S04E03: Caroline Louise Miller, Composer and Librettist

Ensemble pianist Tae Kim sits down with composer and librettist Caroline Louise Miller to chat about her upcoming collaboration, a live performance AND short film of “Ofelia’s Life Dream”, with Guerilla Opera and Laine Rettmer!

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Tae Kim: Hello Guerillas. This is episode three, season four of Guerilla Opera Podcast. My name is Tae Kim, ensemble pianist, and I’ll be your host for this episode. On October 30, Guerilla Opera joins the opening weekend of the Boston New Music Festival with a live studio performance of Dreamwalker, a world premier exhibition of works by composer Kaija Saariaho and Caroline Louise Miller. Today we’re with Caroline, who’s work Ofelia’s Life-Dream details the thoughts of a dreaming woman who supposes she is drowning amidst the bizarre worlds of mysterious bioluminescent fungi, moths that drink tears of sleeping birds, and a giant self destructing palm tree. Thank you for joining us today. Looking at the score, how would you categorize Ofelia’s Life-Dream? It reads like a soliloquy, and acts like Pierrot lunaire with electronics.

Caroline Louise Miller: I think I would say it’s an experimental piece of theater with sound design. Yeah, I think that’s what I would call it.

Tae: What was the inspiration behind that work?

Caroline: I wrote it in 2009 and I revised it in 2014, but at the time I started creating it I was going through a time where I was really obsessed with zoology and with Darwin’s theory of evolution. I would just walk around and I would look at plants and animals and different creatures and try to imagine the different forces that had shaped their forms over time; over eons, and eras, and billions of years. I also started to get frustrated that I couldn’t experience life as anything other than a human, and I wanted pretty desperately to try to transmute into another life form for a day, just to see what it’s like to experience life as a plant, or a mushroom, or an insect or something. So in part Ofelia’s Life-Dream was inspired by that, where the main character has a dream within a dream within a dream where she kind of transforms into different life forms and gets to experience the world in different ways. I was also thinking a lot about death and meaning, and about finding meaning within the world as it is instead of looking for something outside, because there’s so much that’s fascinating and beautiful in the world, and I felt that when I was walking around looking at plants and thinking about evolutionary biology.

Tae: I remember reading the description for Ofelia’s Life-Dream, and it says: “Mysterious bioluminescent fungi, moths that drink tears of sleeping birds, and a giant self destructing palm tree.” and you’re thinking this is coming out of a fantasy movie or something, but in a quick google search--literally they’re just real things from Madagascar, which is amazing, and you’re absolutely right, there’s so many fantastical creatures on the Earth to begin with. That’s fascinating how in order to experience it you actually wrote something to experience it, oh man, that’s so cool. Could you tell me about your libretto experience?

Caroline: So I wrote the libretto myself, and I’ve been really interested in writing for a long time. I wouldn’t say that I’m a professional writer or anything like that, but I would journal a lot and write stories and poems and things like that, so the libretto is pretty stream of consciousness. I just tried to imagine what it would be like to be each of these creatures, and tried to sort of write down sensations that came to mind, so that’s mostly how I developed the libretto.

Tae: Any model, or was it just out of your shared desire to be part of either the fungi, or the moths, or the palm tree?

Caroline: I don’t know, I mean it was a long time ago that I wrote it. I think there was a poem that kind of inspired me, I forget who the poet was, but in the poem I think he talked about lying at the bottom of a lake and seeing fish swimming above, and I liked that imagery.

Tae: That’s so cool. So did you take any classes beforehand, with libretto, or was this basically I want to write, I’m going to write and I’m going to put music behind it. Was that the idea?

Caroline: Yeah, that was the idea, I just wrote it.

Tae: In some ways it just works so well, I thought. All the electronics, and of course the actor, or singer I guess, but having that quote unquote instrumentation does work really well because I think the whole electronics does actually create such a fantasy sound world. So what was the idea behind the instrumentation?

Caroline: Well yeah, kind of what you were saying. The solo vocalist with electronics I think is a good instrumentation for this kind of really introspective piece, that’s a really internal journey, but also very dreamy, where you can have the vocalist going through their monologue and their soliloquy, and the electronics casting this really intense, different atmosphere. The electronics can also kind of move us through different sound worlds that suggest certain things happening in the dream. Unlike traditional instruments, you can draw any sound you want, like the sound of insects, like flies going past a mic. So yeah, it made sense to me.

Tae: How’d you get into electronics?

Caroline: I got into electronics in my undergraduate degree, in my third year. I always leaned towards wanting to write for huge instrumentations because I like having a lot of different possibilities at my fingertips, and I just get excited when there’s lots of different things going on. I wanted to write for orchestra, but when I discovered electronics, I was like woah, it’s like an orchestra, but now I can use any sound in the universe. From then on out at least half of my pieces have involved electronics.

Tae: So how would one prepare electronics for something like Ofelia’s Life-Dream?

Caroline: That’s a good question, I mean, the electronics have kind of shifted form a few times, just because different people who are performing Ofelia want different kinds of timing. That’s actually something that I’m working on with Aliana, is working with her sense of timing and sort of adjusting the timing of the electronics, maybe stretching some things and shrinking some sections to accommodate how she wants to perform the piece. I think that when I first prepared them, you know, you use a digital audio work station, and you find sounds you want, and kind of layer them and sculpt them to make a certain kind of interplay of sounds and move through different atmospheres. I just tested it out myself by taking the libretto and speaking it the way I would act it out to test the timing of the electronics. It’s kind of a work in progress actually, it’s adjusted each time it’s performed.

Tae: I have so many questions, so, basically it’s not like back in the day’s string quartet with a tape, where the tape is completely set and essentially the string quartet has to be with the tape or else. So I guess there’s much more flexibility with the electronics. Another question is, I don’t know why I have this image, I have this image of you with a microphone just going around the world and recording all the sounds. How do you get all these sounds? Do you download them from a website, or do you just go out in the world and record them?

Caroline: Both, crowdsourcing. If I need a particular sound I ask myself, can I make the sound myself? Sometimes the answer is yes, so I’ll go record it, but sometimes the answer is no, I don’t have access to rain dripping inside a cave, but someone out there has recorded that, so I use the archive Freesound.org a lot. You can find recordings from all over the world. They’re of mixed quality; some people know how to record and some people don’t. They have mixed sample rates, and gear, and things like that, but there are some really beautiful recordings on there, and anybody can download them and use them. I contribute to it too, so I post sounds there that I recorded.

Tae: Have you performed the piece by yourself?

Caroline: No, I’ve never performed it. I’m not much of a performer, I perform electronics, but I don’t do singing or speaking.

Tae: Oh, got it. So whenever I see an electronic work with a live ensemble, I always ask, well why not have everything be electronic?

Caroline: You mean have the voice as electronics too?

Tae: Yeah, right.

Caroline: Well, I think it could work, and it’s been performed as a radio style opera where you just hear the sound, but I think it works better as a theatrical piece, because that’s the genre. It’s theater, so it’s meant to have a live person in the space. This will be really interesting because it’ll be live streamed, and there will be a music video, which actually might be an ideal medium for it.

Tae: Especially with COVID, I’m wondering how this work has been for you and the Guerilla Opera.

Caroline: They’re going to go into a TV studio and take different shots of Aliana moving through the space and doing different things, and splice it together into an actual music video/movie kind of thing, which is really exciting. What we’re going to do there is, because it would be really hard if you’re taking different shots, as you do when you’re shooting a music video, the music needs to be added in post, so that’s what we’ll do, the electronics will be added in post.

Tae: Have you thought about maybe an acoustic version?

Caroline: Yeah, I think an acoustic version could be interesting. I actually wondered if it could work without the electronics, just a soliloquy.

Tae: Yeah, it read like a play in some ways, it was so cool. Yeah, I would love an acoustic version, it would be kind of nice. You worked with Guerilla Opera before, with Clapping Game Song Book. How was it different this time around?

Caroline: Well I think this is definitely a very different workflow because of COVID; meeting on Zoom and knowing it’s going to be broadcasted but no one’s going to be there live for the performances. I really enjoy the idea of being able to have more theatrical control over the work. Guerilla Opera has a lot of theatrical control over the work that’s really fine tuned by being able to film it and have different shots and close ups, and actually splice the space together in a different way. That’s really exciting, and I think that’s something about the pandemic that’s pushed a lot of artists to think in a more cinematic way. I’m really curious to see what comes out of that, I’m excited. Whereas with Clapping Game Songbook, it was much more of a traditional theatrical production; working in person and doing staging, lighting, cues, and all of those things.

Tae: Even then I remember at the performance we couldn’t have people, because that was in March I think, and that was the beginning of our shutdown.

Caroline: It was only a few people allowed in the theater at once. I actually was able to be there in person, but I probably only ever got within 30 feet of anybody, and everything was shutting down, so it was a really weird time.

Tae: I remember watching the video and I don’t know about you but whenever I watch something like that again, when people are touching each other, and singing to each other, I’m just going don’t do that, where are your masks, you know?

Caroline: Yes, that’s actually really crazy to think about. It was right before everyone knew the full scale of it. Doing these clapping games and singing in close proximity. Oh my gosh, oh no.

Tae: Well, do you have any future projects that you want to share?

Caroline: Sure! Right now I’m collaborating with Alarm Will Sound and a video artist, her name is Stephanie Bird, on a multimedia collaboration. This started a year ago, and because of COVID has kind of transformed, but we’re hoping to release a music video in early January this year, taking footage from abandoned train tunnels in the Sierras. Stephanie and I actually went on an expedition up there in August to take field recordings and film in these miles and miles of abandoned train tunnels. They are so sci-fi, they’re like, woah, craziest place I’ve ever been probably.

Tae: Wait, how abandoned is it?

Caroline: There’s a trail up there. When we went there was hardly anybody up there, but I think maybe on nice days there’s more people. The train tunnels don’t have trains anymore or anything like that, and they’re from a long time ago. The further you hike the less people you’ll see, because one of the tunnels is over a mile in length, so you’re just going through this dark, spooky tunnel for a mile, and there’s gravel that’s deep so you’re trudging through it. It’s actually really grueling and really spooky. I’m surprised they don’t film movies in there, it feels like a sci-fi, spaceship, abandoned colony on another planet or something, it’s crazy.

Tae: Those have to be amazing inside I assume.

Caroline: Yeah, there’s tons of graffiti, there’s all these crazy rock formations, there’s water, there’s bats, there’s weird little windows in the side of the tunnel that let through little slats of light. It’s crazy, it’s so pretty and creepy.

Tae: I’m laughing just because I’m like nope, I’ll never ever. Nope. You can never ever convince me to go on one of those kinds of trips, oh my god, oh no no no. That’s awesome though, so that’s in January?

Caroline: Yeah, we’re putting together a video, and I’m putting together a score for Alarm Will Sound, and we’ll have workshops in early December and get the sound going. We’ll actually cut the video to the music; that’s the plan, so it’s actually a music video instead of a film.

Tae: Any composition for a traditional classical setup maybe?

Caroline: Yeah, I just finished a work for Transient Canvas Boston--for Matt and Amy--for marimba, bass clarinet, and electronics. I just sent that one off.

Tae: How did you get in touch with the Boston crowd, because I think I read your bio. You were at UMKC, and then you went to San Diego, so you’re more on the West Coast. I mean it’s 2020, but how?

Caroline: Well I applied to the Guerilla Opera fellowship, so that’s how I got in touch with them. I had actually met Amy at Seamus in Oregon a couple of years ago when Transient Canvas was a guest ensemble there. Amy was playing my clarinet piece by chance, but then we hung out and had beers together and all that, and you know.

Tae: Well that’s really awesome. You go somewhere and next thing you know someone all the way from Boston plays your piece. That has to feel pretty good, that’s awesome. Do you have anything to add? What we should be expecting, or? I remember the first time I heard Ofelia’s I was like, oh, I really need to sit down for this, this is awesome but I need to sit down for this. Even from the get go; how she enters, laughing as an insane person in some ways. It really grabs your attention. So I was going to ask, what should the audience prepare for?

Caroline: Well, I think the piece is kind of dark; there’s definitely a darkness to it. It does touch on themes of death and themes of depression, I think. To me there’s kind of a little bit of a feminist aspect to it too because the character of Ophelia in Hamlet is kind of this helpless insane girl that’s just following Hamlet around, and then she dies. I’ve always kind of resented that about her character. It’s complicated too because when you write a female character who’s insane, it feels so cliche in a way, and then you feel like you’re not supposed to do that. Like if you’re going to write a female character, you can’t have her be depressed, or insane, or any of those things. But that’s not really fair either, because women are complex, and we get depressed, and we can be insane, and we can be all of the other things that humans can be, so it feels constraining to feel like you can’t do one thing and you have to do the other for any reason. What I try to do here is give the idea of Ophelia some depth; she doesn’t just die. In Ofelia’s Life-Dream she actually doesn’t die, she’s just working through different feelings, and options, and emotions. She’s curious, and she’s spiritual, and she’s scientific, and she’s going through a hard time.