STUHR-ROMMEREIM: What do you feel are the special challenges facing choral composers in the latter part of the twentieth century?
SHCHEDRlN: I think we must return to natural means of expression. I am not a conservative, but I think atonality and excessive experimentation was an illness that we had. It was a disease that one must get as a child in order to become immune. Now, we are immune. In a book by Gogol that was forbidden during the Stalin era, Some Excerpts from Correspondences with my Friends – one of the greatest books ever written in Russia – there is a chapter entitled "How Beautiful Illness Is." Why is illness beautiful? Because afterward you know the real value of everything! I think with the twelvetone system – with the avant garde in general – it's very good that we "had it," but it was bound to come to an end because it was unnatural. This instrument, these ears, this brain – they haven't changed for thousands of years. The human body has not changed. Humans have the same capabilities, the same limitations. Our ears have not changed, our voices have not changed, our throats have not changed. Nonetheless, we have acted as if everything has changed. It is artificial. I said this 10, 15, 20 years ago, but no one listened. Now, everyone comes back and says, "Ah, C major, how beautiful! Just the C major tonic – it's great, it's fantastic!" Everyone has just recovered from an illness, and the world is now coming back to a normal relationship between composer, listener, and performer. I have had a variety of experiences, and in writing various works for chorus, I know how some things are impossible to sing exactly; it is physically impossible for the human body to do so. In my composition, I always trust my intuition. If I change, it is because my intuition has told me to do so, or some occasion has instigated the change. However, I am sure that from some distance, all my music will bear some distinctive stamp. It is only when one is close to it that it seems as if each piece is very different. My body remains the same, but sometimes I dress differently. Sometimes I wear a suit, sometimes a tuxedo, sometimes a tie, and so on. This is completely normal, I think. Differences can be seen from the outside, but a unique identity exists underneath.
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