Lunar Module with Devon Lee - Part 3

Nanette McGuinness  00:00
[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists sponsored by a grant from the California Arts Council. I'm Nanette McGuinness, Artistic Executive Director of Ensemble for These Times. In this week's Lunar Module episode, we continue talking to E4TT Luna Composition Lab Call for Scores winner, Devon Lee [INTRO MUSIC ENDS] who we spoke to in June 2024.
Nanette McGuinness  00:33
Would you like to tell us anything about the piece that you submitted and that we chose in the call for scores?
Devon Lee  00:41
So my piece, "What I Know About Living," I wrote it about, I think, in the beginning of 2023. The text that I used was a poem by Andrea Gibson called The Nutritionist. I found this poem when I was around, when I was, before I turned 13, it was a while ago.
Nanette McGuinness  01:08
Wow.
Devon Lee  01:09
And I found it through this, this YouTube channel called like TED-Ed that does little animations and often includes poems. And when I first saw it, I was really drawn to the animation style, and the poem was really beautiful. And I remember thinking that Andrew Gibson's delivery was so powerful and, like, rhythmic. Then I, I was like, Oh, that's great. And then I moved on, but, and then couple years ago, I just I, I kept thinking about it. I'm not, you know, as a as a composer, and it's someone who wants to set texts,there's, like, a little strong connection with with poetry. Well, not for everyone, but it's a huge play for people to get texts to set for music. But for me, since I'm not a huge, I love poetry, but it's kind of looking at it from the outside without, I know that no one needs expertise to appreciate poetry, but I'm I think it's very obvious that I like that expertise.
Nanette McGuinness  02:14
Wait, you're very articulate, but you don't feel yourself to be a wordsmith. Is that how you would say it?
Devon Lee  02:21
I think so, yeah, I struggle a lot with being vulnerable enough to say the words, or deciding, yeah.
Nanette McGuinness  02:26
Sure, yeah, I understand that. Okay, sorry to interrupt, go on.
Devon Lee  02:30
Oh, no worries. And so throughout the years, I I wasn't, like, a voracious reader of poetry, so this poem really stuck with me as one of, like, the couple poems that I really thought about and I was, I was 12 then, and throughout the years, during the pandemic, and then afterwards, my family went through a really rough time, just with like, you know, me and my brother, we were going to a new school, there were like, some like, family health issues that made it really difficult for us.
Nanette McGuinness  03:07
Sorry about that.
Devon Lee  03:07
And, yeah, thank you. It was a really weird time for me. And and then I emerged from that really understanding a lot of this poem that I didn't understand before, like I still saw the moving performance by the poet, because it's also like a spoken word poem, but I also just really got each of those words, and I really felt like it was just really for me now, I'm not in a possessive way but just like I really resonated with it. And so when I had this opportunity to write a piece, I started writing with this text, because I think at its core that the text really describes, like, a lot of difficulty that one might have. But my favorite, I think the lines that impacted me the strongest we're at the end. Kind of like, God, there the poem is, is so beautiful, there's just a lot that I couldn't fit into the text of my piece, but kind of just like, stay here with me, and if the only thing we have is each other, that's enough, that's plenty. And I think it really touched me, and kind of along that vein that I mentioned, of not writing just for the world, but just for myself, I started writing this, just writing what, what I heard, and kind of seeing where it took me. And this is, this is where I've ended up so far. And I'd really love to continue to expand the piece, but, um, it's a piece that's really sent from a personal place.
Nanette McGuinness  04:41
Yeah, and you're not the only composer who's said to me, they wrote music, they started writing music, and they continue to write music because nobody was writing what they wanted to hear.
Devon Lee  04:53
Yeah.
Nanette McGuinness  04:54
I think that's a very genuine motivation. Go ahead.
Devon Lee  04:59
Yeah. And I think, I'm sure that there's like so much out there that describes these kind of feelings because I've, I've been discovering more music, there's just so many just gems of people's, people's feelings, or even if it's not just straight up from an emotional place, just works that are so crafted so carefully that it just evokes that same feeling. But I really, I do get that, like even it wasn't like, oh, there is nothing out there that fits this niche, it was like, there's, I, there's nothing that has my specific feelings towards this poem. I honestly kind of think of it as a weird, very long winded book report of the poem, like I read this poem, and this is what I thought of it.
Nanette McGuinness  05:51
I love it. You know, they say that there's only five or seven or something like that, basic plots in the world, right? Right. But look at all the books that explore them all. So yeah, nobody else is going to respond to the poem exactly the same as you did, and no one will experience and express that. And I guess if you, if you put that into music in a way that's true to yourself, it will really resonate. And it resonated with us. We chose your piece. So, you know, clearly, yeah, you know, clearly, you're mining a vein that speaks to other people. But you're right, you write for yourself, and you hope that when you throw it out into the world, that the world enjoys it. But still, that's not the point. So that's, I think that's actually a very nice way of describing it, the way you did.
Devon Lee  06:41
Thank you.
Nanette McGuinness  06:41
Oh, you're welcome. Your answers have been very kind of, I would say, mindful and thoughtful, in a way that was lovely to hear.
Devon Lee  06:50
Thank you so much.
Nanette McGuinness  06:51
Oh, thank you. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about or tell us? Or, I feel like we've covered a lot of ground.
Devon Lee  06:58
I'm really, really looking forward to the next couple months and years, I think that there's going to be a lot that I'm going to be working on a lot ahead for me and what I'm going to try to do, so I would love to continue writing and sharing and also also hearing from others and working with them.
Nanette McGuinness  07:19
That sounds exciting and wonderful. That's great.
Devon Lee  07:24
Yeah, I'm sorry that I don't have anything that's specific. Mostly, I'm just kind of like following my whims where they go or, it's not super, super well planned, but I think that, I think that when I get there, I'll really enjoy it.
Nanette McGuinness  07:42
Yeah, no, it sounds like you will. So thank you so much for this, this wonderful interview.
Devon Lee  07:50
Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Nanette McGuinness  07:52
[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure and a special thank you to our guest, Devon Lee, for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast by clicking on the subscribe button and support us by sharing it with your friends, posting about it on social media, and leaving us a rating and a review. To learn more about E4TT, our concert season online and in the Bay Area, or to make a tax deductible donation, please visit us at e4tt.org. This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors like you. For Good Measure is produced by Nanette McGuinness and Ensemble for These Times, and design by Brennan Stokes, with special thanks to co-producer and audio engineer Stephanie M. Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure" [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS].