Writer’s Thoughts Concealed in ‘Hidden Legacies’ Review

It is clear from Chris Pasles review of “Hidden Legacies” (“AIDS Cantata Premieres at UCLA,” Calendar, March 31) that he got part of the point. We agree with him that the evening carried an emotional wallop. Unfortunately, the review was so short it left us wondering more about his thoughts.

“Hidden Legacies” is a 40-minute work about the AIDS epidemic, commissioned by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. For us, its performance was cathartic for singer and listener alike. This is in part because of composer Roger Bourland’s accessible music, which was able to feel both familiar and new at the same time, and in part because of John Hall’s so-called “clumsy” lyrics (as Pasles described the libretto), which we felt articulated a broad range of thoughts and emotions as experienced by the “AIDS generation.”

Bourland had carefully considered how to meet our commission and be appropriate for a work about AIDS, which has been a devastating experience for the gay and lesbian communities. He mindfully chose musical languages that could speak for the voice of the chorus, whose 165 members come from all walks of life, and a group that has sustained the loss of more than 70 of its members to AIDS.

He purposely followed a tradition in the history of Western music--to borrow freely from popular musical styles. Bourland admits the images of Stravinsky and Bernstein (among others) into his wide-ranging and theatrical score.

Likewise, Hall chronicles the gay community’s history and experience with AIDS--from the disco party-pace of the ‘70s through the nightmare and pain of the ‘80s to finding an affirmation of life in the ‘90s. In “Hidden Legacies,” he explored the maturation of soul that unfortunately only suffering can bring.

More than any other work we have commissioned, the chorus felt Bourland and Hall knew our hearts. From the first rehearsal of “Hidden Legacies,” our members now had a way of saying what had been lost for words. They took our artistic director seriously when he requested that the music not be a requiem but an expression of affirmation, a song of hope and not despair. We believe that Bourland and Hall met the musical and spiritual challenge of our commission.

I realize there is little we can learn in a review as short as the one Pasles was allotted, but it would have been helpful to know why he disliked the lyrics. Were they “clumsy” because living with AIDS is clumsy? Or because they pushed at our resistance to experiencing again the panic-filled race to solve a national, community and personal crisis? Did they seem “unfocused” because emotions in crisis are volatile and complex? The lyrics, like our lives, do not fit into easy meter.

It also would have been helpful to hear more thoughts on the first half of the concert. The primal sounds of New England American Indians in the Los Angeles premiere of John Adams’ “KTAADN,” the poetry of Nicaraguan Daisy Zamora’s hope for children growing up on blood-soaked soil set to music by David Goodman, and David Conti’s setting of Walt Whitman’s elegy for President Lincoln were all worthy of further comment.

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles is proud of its presentation of 20th-Century American music and our established tradition of commissioning works from renowned and emerging composers (all the works on this concert were less than 20 years old).

Reviews are important to the development of new music and to the growth of our musical ensemble. We wish that The Times had afforded Pasles more space for a more complete review.