30424: Hermantin(News)Classical composer enlivens European tradition (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Miami Herald


Posted on Mon, May. 14, 2007

Classical composer enlivens European tradition
BY LAWRENCE A. JOHNSON

In 1994 when Sydney Guillaume arrived in Miami with his parents and two older 
brothers to escape the political strife of Haiti, the 11-year-old spoke no 
English and was unhappy about leaving his island nation home.
The boy was enrolled in an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) 
class. ''I was the only Haitian . . ., and I had no one to talk to,'' Guillaume 
recalls. ``Everyone else in the class was Hispanic, and they spoke Spanish to 
each other, ``but that was so beneficial to me because I had no choice but to 
speak English to communicate.''

Guillaume's English, still tinged with a melodious Haitian accent, is now the 
equal of anyone's. But the language in which the 24-year-old composer speaks 
most eloquently is music. Dominus Vobiscum, Guillaume's new 6-minute work, will 
be premiered this weekend by Seraphic Fire in the choir's season-closing 
concerts spotlighting Latin- and Caribbean-American music.

Despite the vitality of its popular music and visual art, Haiti isn't the first 
country that comes to mind as a hotbed of the Western-classical tradition. In 
fact, as Seraphic Fire artistic director Patrick Dupre Quigley notes, few 
Haitian composers write in anything remotely resembling classical style.

Guillaume, though, ''writes in a style that has a lot of classical form behind 
it,'' Quigley says, ``but the harmonies and the rhythms definitely come from 
the Caribbean. He has a lot of rhythmic drive to his music, and he uses the 
language as percussion, which is an interesting concept.''

Quigley notes that some big-name contemporary composers draw on -- and 
sometimes appropriate -- ''found'' Latin music like ethnographic magpies, using 
it in a slick, self-conscious way. Guillaume's style, however, is personal, 
genuine and honest, coming directly from the source.

''He doesn't try in any way to hide his ethnic roots at all, which I really 
like,'' Quigley says. ``This is his culture and the real thing envisioned 
through formal classical training. It's original art music that is rooted in 
the Haitian musical tradition.''

THREE INSPIRATIONS

Guillaume's music grows directly from three principal inspirations: his Haitian 
roots; his strong Roman Catholic faith and his family.

As a child in Port-au-Prince, Sydney listened to local and popular Haitian 
music, but there was also an emphasis on such French-language vocalists as 
Edith Piaf and Celine Dion, as well as more formal musical training in the 
household. ''We all three played the piano,'' Guillaume says from Los Angeles. 
``My brother switched to guitar, but there was always classical music playing 
in the house.''

With government repression mounting amid increasing political instability, 
Sydney's father decided to leave Haiti and bring his wife Marlene and sons to 
Florida in 1994.

Guillaume recalls the tension of the time clearly. ``It was pretty bad. There 
was a lot of political instability, people breaking into houses, shootings.''

The Guillaumes established themselves in Perrine where young Sydney attended 
school. In addition to being tutored through the ESOL program, he also quickly 
picked up English by watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and other television 
shows. After six months, he was transferred to a regular English class.

LEARNING THE SCORE

He still played piano. He sang in the school choir. Then, as a junior at Coral 
Reef Senior High School, he had his first taste of composing, writing 20 
minutes of music for a drama-department production of Dracula.

''That was my first experience writing a big score,'' he says. ``I used 
different themes, and I approached it like writing a film score.''

Guillaume went on to the University of Miami's school of music where he was 
encouraged in his early composition efforts by Jo-Michael Scheibe. His choral 
work Calinda was subsequently performed by the school's choir, drawing the 
notice of some Seraphic Fire members who brought Guillaume's music to Quigley's 
attention.

Calinda also marked the start of a musical collaboration with Guillaume's 
father Gabriel, a poet who has taught French and who also provided the text for 
Dominus Vobiscum.

''I wrote all the texts for Sydney because he was less familiar with the Creole 
language,'' says Gabriel Guillaume, who still lives in Perrine with wife 
Marlene. In addition to providing texts for his son, Gabriel also attempts to 
convey a sense of the cultural heritage of their homeland.

Sydney says he and his father are equal creative partners. ``It's actually 
really nice to work with him because I can ask him the definition of different 
things or what he meant by certain words he used.

``Sometime he gets inspired by what I'm writing, and he'll write another verse 
or different words after hearing what I'm doing. In Calinda for example, he did 
not write the entire text at first. He wrote parts of it, listened to the music 
and then wrote some more. It's a typical collaboration for us.''

Though there are surface similarities to Latin music in Calinda's strong 
rhythmic emphasis, Guillaume says there are also certain elements indigenous to 
Haitian popular music, particularly the rara music that fuses the sacred and 
profane, freely mixing elements of Lenten processional and Vodou in a kind of 
free-form street festival. ``It's hard to describe. It's like from the woods 
and folkloric.''

Guillaume says he doesn't consciously insert such elements, but, as in Dominus 
Vobiscum, his music seems to acquire a Haitian flavor automatically.

''It just happens,'' he says. ``It's like I have it ingrained in me. And 
whenever I write, I always seem to write something with strong rhythms.''

Dominus Vobiscum, a work for a chorus and baritone soloist, draws its text 
largely from the opening of the Mass, with Gabriel's Creole text amplifying the 
spiritual reassurance of the opening words, ``The Lord be with you.''

''The text basically explains how for many years we've been searching for the 
light,'' Sydney Guillaume says. ``The light of peace, of truth, of joy, of 
hope. And now let us sing Dominus Vobiscum -- how the Lord is already here; you 
don't have to search for him. That's what the piece is about.''

FATHER'S CONTRIBUTIONS

His father's Creole text contributes an insistent affirmative quality. 'In my 
dad's poetry he likes to stress the meaning with repetition, like the Lord is 
with us. He uses the words Li la, in Creole, which means `he is here,' and I 
repeat them over and over with different variations.''

While at UM, Guillaume composed music for friends' student films, becoming 
fascinated with the idea of composing for movies. After graduation, he 
completed a score for the indie film The Lords of Miami, which further sparked 
his interest. He moved from Miami to Los Angeles in 2005.

Now, while working to gain entry into Hollywood's competitive environment, 
Guillaume teaches music at a Catholic elementary and middle school and works as 
a musician and resident composer at a local church.

Ironically, though, Guillaume has found that since leaving Miami he is 
increasingly in demand as a choral composer, with three works to complete this 
summer, including a commission from the Miami Children's Chorus.

In a way, this week's concerts will also bring Guillaume full circle. He was in 
the first graduating class at Coral Reef, and the school's present choir will 
take part in the performances of Ariel Ramirez's Missa Criolla on the same 
program.

While he is not overly analytical about his music or its inspiration, Guillaume 
acknowledges that a quiet nationalistic element from his native country fuels 
his art.

''When I moved here, whenever you heard news about Haiti, it was always 
something bad,'' he says. ``So I feel like by composing I want to try to 
portray the good side of Haiti.

``If my music is performed around the world, . . . if people hear a piece by a 
Haitian composer, then maybe they'll have a more cultural idea of Haiti. And 
they'll start thinking about Haiti in a different light.''





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