interview vykintas baltakas

[E] - Ethan Blackburn

[V] - Vykintas Baltakas

[E] The first question says, have you had an experience similar to Lutoslawski's?

He heard John Cage's second piano concerto on the radio, an encounter which changed his musical thinking and ushered in a new creative period, the first result of which was his Venetian games. So not Cage specifically, but do you have an experience...

[V] No, I know, I know.

I have two experiences, two very strong experiences.

Like the first was I heard Berlioz's Second Symphony when I was a child in school.

My dad actually.

It was an American voice, because it was forbidden, and the American voice was very specific about contemporary music, and my dad was very excited about it, because you have to hear it.

So actually that strongly influenced me, and it had an influence in one of my very early pieces.

That could be the direct link.

A high effect was when I heard, for the first time, Ligeti.

I didn't know the name Ligeti. Ensemble Modern was in Vilnius and somewhere there I was in buildings, I didn't know the name of Ligeti.

I was in a concert with many, and the program included pieces by Rihm, et cetera.

But after Ligeti, I just went out of through the hall, the piano concerto, I was so excited, I have never heard anything similar like that.

I left the hall, I checked, who's that?

That didn't actually influence, probably directly, anything like that.

But, oh, I have something else too.

I never understood Feldman.

[E] Which piece of Feldman?

[V] I didn't understand Feldman.

[E] You didn't understand Feldman?

[V] Yeah, we've met since before.

But once I was conducting Feldman, and I went deeper into his aesthetics, I started to understand.

And that actually did change my relation to the sound until now.

I don't remember which piece I was conducting.

But it was something for five to seven musicians, I could find it easily.

Atlantis or something like that, yeah.

[E]Was it The Grid?

[V]Huh?

[E]Was it The Grid music?

[V]No, it's a classical adaptation.

[E]Is it short, or is it long?

[V]10 minutes. 10 minutes, okay.

[E] Okay, okay, okay.

Do you ever have an interest in reading the writings behind these pieces, or no?

[V] In general, I think music is first.

Music is first, of course.

Music is first.

And if the music doesn't interest me, I would never ever read anything about it.

If, from another side, if the music interests me too much, I probably will not read anything about that, too.

[E] Right.

You don't want to ruin the image.

That's just some concepts.

[V] But if I'm touched by music, it is a chance.

[E] Maybe I have a specific question.

I would go and read.

Has the reading ever maybe enhanced the music in some sense?

For example, there's a Feldman piece, Coptic Light.

I heard it for the first time, and I thought, okay, it's an interesting piece, yeah, very nice music.

But then I was reading about it, and the reason he wrote the piece [receiving steak]—oh, thank you very much.

[V]Knock it out.

Enjoy it.

[E] The reason he wrote the piece is because he had an interest in Middle Eastern rugs.

He's obsessed with collecting Persian rugs.

And so he described the piece as reflecting the patterns that you see in these rugs, because they're so immense.

And to me, I listened to the piece a second time, and it changed it a little bit, you know?

Have you had an experience similar to this, or no?

[V] I definitely had an experience like that.

Like this, even today.

You know, like [unintelligible] plays her cello piece, and one thing is when she plays it, and when she explains what she wanted to do with it, of course it changed.

But I'm not a big fan of reading, to be honest.

And, you know, when a composer writes something, that's better.

But even worse, you know, when a musicologist is writing something, because most of that is full of bullshit.

[E]Right, right.

Searching for meaning, you know?

[V]Exactly.

[E]Yeah.

[V]Totally baseless.

[E]Okay, second question.

He says, a composer is surrounded by sounds.

Do they influence you, and are they in any way of significance for your compositional work?

[V]Oh.

The question is actually, I mean, no, the question is not, I mean, it's not very good to think about.

Because, I mean, surrounded by sounds, what does he mean, actually?

Surrounded by sounds, environment sounds?

Because, like, let's say, if you talk about environment sounds, that's no different from just any other person.

[E]Yeah?

[V]Right.

If I talk, but I mean, for me, the sound, the significance of the sound itself, that's for me the music itself.

The sound.

I mean, I think the whole music is sound.

And the kind of livingness of it.

It's like, I see almost like a living being.

So this is for me absolutely, yes.

But also in some sense, the absence of sound, you know?

For example...

[E]Yeah.

[V]But absence of sound makes the sound more to appear.

[E]Yeah.

Okay, last question.

[V]Wow, you're really very efficient.

[E]Very efficient, yeah.

[V]Very fast interview.

[E]How far can one speak of a personal style, and where does self-repetition begin?

[V]Ah.

Easy.

Actually, sorry, Vargas, but these are two questions.

[E]These are Vargas’ questions.

[V]Yeah, funny.

A personal style is, when you come to a moment, it's what I would call authentic writing.

When you, I mean, we were discussing yesterday about that.

When you arrive to a moment where you're...

There's no motorics.

Actually, your own expression, whatever, in which style you express, it's always very specifically your expression, yeah?

I'm not sure I'm formulating it very well, but I hope you...

[E]Oh, yeah, but what about the second question?

The second question.

Where does self-repetition begin?

[V]Ah, self-repetition, that's why I'm trying to think it's the second question, because...

Of course, you can have your personal style, yeah?

I mean, personal language, a very good link between your ideas and your expression, but you can still repeat yourself, of course.

So, it's just like, let's say, and when...

The question is when...

When you start to repeat yourself.

When you are...

Maybe more specifically, actually.

But is it subconscious or conscious?

Look...

Okay.

Actually...

Actually, this is specific, more specific than I was thinking.

[E]Yeah.

[V]Let's say, look, there is not a single situation in life which is exactly the same as the previous one, yeah?

[E]Obviously.

[V]Like the moment today, the 7 o'clock today is not the same as 7 o'clock yesterday.

And it will be tomorrow different too.

There is not a single idea, if it's really an authentic idea, which is exactly the same from a previous one, yeah?

But if you...

If you cannot, how to say, discover that differences, if the ideas start to look too much similar to each other, even you are very different today.

[E]Right.

[V]That's a repetition.

That's your personal limitation.

And another aspect of it.

Let's say the ideas would be different, but your answer to this, your solutions to this ideas are the same.

[E]Yeah?

[V]So that's a repetition.

Because actually you are not really responding to the actual request of an idea, but you are in an authentic way.

You are not responding with some sort of routine answer.

[E]Yeah?

[V]So that's why it would be a repetition, actually.

[E]In regards to style, do you ever think about it when you write now?

How conscious is it in your compositional process?

[V]What?

[E]Your style.

[V]Style?

I don't know what it actually really means, actually, to be honest.

Style is a big question, actually.

We need to discuss what really, it's the same, like aesthetics or style.

[E]It's very difficult.

[V]Well, in some sense.

For example, I'll give you a conversation I had with Jien yesterday.

And she says, sometimes I have this problem where I think I'm writing for somebody else.

Like I'm writing to please somebody else or I'm writing, you know.

And in some sense, you're subjugating yourself to a style that's not you.

You know?

In some sense, there's like these compositional atoms to where you choose.

Okay, what is the form?

What pitch system do I use?

What's the manner in which I represent my idea?

Because you could have a single idea and the idea is interpreted to many people, of course.

But everybody has maybe a style that is most suited to maybe the way they work.

But also something that's shaped by their environment.

Somebody at a very academic school, you could describe the academic style as something that reflects, you know.

In this sense, style in this sense.

And now repeat your question again?

[E]How conscious are you now or were you in your studies of your style when you wrote?

[V]The manner in which you...

I know very well in which circle I move.

But in that circle, I think I apply my own language.

In which I'm still very free to move, actually.

I mean, how to say?

The limitations, I feel the limitations, you know?

But the limitations are, how to say?

Something that every piece tries to open, you know?

I don't know if it's a good answer, but...

But I think, for example, I wonder, because we all want to think.

Okay, in some sense, I try every day to be the purest version of myself, right?

I try to write exactly how I want to see things, of course.

[E]But there's a part of you that kind of subjugates but assimilates everything you hear into how you write.

For example, when I was first in my Bachelor of Studies composition, I came in with a very different style.

But it was something that I said, that's me.

It's still me.

And nobody's telling me how to write this except for myself.

But then, I came to the lessons and my teacher played a few pieces for me.

So this relates to the first question.

Maybe he played Lumen from Donatoni for like bass clarinet, viola, weird ensemble.

And I thought, I've never heard anything like this in my life.

And I think, over time, hearing these pieces from Donatoni, Scelsi, Berio...

[V]All Italian.

[E]All Italian.

It was an Italian semester, actually, yeah.

Because the way we structured it was one semester was Italian, one semester was Polish, one semester English.

So then I thought, okay, I never consciously told myself, I want to write like Donatoni.

I want to write like Berio.

But something along the way obviously changed the way I wrote.

Because I heard these things and I assimilated their processes.

But also maybe some of their sound aesthetics in my music.

You would probably not accept it.

[V]That's true.

That would be, let's say, too far from yourself.

[E]Right.

So I'm wondering how much of how I write actually comes from me.

[V] Right..

[E]And not from my experiences.

Not from the things I hear from other composers and the things I hear from other people.

So in some sense, I'm wondering at what point in composition is it something that's really from yourself rather than a reflection of where you are?

And who you're writing for and what you're writing for and what your stimulus is, you know?

I'm not sure that this answers your question, but I think the difference between us is the age.

[E]Right.

[V]And I feel very strongly now actually.

[E]Right.

[V]I got 50 and, you know, like somehow, you know, the clock is quite precise and quite strong.

In the sense that I don't give a shit about what other people are thinking.

[E]Right.

[V]I don't give a shit about, you know, let's say even more.

I give less and less, you know, attention.

[E]Yeah.

[V]And I look less and less around.

[E]Yeah.

[V]How it's, you know, how it's situated in that situation.

How it's, because now more and more comes out of my own aesthetics and more ideology.

[E]Right.

[V]And I will ask for payment.

[asks to pay.]

[E]Okay.

[V]So, and I think that's really age, because like, let's say.

[E]When you were my age, how was it?

[V]I didn't have time somehow to think too much about these questions.

I never thought about it.

I was too, kind of too forward oriented.

[E]Right.

[V]Or maybe I forgot all about that.

That could be true.

When you're 50.

No, but it's just like you're losing some information.

[E]Yeah.

Of course.

[V]And this is right.

But this is, I really feel like that.

Yeah.

So, very strongly, like.

So, I. 51.

So, although.

But I want to like steak.