Finally, Here’s Mr. Alexander’s Opus

The decision to make his professional composing debut was not an easy one for John Alexander, as self-effacing a choral conductor as they come. He also was hesitant about using his own Pacific Chorale as the vehicle.

But choosing the work--”This Time of Kites,” to poetry by Ray Bradbury--was easy.

“This is very much my Opus One,” Alexander revealed with a chuckle. “And at my advanced age!”

Alexander is only 51, but, he explained, “I’ve done no composing since my student days. As I started building my conductor career, it was something I never took time to do. But it’s a lifelong dream. . . .

“For years, I’ve been a little bit put off by other conductors programming their own music, and here I am doing it myself.”

The 12-minute work is included on an a cappella program at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa on Sunday. Bradbury will give the concert preview talk.

While the piece may be short, according to Alexander, the process of writing it has affected the way he’s approached all the works on the program, including the most substantial, Persichetti’s Mass.

“Since I’ve been composing, I’ve been dealing with text in a very different way,” he said. “In choral compositions there is often text overlap such that it is not understandable. . . . In a polyphonic texture, the listener may have to be looking at the words on the page in order to understand what’s happening. It’s true with Bach all the time. With 20th century texts especially, I think it’s important that every word be heard.”

For some of the works, hearing the words will be no problem at all. Although none of the 17 pieces on the program has instrumental accompaniment, several don’t have text either.

Those include a pair of vocalises by Rachmaninoff and Wilbur Chenoweth, and a pair of works evoking rhythmic folk dances, “Dance” by Aleksander Vujic and “Chindia” by Alexandru Pascanu.

Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei setting of his Adagio for Strings, Opus 11, and Randall Thompson’s Alleluia have words but, practically speaking, can seem text-less nevertheless.

Alexander playfully suggested he may have had an ulterior motive for such programming choices.

“I didn’t want anything to get in the way of Ray [Bradbury]’s text in my own piece,” he said.

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The genesis of Alexander’s opus was a lunch he had five years ago with Bradbury. The author was open to the idea of having one of his poems set to music, but Alexander remembers Bradbury telling him, “I warn you, I’ve never liked anything anyone has ever set of mine to music.”

In fact, Bradbury, reached by phone earlier this week at his home in West Los Angeles, wasn’t quite that severe. But almost:

* On David Mettee’s opera, “Fahrenheit 451”: “That turned out OK.”

* On Lalo Schifrin’s “Space Age Madrigals”: “OK again. Darn it all, he’s a fine composer, but not melodic enough.”

* On a cantata by Jerry Goldsmith: “I’m old-fashioned. I love Puccini.”

*

As of Monday night, Bradbury hadn’t heard Alexander’s work, and, musically speaking, there was absolutely no collaboration between the two. But Alexander was already aware of Bradbury’s old-fashioned tastes.

“Bradbury is perceived as a science-fiction writer, but in reality his writing shows him to be the ultimate romanticist,” Alexander said. “The poetry for ‘This Time of Kites’ is truly romantic. It required a more conservative style than I would have seen myself as using.

“It also communicates such a positive feeling about life,” he said. “It encourages each individual to fly his own kite, and no matter what the color of the kite, to go with it, and not be afraid of life.”

That’s a message Alexander will no doubt keep in mind as he conducts the work.

“I’m going to be more nervous in a way that I haven’t been since I was a kid,” Alexander said. “It’s a brand new experience for me. Conducting doesn’t bother me. But the idea of laying my soul on the line--well, I have butterflies.”

* John Alexander conducts the Pacific Chorale in an a cappella program including his own music as well as works by Vaughan Williams, Persichetti, Barber, Rachmaninoff and Delius on Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 7:30 p.m.. Concert preview by author Ray Bradbury at 6:30 p.m. $18-$39. (714) 662-2345 or Ticketmaster, (714) 740-7878.