For the past seven years, Stephen Lias has been visiting wild places to inspire him in writing musical compositions. His latest wilderness muse is Alaska’s Bering Land Bridge National Preserve.
The self-proclaimed adventure composer will be traveling this week with local music teacher Ron Horner to tour the park. To write a good piece, he says he’ll keep himself open to every experience the preserve offers him. “I like to get dirty and maybe a little scared,” Lias says, “and get myself out of my comfort zone so the park reveals to me a certain experience.”
Lias plans to see the granite tors and Serpentine Hot Springs during his time in the preserve. After his visit, he won’t even begin to write until he’s back in his home studio. The composer says he’ll take thousands of pictures and journal entries and jot down some musical ideas there. Then, he’ll take all of that back to his Texas studio and surround himself with those images. After that, he’ll recreate the experience mentally until musical ideas start to germinate.
Lias says the time between the studio and the trip ensures the strongest memories stand out to him. Using those memories and themes, he’ll begin to write a musical composition. If he hikes, the piece may have a walking pace. If he sees a soaring hawk, trumpets may have sweeping melodic runs. Everything from the weather to his emotions can be used as lenses that will affect the sound of the final product.
“What does that bear sound like, or what does that falcon sound like?” wonders Lias. “But my audience isn’t falcons. My audience is human beings. And so, it’s much more interesting to me as a composer to ask myself, ‘how do I feel’?”
If everything goes according to plan, Lias hopes the piece will be ready by this coming May. After his time at the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, he will be going to Homer for the Wild Shore Festival for New Music, August 7-14.
