Hymn for the Besieged City premieres on Latvia's Independence Day

The new work was commissioned by Orchestra Riga for a concert on Latvia's Independence Day, November 18, 2024, and premiered at VEF Cultural Palace.

Grateful to Valdis Butāns and the musicians of the orchestra for their fine work, and especially to Arvydas Kazlauskas for initiating the conversation about the commission.

A recording of the piece (by Latvijas Radio 3) can be found on this website, in the playlist of orchestral works on the composition portfolio page.

The annotations for the piece are copied here:

This work aims to honour the fight for independence, taking the form of a hymn of courage for a city under attack. In November 2023, I visited several cities in Ukraine on a humanitarian mission and witnessed firsthand a neighbour nation fighting for her independence, identity and future in the face of obliteration. The composition intends to honour Ukraine’s struggle for independence in the light of Latvia’s own historical path to regaining her freedom from both Nazi and Soviet occupations. Since moving to Riga in 2012 I have observed the emotions surrounding the proclamation of Latvia as a nation. Through the lens of many cultural events both before and during the war in Ukraine, I have observed that Latvians have strong opinions and emotions associated with the former occupations and how they gained their independence and identity. Thus on a spiritual level the work is intended to reflect the condition of the human soul under attack. It describes a trajectory of emotions from suspicion and betrayal, to shock, wrath, confusion, loss, agony and despair, before a long and difficult, but finally triumphant process of forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption and new hopes together with lingering fears moving forward.

A description of the composition itself follows:

The concept of a hymn composed for wind orchestra provides the broad strokes for the composition’s design. The main groupings of the work are flutes and clarinets, reeds, brass, contrabass, and percussion but certain processes involve blending of many sub-grouped timbres and techniques. Structurally, the piece is made of 9 main sections which change between 77 and 85 bpm 6 times. It is made up of several main elements and layered processes: Chorale, Melodic voice, Chromatic texture, Canon, and Cluster chords. It begins with a brass fanfare in 4/4 (bar 1) accompanied by a tolling bell (bar 5) that remains in 4/4 under a peculiar melody in E harmonic minor played by the reeds changing between 5/4 and 4/4 (bar 12) from which counterpoint is developed in many other voices before settling into 3/4 (bar 28) which remains unchanged until the finale in 6/8 (bar 203). Then, a chromatic texture of 32nd notes weaving up and down with a widening wavelength is introduced in the flutes, clarinets and saxophones (bar 39). In parallel there is a chorale in the brass highlighted by the oboe, english horn and bassoons. The strange melodic lead in the reeds continues to develop, and is then woven into several conflicting philosophies of harmony: tinntinnabuli on various roots, E harmonic minor scales, and chromatic scales played by different instrument groups. The development of this melody and harmony is interjected with dissonant cluster chords which first appear in the wood winds (bar 150), then in the winds and brass (bar 179), and then crushingly for the entire orchestra with saxophone multiphonics emerging to express a moment of pure agony and despair (bars 196-201). Finally, the entire peice modulates into B minor, 6/8 (bar 203) which prevails till the end. Flutes and clarinets perform a procedural dance of chromatic and whole tone scales, while the reeds and brass play a 3-part canonic choral progression which culminates to a certain peak (bar 247), which is echoed quietly by the woodwinds in slower tempo (bar 277) fading out to a return of the tolling bell in 4/4 juxtaposed under 6/8 (bar 287).

An interview about the work by Inese Lusina was published in a November issue of the journal Sestdiena.

The original transcript of this interview in English can be found below:

1. Tell us, please, about Yourself and Your path in music. Where are You from? How it started? Is it coming from family roots? And how You got from Your birthplace to Latvia?

I was born in Louisiana, USA, 1983 to a Malaysian mother and an American father. Both my parents are authors - my mother is a writer, artist, designer and publisher, while my father is a theology professor, music instrument builder, guitarist, and also has several books published. In 1990 when I was 7 years old my family moved to Singapore where I spent the next 20 years growing into a young adult. 

My parents always brought me to church so I mostly experienced live music in the form of worship and liturgy. But then I began going to the underground events as a teenager, and discovered loud and dissonant music like metal and punk. As it went, I began playing drums for worship songs in church at the age of 12, but began performing metal genre music in public around the age of 21. 

I began writing songs, and formed a rock band called “Firebrands” that did quite well for a band in Singapore at that time. We organised dozens of local concerts and toured all around South East Asia, before heading out to festivals in Taiwan, Australia, Dubai, India, Hollywood and New York. 

During that time I became more aware that I could compose music in my head, but struggled to find a way to write or record it. I began to learn to play keyboard instruments, self-studied music theory using ABRSM books for a year, and finally applied to study for a bachelors degree in music composition in several universities in Europe. I was accepted by the national Danish music academy DKDM in Copenhagen based on my portfolio, and at the age of 27 I left my parents home for Copenhagen in 2010. 

During my time there I met many extraordinary personalities. Composers and artists and engineers of all kinds of unexpected levels and realities and styles from comedy to dance to theatre to jazz. 

Then one day my composition teacher Hans Abrahamsen told me that based on my early tendancies he thinks I’d like Baltic composers. So I began listening to Arvo Part and Peteris Vasks in the library. I used to listen to Vasks “Distant Light” and “Voices” in headphones on my bike ride to school or home through the snow and wind. The style of the Baltic composers seemed to call out to me. There was something sacred and profound about the sound. 

In 2012 I had the opportunity to come to Latvia on Erasmus exchange for the final year of my bachelor’s degree. I finally had the chance to learn from Baltic composers, and understand the environment that produced such a hauntingly beautiful aesthetic. Near the end of the bachelor degree I knew that there was so much more I wanted to learn here. So after that, instead of returning to Denmark I decided to continue a Masters degree in music composition in Latvia, which I completed in 2015. 

My teachers were Rolands Kronlaks, Janis Petraskevics and Peteris Plakidis. My composition classmates were Platons Buravickis, Linda Leimane, Oskars Herlins and many others from that generation, such as Anna Kirse, Evija Skulte and Madara Petersone to name a few. I also had the privilege of learning from Andris Dzenitis, Eriks Esenvalds and Peteris Vasks during workshops, masterclasses and competitions. 

2. How do You like here, in our country? Why You - a musician, who had been traveled a lot - decided to stay living in Latvia?  

I know I will always be a guest wherever I live, but I feel most at home in Latvia. In Latvia people have a quiet strength, and moral and family values seem to be stronger here, closer to how I was raised as a child. 

Latvians are some of the most musical people I’ve ever encountered in the world. I believe this is because you have the rare opportunity to study music and sing in choirs from childhood. And this is because song and dance have helped unite your nation and identity, and preserve your language and culture when occupiers tried to stamp it out. The song and dance festival is an awesome wonder to behold, a powerful testimony of Latvia’s story and voice. And the Latvian language, to my ear, sounds very beautiful phonetically when sung. Altogether it gives me goosebumps to heaven. 

I love the nature in Latvia. The forests and seasides are so enchanting. Summer time is filled with adventures, camping and canoeing on the rivers and pagan traditions on midsummers night. Autumn is mushroom and berry picking season. The Winter is so dark, cold and depressing, but there are bonfires, hot wine and ice skating on the lakes. The Spring always brings an enormous relief, and as the snow starts to melt, so does the Latvian soul, and one might actually see a smile on a face around the time the trees start exploding with new leaves. 

I also really like that Latvia has fresh food markets, like the central market and others like it, where people can buy and sell local farm produce. This reminds me of Asia, where fresh local produce is often available in markets. 

For all these reasons and more I love living in Latvia and hope to make it my home.

3. How do You see us (Latvian people), our human nature, lifestyle, musical world, and our historical path and struggle for Independence?

Latvians are shy and humble. Very unlike Americans, Latvians will never boast and will hide their talents until needed. Then they shine. 

Latvians love nature and recharging in nature. They are introverted and keep their treasures to themselves. Latvians are curious about things from the outside and love to explore and travel. 

Latvians musical world is extremely rich and historically significant. It would take more than a lifetime to discover the fullness and depth of the music that developed here. 

Latvians have a unique take on the world and Europe. Our geolocation is fragile and our culture bears many scars from previous grievances. It polarizes society and reveals its weaknesses. It is not as divided as in the United States but there are clear divides and tensions which have come into view so much more since the war began. 

From what I’ve observed, there is still a lot of trauma from the previous occupations. When I think about the story of those years when Latvians were forced to pick sides between occupying regimes and fight against their own brothers, and about the mass killings and deportations of Latvians that most of the world doesn’t know about, and about the story of post Soviet Latvia in the 90s when everything was up in the air, I feel a great heaviness in my heart mixed with a deep conviction that Latvians will find and write their own destiny into history. 

My father once told me a story from a book about a tree that began its life in the ruins of an old barn. As it grew it became terribly twisted as it tried to reach for the scattered light leaking through the broken roof and walls. But finally when the tree reached the roof and found its way out, it suddenly grew straight up towards the sky. This always reminded me that none of us can choose where and when we are born. Some of us start in difficult places, deprived of light. But we must strain toward the light until we break through. My straining towards the light has led me here. I continue to hope that one day I will find my way out of the barn and grow tall. 

4. What do You do here? Do You feel well integrated in our society and musical scene? Do You have good, essential friends here?  

After completing the Masters degree I took some time off school. I got married to my wife Laura in 2015 and began a new life as a husband. 

I also began to develop several artistic projects with good musical friends here. 

My free improvisation ensemble “Endless Roar”, which I co-founded with the saxophonist Arvydas Kazlauskas has remained active for the past 10 years, and has come to include Stanislavs Judin on contrabass and Vestards Shimkus on piano. We published 2 albums on vinyl and digital with Jersika Records, “Rush Hush” in 2018 and “Acclivity” in 2022. 

My live electronic project “MakeMake” together with producer Vadims Pitlans has also remained active since that time, releasing our first full album “Tesselate” on cassette and digital in 2023. 

My newest project is a folklore duo “Sun Horse” together with vocalist Elina Ellere, founded in 2022. We combine Latvian folklore lyric and melody with synthesizers and percussion. 

In 2016 I began working towards a PhD in Systematic Musicology which I finally completed in 2023. For my dissertation I designed a Brain-Computer Interface for live music performance. 

Currently I continue working at JVLMA as a guest lecturer and researcher, studying inter-brain dynamics during music interaction using EEG Hyperscanning. 

I don’t know how to answer if I feel integrated into society and the music scene. Most of the time I feel ignored by society and the music scene, but to be fair I also ignore society and the music scene. I believe the biggest barrier has always been language. I am embarrassed at how slow I am learning Latvian. However this year I have started practicing daily. 

I hope that one day I will be able to express myself adequately in Latvian, and that it will make it easier to function as a musical artist in this place and time. 

I do have very dear friends in Latvia. When I first moved to Riga I formed my first friendships outside the music academy at cultural events, local concerts or jam sessions. I met my wife Laura through mutual friends at a social occasion, and of course got to know more people and her family through her. Arvydas, as well as other musicians I’ve worked together with in long-term projects such as in Endless Roar, MakeMake, The Creek and Sun Horse are also my dearest friends here in Latvia, with whom I have shared some wonderful memories.

5. I have read Your annotation about the Hymn for the besieged City and will use its basic text. But, may be You will say something more about idea of this peace?

In the autumn of 2023 I experienced the worst emotional trauma in my life and felt little motivation to continue living. The feelings of betrayal, self-pity and despair were unbearable. Composing this hymn helped me to process that pain and focus on hope for forgiveness and reconciliation. 

When I still lived in Singapore I used to participate in disaster relief and other types of humanitarian missions in the region. From 2005-2007 I had been a part of a disaster relief crew to Aceh, Indonesia, bringing food, construction materials, and medical supplies to cities and villages that had been devastated by the Boxing Day tsunami. I had never witnessed such death and destruction. There were giant ships perched on top of crushed buildings, mass graves and the smell of the dead on the wind. 

The experience gave me perspective. My personal problems and complaints in life seemed so small and insignificant next to disaster survivors who had lost their loved ones and whose reality had been so completely shattered.

In order to stop the feeling of self-pity and despair I was experiencing, I felt strongly that it was time for me to return to humanitarian work. 

6. Please, tell about Your humanitarian missions in Ukraine, and what did you experience there?  

Every day in Riga since the war began I passed by the Ukrainian and Russian embassies on my way to work. Each day I saw posters and protests and pictures of the dead and dying. 

Having lived for a period of 2 months in Odessa in 2009, I was horrified to see what was happening and shocked at the slow and weak response from world leaders who had the power to make a difference. Everyone just condemned the situation with words and sent weapons to help. But not one nation sent troops to help stop the aggressor on the ground. 

In November 2023 I joined a humanitarian mission to Ukraine. For a period of 3 weeks I travelled with a group led by a Singaporean from refugee sites near the western border, towards Kyiv. We stopped at several cities such as Lviv, Zhytomer and Ternopil, bringing different kinds of supplies and relief to different types of vulnerable people.

Orphans, widows, wounded soldiers in hospitals, the homeless displaced, and the physically and mentally disabled were among those who are suffering the most. 

We also brought supplies for soldiers on the front lines. However just before our team departed for eastern Ukraine, a tragedy cut short our mission, and the leaders decided to return to Singapore early. We handed the supplies to another support convoy heading east and then headed back towards Lviv. 

It was severely heartbreaking to witness the suffering of a nation fighting for their independence and identity. But I also witnessed their courage and resilience, and their absolute conviction and resolve to fight intelligently and honorably. 

Since visiting war-torn Ukraine I have been seeking ways to support them long-term. I made several contacts there connected with the art and music communities. Some producers and artists there for example, have recognized that music written and recorded during this time of war will be very precious to people in a future peace time, just like Latvian music that was preserved during the occupations. 

The piece, Hymn for the Besieged City is a prayer for all who are or have ever been under siege, for courage against despair, for strength to fight the good fight day after day, and for reconciliation and forgiveness. 

7. Do you speak or understand Latvian language? What languages do You actually speak? 

I am slowly learning the Latvian language. During my first years in Latvia I took classes and took the state exam at level A2. However after that I found it difficult to find lessons at the B1 level. It was 2014 and the educational materials for learning Latvian were still being developed. 

Over the years I’ve slowly learned more words, but the grammar is still very difficult for me. Now I understand about 50% of what is being said, and I can speak well enough to function in daily life. However deeper conversations are still limited. I feel like a 5 year old child, still trying to find the words to speak my mind. 

Nowadays I make effort to speak every day with my wife’s grandparents who do not speak English. This has helped me greatly and I hope to improve. 

I am aware that my lack of ability to speak fluently in Latvian has isolated me from the professional music community. I am also terribly introverted and so do not spend time socializing with my colleagues and peers. I hope that in the future I will overcome these handicaps. 

I like to spend time at home in my creative space. I collect music instruments from all over the world, and they are always good company and perpetual sources of inspiration. 

8. What are Your favourite topics (themes, stories, ideas) in Your compositions? And what type of musical language is Yours? 

When I was younger I avoided political or social themes, and focused on the human encounter with nature. Natural phenomena like tides, wind, gravity on the moon, the tendency for plants to grow towards the sun, the dance of the planets, the refraction of light, the behavior of flocks of birds, schools of fish and swarms of insects. 

In those works I found ways to describe these natural forces and living motions, and the feeling of awe when encountering them. I began to develop a kind of Impressionistic, Late-Romantic style, often incorporating ideas from the Spectralists or Sacred Minimalists.

I feel very grateful and privileged to have had the chance to work with some of Latvia’s finest musicians, ensembles and orchestras over the years to realize these pieces. 

A selection of these works can be found compiled in a portfolio album of live concert recordings available on all major digital platforms called “Sketches from Latvia”. 

As I matured I began to write about the human experience more. About pain, faith, love, death and the human condition. 

My musical language continues to evolve as I mature. I have always adored the works of Debussy, Sibelius, Mahler and Hovhaness for how visual and emotionally moving they are. I also love the approaches of Ligeti, Xenakis, Hass, and Takemitsu for their temporal and spectral ideas. Studying these masters gave me the fundamental tools to form my own musical language. 

As a younger composer I dove deeper into extended techniques, aleatoric and mellesmatic passages. But as I grew older I began to understand what works effectively for what I want to say, and now I only write unconventional or difficult things when the music demands it. 

I pay very careful attention to timbre and articulation. I also like to work with the border between rhythm and texture. I love it when rhythm becomes faster and denser until it reaches a blazing edge where it turns into texture and tone. 

I also like to work with what happens in the ear when musical lines split and seem to live a life of their own. When string instruments glissando at different speeds to different pitches, the ambiguity of the microtonal intervals becomes exceptionally exciting to me. 

Another technique I like to use is temporal ambiguity. Most music has a time signature and a tempo that the whole group synchronizes to. When this convention is broken with intention it can be fascinating. Independent voices in an ensemble can be given different time signatures and tempos, accelerations and decelerations to cause our sense of pulse and time to temporarily vanish. 

Melody has become more important to me now. Previously I was less concerned with the lead voice but now I use it more intentionally. I like to find a single melodic line and accompany it with contrasting philosophies of harmony, throwing it into wholly different lights. 

About a hundred years ago we witnessed the end of the aesthetic of consonance in music. We embraced noise and dissonance and indeed dissonance is a truthful way to describe reality today. 

However dissonance is rarely beautiful unless used in contrast with consonance. I do not enjoy music that is harsh and ugly all the way through, just for the sake of maintaining some over-intellectual set of rules. All that is old is not necessarily gold, but all that is new is not necessarily better. 

George Macdonald, an allegorical writer who inspired C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien once said that the role of the artist is to adorn the truth with beauty. Life takes on more dimensions as one gets older. One must choose what truths to wrestle with and how to adorn them with beauty. 

9. Please tell about Your research in systematic musicology. What & about it is? And why it is actual today? 

Systematic Musicology is the investigation of music using scientific methods. My supervisor Prof. Valdis Bernhofs introduced me to the worlds of music psychology and physiology. It made me curious about what is behind the curtain, behind the magic that music is. 

During my doctoral studies I developed a Brain-Computer Interface for live music performance. I worked together with neuroscientists to design EEG experiments to discover how brain activity changes when musicians perform music with contrasting emotional expressions. 

The data was then used to create a computer program to detect performers expressive intentions in real time and display this on a screen. These could then be mapped to control music, lights, visuals or anything one might like in real time. 

Information about this research can be found on https://www.jachinpousson.com/research

I began to use this system in live performances this year. In August I participated in an artists residency at Erica Synths where I connected my brain to a modular synth wall, and to 4 analog synthesizers. The recorded performance will be published later this year. For now you may find more information here: https://www.jachinpousson.com/single-post/eeg-x-modular-project-at-erica-synths-artist-residency

My current research project uses the EEG Hyperscanning method to investigate inter-brain dynamics during music interaction, such as in rhythmic and improvisation tasks.  Our lab at JVLMA is unique in this capability. 

Our research team aims to collect further datasets at JVLMA as well as at other institutions who have invited us such as Colorado University, USA, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan, and the Technical University of Berlin. 

In the future we aim to publish findings and apply knowledge to develop EEG hardware and software for music research, education, therapy and performance, together with research and innovation partners at Vilnius University biophysics department and in Tartu.

Humans are always finding new ways to communicate. Using the brain signal in music interaction may open new ways to express ourselves, and reveal previously hidden meanings and processes. 

Both science and art aim to reveal truth but from opposite perspectives. One is objective the other subjective. 

I’ve heard the opinion that musicologists only sit and read books, and have no culturally or artistically significant output. I firmly disagree. Science and art have always inspired each other to invent new things, and to explore new territory. I believe using the signals from human brain as a fundamental part of the creative process and the communication of ideas will improve human life and will be a common thing the future. After all, as Vasks has said, music should make the world a better place. Without the understanding musicology can bring, music is reduced to mere entertainment. 

I am inspired to use what I have learned from these research pursuits to become a better artist. I have always only wanted to be an artist. I’m excited to continue exploring this new territory where art and science overlap. People say to play music from the heart, but the fact is music begins and ends in the human brain.

In Ecclesiastes chapter 12 it is written that there is no end to the making of books and that study is a weariness of the flesh. I try to remember that at the end of the day intellectualism doesn’t necessarily make good art. I only seek to express a sincere human feeling while I’m still alive.