Life & Work with Bill Alves

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bill Alves.

Hi Bill, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I came to study music composition at USC nearly forty years ago, steeped in classical education but most excited about new technologies and the vibrant LA new music scene. In addition to new digital music technologies, I studied computer motion graphics with the animation pioneer John Whitney. Still, surrounded by LA’s diverse cultures, I didn’t want to limit myself to the lineage of European classical music, and I studied many different traditions of music, a process that culminated in my book Music of the Peoples of the World. Of these traditions, I found none more beautiful or inspiring as the gamelan music of the islands of Java and Bali in Indonesia. Those large orchestras mostly of bell-like metallophones and gongs play in intricate polyphony, but they are not guided by the scales and harmonies of the conventional music theory I had learned to that point. Unfortunately, USC did not have any music like this, but I learned of such ensembles at UCLA, so I called them up to find out when they met. I showed up to play there, and no one ever asked if I was enrolled in the course. In 1993, I was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study this music in Indonesia for a year. I was fascinated by the prospect of making music with pitches outside of those twelve enshrined in every octave on the piano keyboard, and I soon learned that there was another Californian composer who had discovered this path long before me: Lou Harrison.

Since the 1930s, Lou had brought experimentation with microtonality and influences from Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia into American music. I helped arrange a residency for him at USC and became good friends with him and his instrument-building partner Bill Colvig. I often visited them at their place near Santa Cruz and with my friend Brett Campbell I wrote his biography, published as Lou Harrison: American Musical Maverick. Like Lou, I composed my own music for Javanese gamelan instruments, and when I began teaching music at Harvey Mudd College, those instruments became a resident ensemble here in Claremont. Our “American Gamelan,” as we call it, performs compositions by Lou, myself, and other composers, often as a part of MicroFest, LA’s microtonal music festival. MicroFest Records and other labels have released much of this music, the latest being Guitars and Gamelan, in which I combine gamelan instruments with retuned electric and acoustic guitars. Today I compose many types of music, often involving electronic technologies, other pitch systems, and video compositions. I identify with California’s long heritage of openness to new artistic ideas, often originating in other traditions but detached from the weighty anchors of Europe.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I am privileged to have the support of many musicians, friends, colleagues, the college where I teach, my record label, and other organizations, but roads are not smooth for anyone in the region’s artistic communities. I am overwhelmed with the richness of music and arts in southern California but also frustrated that audiences are small for frequently breathtaking work simply from lack of awareness. One great gift of the Internet was the gradual breaching of those entrances manned by cultural gatekeepers, yet paradoxically arts groups seem as isolated as ever–from each other and from potentially enthusiastic and diverse audiences. The geography is sprawling, the funding sparse, and the administration time-consuming, but the rewards constantly replenish me and others. I’m proud and fortunate to be a part of such vibrant creative communities.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
One exciting new area of my work is virtual reality. I have long explored connections between music and moving visual art, what John Whitney called “complementarity,” and created many pieces of video projection with live or electronic music. Yet the conventional medium to realize these visions limits the animation to a rectangle in front of the viewer that’s a relatively small part of the visual field. Like other artists, I wanted to find a way to make the experience more immersive, so I turned to VR. The technology is still at a stage where I have to painstakingly code everything, and of course traditional methods of disseminating it, through recordings or concerts, have to be re-thought. When experiencing a VR work of mine, such as Asterism, the person sits in a stationary position but can look around in any direction. The music follows your head movements as well.

What does success mean to you?
Although I chose a path in music that would never have the audience size of famous popular musicians, as a young artist, I couldn’t escape the tendency to think of success in quantitative terms: high-profile commissions, performances, venues, and so on. However, I took away a different perspective from my friendship with and study of the composer Lou Harrison. After a tumultuous decade of trying to make a career in the unforgiving environment of New York City, he literally had a mental breakdown and returned to a tiny cabin on the coast of California. There he discovered the most important goals in his life: to make music that he wanted and to play it with friends. Today more than anything, I value the opportunities I have to work with musician friends and other collaborators to bring beauty to my communities.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.billalves.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.alves.5
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe6bUIdtZMyjYOoj8uNHPjQ
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bill_alves
• Other: https://billalves.bandcamp.com/