From Bedtime to Big Time

By Julia Lyon 

If you’re like us, you wish you could ask Mozart or Beethoven about their music. What inspired each symphony? Each concerto?

But we’d need a little time travel—or fairy dust—to make that happen.

Here at Utah Symphony, we can speak with living composers like Andrew Maxfield. He wrote a new piece of music being premiered at our Family Series Concert this March.

Maxfield, who lives in Provo, took us back to the beginning.

It all started with a book: Brendan Wenzel’s Good Golden Sun. Brooklyn-based Wenzel writes and illustrates children’s books with bright, bold colors and shapes, often about something with fur or feathers. Maybe you know his popular picture book They All Saw a Cat.

Maxfield composed an orchestral piece for that book, too. As a father, he’s spent many hours reading with his own kids. After reading Good Golden Sun, he knew its vivid illustrations would be perfect for another collaboration.

“It’s a real gift to have someone of [Andrew’s] talent spend time with something I’ve made,” Wenzel reflected. “It offers a rare and special chance to see the book from a new perspective.”

In Good Golden Sun, the main character is, of course, the sun, but seen through the eyes of different creatures throughout the day.

We spoke with Maxfield right before Thanksgiving when his new work had officially moved from the incubation phase into what he calls “the madman phase.”

With a deadline only a few months away, Maxfield was getting up every day at 5 AM to compose.

“The goal for me during this phase is to write as much and as fast as possible,” he said. “It’s a really active, spilling ink onto the page, kind of phase,” he explained. “When there’s some kind of deadline or parameter, I have to write so fast I can’t overthink things.”

He first works on paper, reflecting on the form and landscape of the piece before writing the music itself.

“In this case, we’re starting with something visual and working our way into a sonic, social experience in the hall,” Maxfield explained.

Colors on the page lighten and sweeten before fading at the end of day.

“I’m mirroring those basic things in the sound of the music,” Maxfield explained. “Young listeners will be able to hear and see those changes, particularly in the percussion.

The music begins with what he calls “dark, mellow sound” before brightening into daylight. Then it mellows again as the sun sets.

Maxfield knew he wanted his instrumentation to match Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals so the same musicians could play both pieces in the March 14 family concert.

But percussionists can play many instruments, which expanded Maxfield’s musical vocabulary.

Typically, he spends about three months writing a new piece. The final phase is cleanup and polishing.

“It’s the perspective that comes after you’ve done the wild, creative stuff that helps you shape the work,” Maxfield said.

He knows that even after the Utah Symphony starts rehearsing, there will likely be small revisions.

“You learn things in the hall,” he observed. He might make one more round of edits after the premiere, but then it’s time to let the music rest.

Maxfield won’t be the only artist whose new work will be showcased at the concert. Two visual artists will have their drawings projected during The Carnival of the Animals. Maxfield couldn’t be prouder. Why?

They’re his two sons: 13-year-old Eliot and 11-year-old Simon.

“As a composer, there aren’t so many ‘take your kids to work’ opportunities,” he said. My kids are some of the most interesting, creative people I know, and I’m honored to share any playbill with them!”