For her debut solo album, violinist Maiani da Silva wanted to find a way to intertwine her art with a perhaps unexpected interest: anthropology.
A lecturer in the Department of Music, in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), da Silva asked six composers to consider an anthropological theme of their own choosing and write a work inspired by that theme.
Some of the composers even consulted with two Yale anthropological experts: Jessica Thompson, an assistant professor of anthropology, and Catherine Panter-Brick, the Bruce A. and Davi-Ellen Chabner Professor of Anthropology, Health, and Global Affairs, both in FAS.
The result is “Brouhaha: Shaped by Fire,” to be released on April 17 in both compact disc and digital formats. The CD features extensive liner notes that include descriptions, written by the composers, of each of the six thematic works. (Two of the composers — Ian Gottlieb ’15 M.M. and Fjóla Evans ’18 M.M.A.— are Yale School of Music alums.)
“I created ‘Brouhaha’ essentially as an opportunity to talk to these composers about what interests them in anthropology, which is my interest,” da Silva said. “Anthropology is such a broad umbrella, and these composers were like, ‘I guess I’ve always wondered about X, I’d love to learn more about that.’ And that little nugget of curiosity became the inspiration for each of these works.”
A member of the four-time Grammy-winning sextet Eighth Blackbird, da Silva is a frequent collaborator with contemporary composers. At Yale she teaches a course in the performance of contemporary music. She sat down with Yale News to talk about how “Brouhaha” came together, the collaborative aspect of her solo performances, and the joy of playing contemporary music. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Why did you want to link this album to anthropological questions?
Maiani da Silva: Musicians are always trying to dig deeper into the human condition. And I think anthropology and the sciences in general do the same thing but in a different way. I wanted an opportunity to dig deeper from a different angle. Creating “Brouhaha” gave me, as well as my composers, that opportunity.
How did you select the composers?
da Silva: I wanted an album that is very varied. I didn’t want it to be cohesive in the sense that it all sounds similar. I wanted the composers to be eclectic, because when you’re talking about a celebration of diverse life forms and humanity, it’s got to be a colorful experience. Also, I picked musicians whom I like and whom I know are very curious and want to do more than write notes.
What are some of the themes they explore?
da Silva: There is fire — the use of fire, our relationship to fire, how we use fire to change our landscape for better or for worse. Another is artifacts — specifically, our use of tools over time. There is our relationship to flowering plants. There is migration, whether it was driven by curiosity or by necessity. There’s our perception of time. And the last piece is about human relations and connections.
How did the composers research their selected themes?
da Silva: All, for the most part, sought inspiration on their own. And then I would exchange papers or articles, books even, with them and we would talk about them. Some of them spoke with Yale anthropologists whose work they had been reading. Composer Ian Gottlieb, who lives in L.A., met with Jessica Thompson via Zoom. And composer Viet Cuong was visiting Yale and got to talk with Catherine Panter-Brick about migration.
After they passed along their compositions to you, did the pieces continue to evolve as you played them?
da Silva: Pieces change even if you don’t want them to change! At first, it’s making sure that it translates idiomatically to the instrument, that musically I’m doing what they want and I’m not getting in the way with technique. There’s that understanding of the piece from within. But then the more you play it and the more you play it for others, you may do something unexpected, and then think, what if I explore that a little bit more in my next performance?
I think the joy of playing contemporary music is that you can ask the composers what they think about how you’re playing a piece, and they can be like, ‘I really like that, I hadn’t considered that.’ They’re very aware that nobody is going to play it exactly the way that they wrote it. It’s like the different ways in which we interpret text. That’s why even though this is a solo album, I think of it as a collaborative project because everyone was involved in a way. All these pieces were written by people who are still alive, and I got to collaborate with them on it. And then we got to collaborate with and learn from the anthropologists.
How would you describe the album as a listening experience?
da Silva: The album is an experience through time and through different environments. We have fire, and you hear the embers, the crackling. The flower piece unfolds kind of like petals on a peony. The traveler piece turns and swivels. The time piece is meditative and still. The album really is an emotional adventure, and it’s on land, it’s in the sea, and it’s out in space. I wanted to explore the Earth as much as possible, but then also reach for the stars.
Lastly, you shared with me that you underwent treatment for cancer during this project. Did that influence the work in any way?
da Silva: Life, as you can imagine, halted suddenly. Because I was the driver of the project, “Brouhaha” was something that I could slow down or speed up, whichever I needed from it. It did give me something else to think about. Also, if you’re having existential thoughts all the time, that’s going to drastically change the way that you see the world. Going through the cancer treatment certainly gave me a different perspective on the theme of the project: human experience and our place in nature. What is it to be a human and have these feelings that are universal or scary or uplifting? I certainly saw life in technicolor. I don’t want to silver-line anything, but I am grateful for that perspective.
A release party for “Brouhaha: Shaped by Fire” will be held on Tuesday, April 14 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at The Well, on the lower level of the Yale Schwarzman Center. The party will feature a performance by da Silva, as well as conversation with some of the composers and Yale paleoanthropologist Jessica Thompson. The event is free and open to the public; registration is required.
