TELL THE WAY

When we last spoke to composer Nico Muhly, for our Spring 2009 issue, he was in Phnom Penh, just about midway through a year of extensive travel, twelve months that saw him making his way across the globe overseeing the myriad projects he has going on at any given time. Now he has woven his experiences of jet lag, foreign languages, and the strange in-between state of constant movement into the meditative, rapturous Tell the Way, a song cycle commissioned by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus which opened yesterday night at St. Ann’s Warehouse.
For the evening of a dozen or so separate pieces, Muhly invited Bryce Dessner of The National, folk fiddler Sam Amidon, and the young British sitar player Bishi to collaborate for works that reflect the timeless sensation of, as Muhly puts it, “living in one culture and feeling like you belong to another.” Each guest artist brings a unique sensibility and sensitivity to the program, and overall Tell the Way is a set of wide-ranging scope and style, an appropriate reflection of the themes of exploration and introspection.

“It is about travel anxiety and old prayers about boats and old texts about going to other countries and just an obsession with anything to do with being outside of your house, being in an unfamiliar environment,” Muhly explains. “That was the main thing, and then I wanted to make space for there to be some old American travel music and music about alienation.”

The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, whose haunting, cherubic voices provide both foundation and grace note for the songs, is joined onstage by Muhly and his three collaborators, as well as the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. The participants come and go, entwining their instruments and voices together in works that are sometimes haunting, sometimes propulsive, and sometimes both. The overall effect is transporting, in both senses of the word—you feel like you are somewhere else, while at the same time you feel like you’re completely safe at home.

Tell the Way runs through tomorrow at St. Ann’s Warehouse. Photography by Richard Termine, courtesy of St. Ann’s Warehouse.

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