Douma: Do you find it helpful when you’re beginning a composition to have a particular artist or ensemble in mind?
Argento: Oh yes. Not so much helpful as it is ~ way of focusing. Because, first of all, once I know I have a particular performer or organization in mind, it automatically starts to narrow down the possible subjects or kind of music. Then when we get down to an individual such as like Hakan Hagegard or [Frederica] von Stade, I know them so well, I know their persona, I know what they like to sing and what they don’t like to sing. I’ve had the argument with students who know I like doing that, and they say, “But if you write something for Frederica von Stade that you think is exactly for her voice, isn’t that bad for the other singers who are trying to sing it?” I say no, and the best example is that Britten wrote Peter Grimes for Peter Pears, and when you hear Peter Pears sing it, obviously you know it is written for him. But now that both Pears and Britten are dead, when Jon Vickers does it, it’s extraordinary! And, I think the explanation is that when Britten was writing it, he was building a well-made house, in this case for a singer named Peter Pears, but since it’s such a well-made house, and I’m speaking in terms of vocal composition, it’s well made for Jon Vickers or any other singer, and they can live in it comfortably. Whereas, if somebody was commissioned to write a piece for some unknown, unspecified singer, they’re apt to have done things that will make it look like an eccentric house from a singer’s point of view. It would not be a comfortable one, whereas I think the idea of focusing on a singer makes it habitable for anybody else.
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