Female Speaker: From the Library of Congress in Washington,
D.C. Norman Middleton: Today is Tuesday, Feb, 24, 2009.
This is Norman Middleton, senior music specialist at the Library
of Congress (Library) in Washington, D.C. We are here at the Library
of Congress studios with legendary Motown artist, Stevie Wonder.
Welcome to the Library of Congress, Mr. Wonder.
Stevie Wonder: My pleasure.   Thank you.
Norman Middleton: Your appearance last night
in the Library's Coolidge Auditorium and your concert at the White House
on Wednesday evening are both in conjunction
with you receiving the [Library
of Congress] Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
And in conjunction with receiving the Gershwin Prize,
you have written a piece commissioned by the Library
of Congress that you premiered last night in the Coolidge Auditorium.
And we know that you've been thinking about this piece
for a long time, have you not?
Stevie Wonder: I most definitely have been thinking
about it for long time.
Norman Middleton: And what is the title of your new piece?
Stevie Wonder: The piece is "Sketches of a Life."
Norman Middleton: "Sketches of a Life,"
what does that title mean to you?
Stevie Wonder: Well, for me it's sketches of my life,
different musical experiences that I've had, those influences
that you can hear in the piece,
and in my movements you can hear the various places
and experiences musically that I've had in my life.
Norman Middleton: And yesterday in the press conference
when you discussed the commission, you mentioned that the basic idea
of the new piece began back in 1976.
What was it about this music that caused you to return to it in 1976?
Stevie Wonder: Well, you know,
I really have always had a love for classical music.
I've had a love for all various genres of music,
and the more that I was able to hear,
there was then the more I was able to enjoy.
As a little boy, the radio was my eyes and ears to the world,
and so I would imitate the different sounds
that I would hear, the voices.
If I heard opera, you know, I wouldn't know the opera, obviously,
but I would sing [sings], all the different languages I would hear.
I didn't know how to speak Spanish,
but I remember hearing once someone saying on the radio [Spanish],
and so I would lean over and say [Spanish].
So finally I learned that it meant "for you," you know,
sort of a toast of celebration.
But it was the sound of all those different things that influenced me.
And there was a woman who lived in our neighborhood.
We lived in Detroit on the West Side of Detroit.
There was a woman who would dress up every time there was an opera
in Detroit, and she would go.
And throughout the week she would play these various things, and so,
you know, you got to imagine in the neighborhood that I lived in,
predominantly you did not have people that were listening
to operas, and so you hear this [opera sound],
"Cut all that noise out.   What's wrong with you?"
You know. Norman Middleton: [Laughs].
Stevie Wonder: But, obviously, for me it was an interesting thing
because I know how much she appreciated it,
and from that I later on wrote the song "Village Ghetto Land,"
which has sort of a an operatic, you know, feel to it,
a more classical feel to it, talking about the conditions living
in "Village Ghetto Land."   Norman Middleton: I also thought
that was an interesting juxtaposition
when I first heard "Village Ghetto Land."
I said, "Oh, that's interesting.
Stevie has done this sort of string quartet kind
of thing underneath lyrics that are somewhat dark in describing the type
of lives that people live in that part of the city."
So I also thought that was interesting, how you did that.
Your commission, the commission that you did for the Library of Congress,
it was originally thought of, or proposed, as a work for violin
and piano, but you expanded it into a work for chamber orchestra.
Could you elaborate on this musical metamorphosis,
including your collaboration with Motown-arranger Paul Riser?
Stevie Wonder: Well, I've known Paul since he was 19.
I was maybe 11 or 12.
And we've been close all those years.
Paul has done some arranging for me.
The first song that he did strings for me was on a song
that I wrote called "Pretty Little Angel."
I think I was like 13 or 14.
And I always liked how he was able to accompany the melodies
that I had, how he made them all work together.
No different than his arrangement with what he did with
"My Cherie Amour," and the different various songs that I had done.
And as well with "I Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer"
and what he did with another song that I did, "Overjoyed,"
and obviously he did the arrangement to "Rocket Love."
And the various songs, always we seemed as one.
We, you know, he acted like he knew what I was feeling,
so he would listen to the voicings I would do on piano,
and he would then work with however he did his magic
to make it all work together.
In the case of "Sketches of a Life," I played the piece for him,
and as much as it was originally just for the strings --
violin and piano -- I felt as many times as I had played the harmonica,
and I always felt a sort of kinsmanship to the violin
when playing the harmonica
and as well the saxophone, like the soprano sax.
And so I always wanted to play that instrument
with violins and/or with horns.
And so to me, there were various places in the piece that, to me,
lends itself to having the harmonica in it.
And the one place that I did use the harmonica in was a part of the piece
that was really a song that has always reminded me of my mother,
and so that's where I played it.
And you can hear in that piece, that movement, sort of a longing,
a longing in the world, or for the world, and a longing,
you know, in retrospect now.
And then I lost my mother in 2006, a longing for her and a longing
for people to come together and the world to come together
and all those various things, and all the people that we've lost,
but as well a celebration for feeling that so many things
that we have longed for for the good of humankind becoming a reality.
And so that part of it talks about that, and that's why I felt,
you know, it had to be more than just for a violin and piano.
And I was excited that it became a chamber orchestra as opposed
to just, you know, a very simple thing.
The piece itself, it varies places.
It's very grand, and there's another movement
that really is a celebration of Nelson Mandela, because I knew
that Nelson Mandela may have been a prisoner,
but ultimately I believed he would be the president
as he was in South Africa.
Norman Middleton: When you -- as you were writing this piece,
I know that it contains several different types of ideas,
musical ideas within the entire work,
but did you originally conceive this work to be of any particular genre
or did you decide that it would encompass anything
and everything depending on your musical moods?
Stevie Wonder: Well, I know -- I believe that it would definitely fit
in a classical genre, but I didn't want it to be limited to that
because I think my life experience was not just limited
to just one particular kind of appreciation of one genre of music.
And so in the piece, I wanted people
to hear all the various influences, times, experiences.
I mean, there's another part, a movement,
that you hear me playing the clavinet,
and the clavinet was very significant in my life.
I mean, I got my first clavinet when I was around 17 years of age,
and the clavinet for me was like having a guitar.
The guitar was a favorite instrument of mine, but I did not play guitar.
I play the keyboards.
And I never really -- I mean, there are those, yes, that are going
to play guitar as well, strings as well as keyboard instrument,
but I took the clavinet and was able to, in playing it, give it the kind
of music expression that I felt it could have.
And so it was in '72 that I did the song "Superstition," which was sort
of a [unintelligible] had a guitar.
Playing that part was just me on the clavinet.
So this piece I wrote when I first got my clavinet,
and so that became a part of the piece later on.
Norman Middleton: One of the things
that I thought was really interesting,
I enjoyed the little sort of interlude that you did
when you were playing a series --
you were playing a series of minor seconds,
and it was punctuated by a bassoon solo.
I thought that was very interesting.
What was that section all about, the little -- it's a little whimsical.
I'm not sure whether whimsy was what you were aiming for,
but that's how it came across to me.
Remember that section [sings], that part?
Stevie Wonder: Is that -- Norman Middleton: It's a section
where you're on the keyboard, and it came off to me
like you're doing a series of minor seconds where you're going [sings],
and it was underlined by a bassoon solo.
Stevie Wonder: Okay, that really was sort of a --
it went up to the [sings].   Norman Middleton: Yes.
Stevie Wonder: Yes [sings].   Norman Middleton: Yes.
Stevie Wonder: That was more kind of like --
sort of really -- how does it go?
I mean, it was a, you know what I mean, kind of like --
looking at someone looking at the world,
like looking at things, sort of smiling at them.
Norman Middleton: Sort of a wry sense of humor type thing.
Stevie Wonder: And then from that going to a place that kind
of had a sort of classical fusion feel,
classical jazz fusion feel a little bit, where, you know,
again we were taking it from a [sings].
And I think it's a little Gershwin in there, you know, like [sings].
And then that [sings].
You know, just really kind of a bringing, again, kind of a snapshot,
a bit of an audio snapshot, of you know some
of those things I discovered along the way and then, obviously,
you hear the [sings], you know, [sings].
So that was sort of a play kind of a, you know,
remembering all the various little --
I don't want to say nursery rhyme kind of things, but [sings].
You know, so it was just, again, a celebration of discovery.
Norman Middleton: One thing I noticed in the work that also jumped
out at me is that you didn't include much brass --
you had one French horn -- and you also didn't include a drum set.
Now, did you not include those types of instruments on purpose?
Were you going for an overall softer sound in the work
or it had nothing to do with anything?
Stevie Wonder: Well, I wanted people to --
I think that many had an expectation for me to do that, and I didn't want
to fulfill their expectation in that sense.
Norman Middleton: [Laughs].   Stevie Wonder: I wanted them to --
for instance with the harmonica piece,
I wanted them to feel what we were doing in kind
of like move their bodies to it because it's all --
so kind of like traveling or going through space, a kind of, you know,
grasping on and being able to feel that pulse within yourself
and to ride along with everything that was happening, to travel.
And so, you know, where we did use a little cymbal on the sort
of a ragtime feel part of the piece, that was sort of necessary,
but I think this other, I wanted it to be not so percussive
that you would get hung up more on the rhythm
than letting your own spirit take you in that rhythm.
Norman Middleton: And it's funny, I was -- during one part of the piece,
I was sitting there, I think, during the section
where the percussionist was playing -- it wasn't a set of maracas,
I forget what that instrument was back there that he was shaking --
but during that section, I certainly thought of your two recordings:
"My Cherie Amour" and "Yester-Me, Yester-You,
Yesterday" where Benny Benjamin is playing behind you with brushes,
you know, doing his Benny thing.
And I remember thinking, boy, if I could just get Benny back here
to play under that section, it would be just great.
Stevie Wonder: Benny was so incredible, and he would have done
such a magnificent job because he was able to take, you know,
a piece of music like that and play it soft and
yet still give it the same kind of expression
as if he were playing it loud.
He's the only drummer in the world that I have known that actually,
you could go on stage with just him playing drums
and you and you'd be all right.
And, obviously, if it's him and James Jamerson on bass --
Norman Middleton: Oh yes.
Stevie Wonder: -- you'd be all right.
Norman Middleton: [Laughs].   Stevie Wonder: It'd be incredible.
Norman Middleton: Oh, it was great, and I also enjoyed the fact
that you included both oboe and English horn in your work,
because I'm a former oboist.   Stevie Wonder: Wow.
Norman Middleton: And in the six degrees of separation, you know,
my oboe teacher Ron Odemark played for you
on "I'd Never Dreamed You'd Leave."
Stevie Wonder: Oh, okay, I didn't know that.
Norman Middleton: Yes, yes, Paul reminded me of that.
So I thought it was wonderful, and I remember when I was
in undergrad school that Ron with, you know, he was always coming
in saying, "I just came in from Motown.
I had to do a recording session in Motown."
So he was basically the Motown oboist all those years.
Was there anything -- did you have any special thoughts or ideas
about how you wanted to use those particular instruments,
the oboe and English horn?
Stevie Wonder: You know, really a lot of that, again, was the marriage
of myself and Paul Riser.
Paul really orchestrated the piece for me
and you could see-you could see, you know,
the lessons in a lot of the piece.
I spoke with Paul about it, gave him some ideas about what I wanted
to hear, but it was really him that orchestrated the piece
and really helped to bring it alive.
Norman Middleton: So you basically let him have carte blanche
with general -- Stevie Wonder: Yeah, you know, I was the --
me checking to make sure that, you know, but I always --
we never ever -- we never lose our places
with how things, you know, should happen.
Norman Middleton: Yes.
Stevie Wonder: Because there's that --
I don't know if it's a Detroit connection.
I don't know what it is, but it's an incredible thing
of just maybe each other for the time that we've known each other
and having the respect and love for each other is ability, you know,
and me respecting his genius.
Norman Middleton: When you -- as you and Paul worked together,
did you return to your thoughts of how you did
"The Secret Life of Plants?"   Did that have any influence
in how you prepared this piece, your work on that album?
Stevie Wonder: You know, it's funny.
When I was working on "The Secret Life of Plants," I, too -
[coughs] excuse me -- I, too, was working with some of those here,
and there was a time that I was thinking about using, you know,
a part of what I had in this piece maybe and a part of the music
that I'd done before "The Secret Life of Plants,"
but it really didn't work for me.
I just felt that the "Sketches of a Life" was something
that was taking a life of its own and so as much
as I didn't have it finished when I was doing "The Secret Life
of Plants, "I knew that certain things just didn't work with it.
I mean, there's a thing that I did in "The Secret Life
of Plants" called "Race Babbling" which is very, very avant-garde,
kind of a [sings], and it could have worked in a part of this piece
as well, but it didn't feel right.   It was too crazy.
But I'm sure, as I do have an idea for --
now that I've done this once I want to do it again,
and I think the technology has made things more accessible for me
to take everything that I've played and, you know, through Mendip,
you know, putting it from being on the computer to putting it on music
and all that in notation for the orchestra
or musicians to be able to read it.
And so I am challenged to come up with something really,
really incredible because I just love so many different kinds of,
you know, music and rhythms and, you know, without --
one even thing about it, I might change and go to a slower one
and a faster one, because I think that's kind of how life is.
Life is always sort of an unexpected thing.
We try to keep it at an even keel, but, you know, thank God for change.
Norman Middleton: As for "Sketches of a Life,"
you're such a big proponent of electronic keyboards,
and you've been working with these types of instruments for years now.
Why did you decided to orchestrate "Sketches of a Life"
with acoustic orchestral instruments as opposed
of you doing all these instruments yourself
Stevie Wonder: Because I always imagined that acoustic was
to be done, and, you know, I think, again,
that's something I could have done very easily just myself,
but the whole thing is bringing other musicians in,
other players in, you know, them being a part
of this whole celebration.
Norman Middleton: And do you plan to go back into the studio
and do "Sketches of a Life"
and release it commercially as a studio release?
Stevie Wonder: It definitely is not out of the realm of possibilities.
I would like to, you know, go back and really get --
I mean, I, you know, made a couple of mistakes, as I talked about,
but -- Norman Middleton: A couple of spots [laughs].
Stevie Wonder: Yeah, a couple of spots are a little crazy,
but I would love to do it again in the studio,
maybe get it perfectly fine.
Norman Middleton: And you mentioned that you would
like to do more classical pieces.
Do you have anything specific in mind, you know, as far as what kind
of scoring you want to do?
Whether you want to do a larger work, for instance,
symphony orchestra, for instance, or another chamber work?
What do you have in mind for the future of classical pieces?
Stevie Wonder: Yeah, I mean, I am always writing and working
on things, and when I get something to a place that I can say,
give it a, give it a sense that a body of work within it, movements,
then I can say, "Okay, this really works good with this," et cetera,
then I would give [unintelligible] and say yes,
but I am definitely always working on various genres of music,
you know, various styles inside me and definitely influence me.
Norman Middleton: And you -- I believe I read on the Internet
that you were starting to work on a gospel piece,
a performance piece, in the gospel vein?
Is that true?
Can you tell me a little bit more about that piece
or what you're working on?
Stevie Wonder: Well, it's called "Gospel Inspired by Lula,"
and Lula was my mother's first name, so it really is a celebration.
She always wanted me to do, you know, a project giving praise to God
for just the blessings that I've received, as well as she,
in all of us, and so I said, you know, I'm going to do it Mom, do it.
And, unfortunately, she passed away in a time
where she was getting different songs for me and ideas and all
that kind of stuff and, you know, again, that thing in my life,
you know, we have today because we don't know about tomorrow.
Norman Middleton: And you had written a lot of songs
with your mother and also with Sylvia Moy in your earlier career.
I know that your career spans almost 45 years, if not 45 years,
and during the earlier part of your career, which is when I came
to know you, you were part of the Motown stable of stars
and during those years, did you --
what was it like working with Henry Crosby and Clarence Paul?
Stevie Wonder: Sylvia-- Norman Middleton: I'm sorry?
Stevie Wonder: Yeah, Sylvia and Henry and all.
It was incredible because, obviously,
Sylvia was a great lyricist, and she brought a kind of rhythm
to different songs and different concepts that she was like,
had a kind of a street feel to it from back then.
And I felt that the three of us, Henry Crosby, Sylvia and myself,
we made up for a wonderful writing team, and we were able
to do some great things together.
"My Cherie Amor," she wrote the lyrics to.
Henry Crosby kind of just gave me ideas
as to how many the structures should be, chord structure, and he did some
of the arrangements of various songs,
and we all worked it together.   We worked it out.
Norman Middleton: Back then, when you were working
under those particular conditions, did you feel --
were you as musically fulfilled when your songs were being --
when the soundtracks were being done by the Funk Brothers as opposed
to later years when you did your own music and your own --
you played your own instruments,
did you feel differently before than you did after?
Do you know what I mean?
When you -- when you started doing your own instrumentations
in the '70s, did that make you feel musically more free,
or were you as musically satisfied when you were working
with the Funk Brothers and they were doing your scores?
Stevie Wonder: Well, you know, in the days of the Funk Brothers,
and you know, the group then,
those were incredible days for what they were.
When I did my own thing working with Cerita [Brown] and got more
into some of the stuff I wanted to do, those were wonderful days
as well because it was something that, you know,
gave me more accessibility to writing and obviously becoming,
for me, the [unintelligible] synthesizer and all that,
by the time we got to '71, '72, we're working with Bob Margouleff
and Malcolm Cecil and their, you know, TONTO's Expanding Head Band.
It was a great time for discovery, and so all of the various times
that I can remember as far back
as when I was 11 were all magical moments.
Norman Middleton: When you were composing the soundtrack music
for "The Woman in Red," for instance, was that a different type
of process for you than when you did the normal writing of songs
and creating your studio albums?
Stevie Wonder: It was different only in that, you know,
you knew that there was a certain thing you had to write about.
You know, that wasn't as challenging as was when I did the documentary,
writing the music for that, scoring that.
We came in with a technique that I would
like to maybe someday show blind students or blind people who would
like to get into scoring, how I did the scoring or, you know,
working with "The Secret Life of Plants," and how I was able
to do it timing wise perfectly fine with the film, you know,
matching the actual visuals that were happening.
And that was lots of fun.
It was challenging, yes it was, but it was really lots of fun
because it was a matter of setting the timing of the songs
and the various things that were happening
to make sure they matched what was going on visually
at the same time at various times.
Norman Middleton: And I think, on that note, I think we'll stop.
And I'd like to thank you for your time in doing this interview
for the Library of Congress.
I hope you've enjoyed your experience with the Library --
Stevie Wonder: It's been a wonderful experience,
just seeing all the various things, being able to touch what I was able
to touch and manuscripts of Stravinsky -- and I mean, come on,
forget about it -- and to have touched the --
Norman Middleton: Beethoven.
Stevie Wonder: The Beethoven manuscript, and to be able to listen
to some of the music that was done on the 78s back in the day,
in the '30s, in 1902 and 1916, hearing Marian Anderson.
It's amazing how technology was then to how it is today,
and so I know that what I would do as a Christmas or birthday present
for me -- and my son was born the same day as myself --
and my family, is come back here to the Library of Congress
so I can really see, touch and hear some more incredibleness.
Norman Middleton: Well, we certainly will enjoy having you back,
and we thank you for the commission.
We thank you for the concert last night.
We wish you much success in the future.
We know you'll have a ball tomorrow night at the White House
when you receive the Gershwin Prize, and so on behalf
of the Library of Congress, thank you.
Stevie Wonder: Thank you.
Female Speaker: This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.   [end of transcript]