With church music you don't approach it like a play, where you're sortof in an analytical sense. Church music can do something in one second that is tricky to explain. You shimmer on a note, or you lean into a piece of text. And this can be written into the music itself or into the performance. So there's room to be really weird and stylized. This is especially true in the islamic world, because there's not much depictive art. When you write abysmela, you make it wow. The satisfaction of a job well done is the only one you're going to get when you finish the piece. If you are really goodou disappear
Debbie talks to composer Nico Muhly about his music and about the musicians who interpret it.