F.H.:

Your degrees are in musicology. What attracted you to composing choral music?

J.H.:

I had always been drawn to choral music because of the repertoire that I learned when I was in college and graduate school. In particular, sixteenth and seventeenth century polyphony struck a very responsive chord in me.

After I got to Bucknell, there were two college choirs, both of which were more than willing to perform music written for them. A lot of the music that I wrote for chorus has come about simply by writing for Bucknell students performing on the Bucknell campus.

But the choral bug really bit when I was singing countertenor at Oxford. I spent the largest part of a year singing lots of Byrd, Gibbons, Palestrina, Tye, Taverner, and Tallis. It was just a wonderful experience. It really gave me a shot in the arm to write more choral music, particularly SATB unaccompanied music.

F.H.:

What composers, styles, and traditions have influenced your work?

J.H.:

In particular the Renaissance polyphonic composers have influenced my choral music.

That's much less true of my chamber or orchestral music, which is often more angular and dissonant. In the 1970's, much of my instrumental music was very strongly influenced by Schönberg and Webern. But I've veered away from that. I write in a much more tonal/modal idiom now.

My interest in Japanese traditional music has also strongly influenced my work. Very often my music incorporates Japanese scales or Japanese forms of ornamentation. Voices of Autumn, a piece of mine that the Hilliard Ensemble has been singing, has a very strong Japanese influence, as does my choral setting of Hodie Christus Natus Est.

F.H.:

How would you characterize your personal style?

J.H.:

Very eclectic. I simply write what's going on in my head; I allow my internal ear to stimulate ideas. I simply write what's needling me at the moment.

F.H.:

How has your approach to choral composition evolved over the years?

J.H.:

Certain skeletal features have been present all the way through: the interest in polyphony, an extensive use of rich, quasi-chromatic harmony, a fondness for seventh and ninth chords. But as the years have gone by, the vocal style has become more fluid. It's more closely tied to the words of the text. And I've developed a fondness for writing melismas; the prosody is much less syllabic.

F.H.:

What factors guide your choice of texts?

J.H.:

The text is very important to me. Once the text is selected, I try to make the music as true to the words as I can in my own imagination.

The text commands the way in which the words are set, whether the words are obscured polyphonically or made very clear in a homophonic declamation. Often the atmosphere of the poem will govern my harmonic vocabulary, the mellowness or brightness of a particular sound.

On the other hand, in some instances I want something extremely abstract so that the text doesn't interfere with what the music is trying to convey just on musical terms. That's why I used a Japanese text for Voices of Autumn. The audiences for which that music is mostly performed will not understand the words; they hear it as an abstract concatenation of syllables. That's what I wanted in that particular instance.

In the case of commissioned choral works, I am usually directed to set a specific text. This is the case with my most recent choral work, a motet for the centennial of the church of St. Mary the Virgin in New York.

F.H.:

Is there a particular type of work that you would like to write but haven't gotten around to yet?

J.H.:

I would like to write an oratorio, possibly based on a specific modern translation of William Langland's Piers Plowman. This particular version of the poem is very felicitous, and has wonderful inherent musicality.

F.H.:

What compositional projects are you working on now?

J.H.:

I'm working on the commission for the new Episcopal Cathedral of Western North Carolina. It's a choral setting of Ephesians 4: 11-16, scheduled for premiere in November.

I'm also working on the sketches for Symphony #3. 1 have a sabbatical coming up, and its main focus will be completing Symphony #3.

F.H.:

What opportunities did you have for choral studies during your recent trip to London?

J.H.:

My wife and I were in London for four months with sixteen Bucknell students Because the students were doing an intensive experiential course in theater and music, we went to two or three concerts a week, one or two plays a week, and numerous performances marking the Purcell Tercentenary. We also spent a week at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester, and attended many services at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral. I also had a chance to hear a complete performance of my Latin Mass at an Anglican church in Chelsea. All in all, a wonderful experience.