A conversation between Billy Bang & Alain Kirili (1997)

Alain Kirili : The concert was given on Easter. We decided to do something that was a communion of my sculpture and your music. Can you comment on what you decided to do on that day.

Billy Bang : I couldn't tell initially what the material was that the sculpture is made out of. It looked hard, metallic, but then it looks like it is made of wood. It is the combination of the softness, the hardness and the shapes that helped inspire me to play. This is where I get my connection from, particularly for solo violin. In solo, you try to acquire as many artistic references as you can. You try to get the separate influences in the environment around you and channel it internally and execute it as a meaningful expression. Aside from the artistic levels of that day, it did bring religious and spiritual qualities that I try to encompass in my music. When we decided on a day, I wasn't aware that it was Easter, I saw a number and a sunday. I was out of touch. When I realized that it was Easter, it was ironic and coincidental. I move in a spiritual aspect of music, your piece is entitled Commandment and they both fell together on Easter Sunday. It could be a coincidence or it can have a lot of meaning. It does have a lot of meaning to me. I was very impressed by the situation. It just came together, it was like a natural flow. It wasn't contrived or calculated, we picked a day. It couldn't have worked out any better.

AK : You made a comment about the material of the sculpture and the material of the music. The dialogue between the softness and the hardness, it could be wood when, in fact, it is iron. In which way does the softness or the hardness translate into your music?

BB : When I play spatial intervals, the space between the notes, I consider that to be very soft but sometimes that takes another shape, sometimes it becomes very strong. Sometimes it becomes metal, sometimes it becomes wood, sometimes it becomes water. It becomes elusive, what is hard and what is soft, we determine that from the images that people give us whether from television or from art. We consider a rock to be very hard and there are times that it is very soft like a pebble. I wrote a song called "A pebble is a small rock." Strength can be in a small area but very powerful inside. A hard surface doesn't have to be very strong, yet it is.

AK : All the sounds of the concert were acceptable to the ear. There was a human touch from very deep to very light, when it got abstract, it was very different from John Cage. Cage would use a sound that would equal the material of an object to the voice. In your music, the human material is superior and a priority.

BB : The symbols that I use in my music are contrary to the western pre-conceived concepts. Perhaps it is something embedded in me over a long period of time that comes out. The more I deny my western education, the more I understand the alternative or an optional understanding of life. I try to blend them both because I am western, particularly American, and at the same time I have a lot of Southern African roots in me and I really try to incorporate them all, not deny them, but when you bring the two together to find a harmony with both of the cultural differences, then you come up with something that is not the norm for most people, you come up with something very different. It's the marriage of the two worlds that I try to blend.

AK : What did you have in mind when you said that you would compose something for Commandment?

BB : What I saw, my immediate thoughts of the sculpture..well, I view art like an old fashioned gypsy lady who might read a palm, I try to feel it. I walked around it and tried to feel the vibrations that I might get from it. In spite it's physical materials, it's made of iron, but I felt it to be extremely soft. I felt it to be relaxing, I felt it to be very smooth, although there are rough edges.that's what makes it feel like it is made of wood. I felt serine. That is what lead me to write Commandment, to try to exemplify those feelings and try to express what I picked up from the sculpture. It was very soft….the music itself is very slow, very relaxing and very smooth. It is not hard, like when I attack the violin, double stops, and other techniques that are my power. This sculpture has the feeling of being very, very powerful but it's not a hard powerful it's a soft powerful, we call it a "quiet fire." That is when the impact is so powerful, that it is subtle at the same time. It is very soft, light as a feather. The sculpture brought me into a feeling of peace and serenity. It was the shape, it was the color. I tried to blend right into the piece. It is a very powerful statement in a subtle way.

AK : The reason we met together was not for a "gig" but to see how two artists create a dialogue other than just a performance.

BB : Most performances are mediocre to me. They exist because of existence, not for any real purpose. That day, solo, was many purposes being felt simultaneously based on the way it happened, they way it materialized. We just happened to come together, there was a union there, a respectful union. When you share artistically, when there is a meeting of the minds, a meeting of the spirits, when all of that comes together in a unified, solidified way it's just a beauty that catapults into magic. What it really is, isn't so much about a performance with times, tickets and the logistics but about coming together in front of friendly people who made me try to peak and play my best because they deserve it, I deserve it and I tried to excel beyond my own capacity. The environment was about everyone sharing and being together.. that was the most important thing, it was not that I was there to play a gig and to finish at a certain time.

AK : One reason why we are not doing a "performance" is because we are not trying to entertain people as a first goal. Morton Feldman created music for the paintings of Marc Rothko. Feldman's music expresses more about the work of Rothko than any art historian can attest. I want to see what your soul, your passion for life, and the spirituality that you have could say about my body of work.

BB : I agree. Sometimes you need another medium to get another expression of the same material. I work with dance and I work with books. The sculpture helps bring the music to life. In order to hear my music, one needs to see the sculpture or vice versa and it's the other tangible medium that brings life to understanding.