Nature is what inspires composer Mary Lou Prince. Whether it’s the exotic splendor of the Far East or the rugged beauty of the Arizona desert, it all has a place in her music.
Patty Willis and Mary Lou Prince
One of her works, the cantata Songs of the Earth, will be receiving its Utah premiere this Saturday at the South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society, where Prince is the director of music. “It’s the first time Songs of the Earth will be played in Utah, but this will be the fifth performance of it overall,” she told Reichel Recommends. “This performance will be a little different from the others because I’ve added some new pieces and also added a string quartet.” Texts are by the society’s new minister, Patty Willis. “It’s a work that incorporates story telling, music and solo pieces,” Prince said. “Patty will be the story teller.”
Songs of the Earth was written while Prince and Willis were living in Tucson. “When people hear it, I want them to fall in love with the earth,” Prince said. Not surprisingly, the concert was planned as a celebration of Earth Day, which is on April 22. “We wanted it to coincide with Earth Day,” she said.
Prince is originally from Southern California. She grew up in the LDS faith and attended Brigham Young University, where she studied music and earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. “I received top notch music training from some very caring professors at BYU,” she said. Among Prince’s teachers and mentors in composition were Merrill Bradshaw and Robert Manookin.
After her master’s Prince wanted to further her education in Europe and was fortunate to be accepted as a student of Nadia Boulanger, the legendary French teacher of many of the 20th century’s most prominent composers including Aaron Copland, Astor Piazzolla and Philip Glass. “She was already 90 when I studied with her,” Prince said. “She couldn’t see anymore and that was the biggest challenge in studying with her.”
However, the year Prince spent with Boulanger in Paris was fruitful. “Form was important to her, and that’s something that has stayed with me. “In my music I need to have a vision of form. I need to know where I’m going.”
Even though Boulanger had such tremendous influence on 20th century composers, she nevertheless instilled in her students the value of studying the music of the past. “She said if you study the styles of 20th century composers you will sound like that. Only by studying the music of Monteverdi, Mozart and Bach will you find your own style.”
While in Paris, Prince met Willis. The two eventually moved to Japan where they lived for 24 years. Prince immersed herself in Eastern musical traditions, learning the shakuhachi and koto and traveling to Indonesia to study gamelan music.
It was these diverse influences that helped shape Prince’s musical language. “I started out writing tonal music, but my music became more atonal,” she said, adding that thanks to her interest in different types of music, her own music is more tonal now and frequently in a minor key. “Japanese folk music was a big influence on me. Most of their music is in a minor key, and much of my music is in minor, too.”
- CONCERT DETAILS:
- What: Songs of the Earth, cantata by Mary Lou Prince, words by Rev. Patty C. Willis, with the SVUUS Choir and guest musicians
- Venue: South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society, 6876 S. Highland
- Time and Date: 7 p.m. April 20
- Tickets: Free
- Phone: 801-944-9723
- Web: www.svuus.org