Composer Profile: Roger Bourland

At the genesis of Pacific Serenades, a concert repeated over two nights at the home of Lee Burns in 1982, three new pieces were premiered alongside Baroque and Renaissance pieces for organ. The first commissioned work of Pacific Serenades premiered on those concerts. Composed by Roger Bourland, entitled Cantilena for flute and organ, this debut work was commissioned out of pocket by Artistic Director and founder of Pacific Serenades, Mark Carlson.

“I paid Roger $150 for that first piece,” Mark shared with me as we sat down in Roger’s living room on a recent afternoon. “And tickets were $5!”

“When Mark asked me to write the piece, we had been friends, but I didn’t know him well musically. I asked Alden Ashforth, whom Mark had studied composition with, what I should write for him. And Alden said, ‘Mark is a flute player who thinks he’s a violinist. Write long lines for him.’ So that’s what I wrote, because of Alden’s description of Mark’s playing,” Roger said.

That piece has gone on to hundreds of performances since its premiere. Since 1982, Roger has been commissioned to write six pieces for Pacific Serenades. After that first concert in 1982, Roger was commissioned again to write a piece for the 1st official season of Pacific Serenades in 1987, Serenade No. 2. He also wrote pieces in 1989, 1992, and 2001, and all of these pieces have had multiple performances by other ensembles. His latest work will be premiered on our March concerts and will be the 100th commission and premiere for the organization.

When it came time to plan the 25th season and bestow the honor of the 100th commission, Mark thought of Roger. “It would make for great symmetry–the first commission, and the 100th,” Mark said.

“Though Mark could have commissioned himself for that honor, he thought of me instead. That’s been the way Mark has done it all these years, supporting other composers,” Roger added.

“When Maria Newman had her most recent piece premiered by Pacific Serenades in 2005,” Mark added, “she said in a KCSN interview that she thought there was no other living composer who had done more to support other composers than myself. I really appreciated that.”

In fact, Pacific Serenades has commissioned a total of 57 composers over its 25 seasons and 102 premieres. Mark’s concept of premiering new works and focusing on Southern California composers and musicians was in place from the very beginning. “I wanted to give composers a voice, composers in this part of the country who were being excluded by the east coast establishment,” Mark explained.

The long-time advocate and adviser for Pacific Serenades, Roger is currently chair of the music department at UCLA. He will relinquish chairmanship in July and begin a year-long sabbatical. During this time Roger will compose an opera based on Mexican opera singer Ángela Peralta. In preparation for the opera, Roger determined to compose three arias from the perspective of Peralta’s lawyer/ agent/lover, Julián Montiel y Duarte. The result is Duarte’s Love Songs, arias that will feature baritone Vladimir Chernov on our March concerts. Chernov may be familiar to Pacific Serenades patrons for his portrayal of Giorgio in LA Opera’s production of Il Postino, composed by Pacific Serenades-commissioned composer Daniel Catán.

The story of Ángela Peralta has all the hallmarks of a tragic opera. The singer was born in 1845 in Mexico City and achieved fame by age 20 as an opera singer in Europe, where she was hailed as the “Mexican Nightingale.” But the singer missed her homeland, and when she returned, she soon struck up an affair with Duarte. This scandal destroyed her blossoming career as a singer. Mexico City’s social elite boycotted her performances and hired hecklers to harass her during performances. She went on to found an opera company and toured Mexico until 1883 when, while in Mazatlán performing Aida, yellow fever swept the city and killed 73 of the company’s 80 members. Duarte and Peralta were married on her deathbed. Duarte was one of the seven to survive.

“I composed three arias to represent different times in their relationship,” Roger explained. “The arias are love songs. The first is when Duarte is a boy, when he first hears her singing and falls in love with her. The second one is when she has gone off to Europe and becomes famous, but misses Mexico, and she returns. Duarte then wants to be her lawyer, her agent, and then her lover. It’s a patter song, fast and funny. The third is after she has agreed to be her lawyer and agent, he goes out and has a moment of how in love he is, and how happy he is.”

Composed for Chernov with lyrics and libretto by Mitchell Morris, Roger also wanted to create the arias as their own piece, outside of the opera. “I composed for the ensemble–not a reduction of an orchestra. You’ll hear the violin personality, the cello personality, and the piano personality throughout the piece. The piano writing in the second movement, the textural passages, is probably more Joni Mitchell than Beethoven. The piece has a lot of counterpoint, a lot of passion. There’s also lots of places for tears in the songs,” Roger said.

I was honored to get a special preview as Roger sang the first aria for me at the conclusion of our interview. The melody was soaring and romantic, longing and passionate. The form was operatic, setting the scene incorporating a theme that would return, completing a whole picture of Duarte’s expression of his love for Peralta. With Roger’s light Baritone voice, I could already envision the scope and depth of this love story, and I am very much looking forward to hearing all three arias in March.