck, the people who you're writing the music for in concert music, for the most part, are not interfering with what you're doing which is extremely gratifying.

JA: How has your work in this medium influenced you concert music composing?

DC: The people you work with in film and television, directors or producers, although they're giving you lots and lots of comments, are looking at your music from a much different perspective. They're coming from a directorial perspective, or they'll look at your music from the perspective of a normal audience member, and that's influenced a lot of what I do...I'm always considering the audience.

JA: I see the word eclectic often associated with your work. How are you able to compose effectively in so many different styles of music?

DC: In my work I don't use an academic or ethnomusicological approach in using different styles of music. I don't have an academic background in composing, there are certain academic ways of looking at composing that are pretty foreign to me. Rather, I try to convey the spirit of different kinds of music or the impression that music has on a listener. It's tricky not to have it be something incredibly superficial, but I'm more interested in reflecting the core of what listening to a certain kind of music is than taking a more academic approach.

JA: What inspired you to set the Bhagavad Gita in your new work Arjuna's Dilemma?

DC: I had wanted to write something for the Indian singer Amit Chatterjee. He and I were talking about various ideas, the Bhagavad Gita came up in the conversation. I went back and read it and it just seemed like a natural fit for being set to music. It's a very basic and powerful story that is very singable and dramatic. I had also wanted to set something that wasn't written all in English.

JA: You combine Indian music with jazz and other western musical styles in Arjuna's Dilemma. These are seemingly disparate musical worlds but what makes them work together so well in this piece?

DC: The element of improvisation in Indian music and in jazz is a commonality. There's also something about the tenor saxophone and that style of Indian singing that is very ecstatic. That kind of singing, with its style of improvisation and even just the timbre itself, is extremely emotional, and the tenor saxophone can do that sort of thing as well. Those were elements that were really appealing to me, and that I thought would be effective together. Certain contrasts between these musical idioms I thought would be effective too. There was something about the idea of the chorus and the Indian singer that I just knew would work even though there are extreme contrasts. The choral singing has no vibrato, it's relatively unified and pure sounding, and this is the opposite of the Indian singing because there are all sorts of overtones and a certain roughness in the timbre of the voice.

JA: Your work Fortune premieres this month in New York. What can we expect to hear in this piece?

DC: It's a piece for the Young People's Chorus of New York, and it's based on an old Taoist story about the idea of fortune and how events that seem to be bad luck can turn out to be good luck and vice versa. The chorus sings the narrator's part, and a soloist sings the main character's role of the the farmer. There are also little bits of percussion that the singers are playing using homemade percussion instruments. The percussion is used mostly for sound effects so the work unfolds a little like a philosophical radio play.

JA: What's next for Doug Cuomo?

DC: I'm doing a piece for the cellist Maya Beiser as part of an evening that she's doing called Provenance. It's for solo cello and electronics, and will premiere on June 24 at the Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, and then it's going to Ravinia in July and Zankel Hall on October 30. I'm also working on excerpting a choral suite and an orchestral suite from Arjuna's Dilemma and I've been talking with the string quartet Ethel, who I've worked with a lot, about doing a piece for them with the rock guitarist Derek Trucks.

For more information on Doug Cuomo's music, visit www.schott-music.com and www.douglasjcuomo.com.