Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2000)
8 WedNEsdAy, M arc I i 8, 2000 Feature TklE CL aç I î AMAS PRjNT Ostin Former Clackamas Student bares his soul through music composition. JOELP. SHEMPERT Contributing Writer The 24-year-old with tousled orange locks and a nervous smile may seem unassuming, even shy—but Ostin Drais, composerand formerClackamas student, is quite open as he sits with his manuscript, ready to share his love of music with the world. “It’s just another part of my life,” Ostin claims of his musical endeavors. “It’s not every part ofmy life.. .people who associate someone with one par ticular aspect ofthem—it’s limiting; it’s really limiting.” How ironic, then, that my talk with Ostin ends up focusing so much on the music, flowing inevitably toward the creation and not its creator. As we talk, we conjure amemory of old days, offifty voices stirring Ostin’s brilliantly placed notes to life, of danc ing across hardwood as Ostin coaxes beauty and love from 88 keys. Ostin studied music at Cleveland High School in Gladstone, and sang in toe choir, while from 6th grade through High School he took piano lessons, which were key to his musical and per sonal development “Piano technique helped me out a lot,” Ostin recalls, adding that his own improvisations were “one of toe joys that I had” in high school, one which continues to this day. Ostin’s sudden prominence is due largely to his completed Mass No. 1 for mixed choir, a labor four years in the making, and a labor which will be con summated in its performance by Ostin’s alma mater the Clackamas Chamber singers fois Sunday. Ostin is a product of Clackamas’ music department, and one of the fin est creditstothatprogram’sexceHence. He is a veteran of toe Music Theory course and choral ensembles, both of which influenced him to put pen to manuscript paper and create. The re sult is this Mass, a compilation of smaller pieces written one at a time since 1996. In exploring toe movements in or der of composition, it can be seen just how much ofheart, mind and soul toe composer has invested in his first great work. To know toe Mass is to know Ostin. I: Libera Me Liberate us. Liberate us from death eternal. “I can definitely tell thattois is writ ten early in rity own writing,” reflects Ostin. In fact, this movement repre sents toe beginning of Ostin’s com posing career. “I remember one day I was sitting at toe piano improvising, and we had done Faure’s Requiem [in choir].. .and 1 remember liking toe Libera Me text So I just happened to play a little lick that I liked,” Ostin remembers. And so Libera Me was bom. Natu rally toe next step, following creation, was performance. Little did he realize this dream would soon become manifest. “I was amazed,” explains Ostin, upon completion of toe piece, “be- causeithadkindofcomeoutofme. . . [but] 1 didn’t think it would be ac cepted, for some reason.” Nevertheless he played toe Libera Me for Choral Director Lonnie Cline and Clackamas alumn and Vocal Jazz arranger Jason Womack, who both liked it The piece was soon performed by toe Clackamas Chamber Singers. Ostin looks back with fondness on this landmark of his musical life. “This was one of toe first pieces that gottoeball rolling, andl really appreci ate what [Lonnie Cline’s] done,” Ostin shares. “I think it’s very rare that a college would perform the music of a student composer.” H: Kyrie Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Sometimes toe barest suggestion can spark toe greatest inspiration. As Ostin began to stretch his com positional legs, his friend Lynn Hastings (a longtime Clackamas cho rister) remarked, “You know, you should write a Kyrie.” As Ostin relates, “Two nights later, I did. Ittook me four hours.” This movement contains, no con test, toe simplest text of toe Mass. “You have a very simple and very beautiful melody, but. .outoffoisbeau- tiful melody you get these harmonies that are not ‘harmonic’ at all,” Ostin explains. IlI:Sanctus Hofy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. How does one present toe awe and mystery of Sanctus, toe expression of toe earth-shaking presence of toe Al mighty? Unconventionally, of course. “I use a harmony that you ‘cannot’ use—at least in Bach’s terms,” Ostin relates, “and that's a suspension with foe major third added.” Which, in layman’s terms, translates: “not what you’re expecting.” “This piecedoesn’t really resolve,” says Ostin, “untilfoe very ending har mony. . .everything else up to foatpoint has been tension of some kind.” IV: Agnus Dei Lamb ofGod who takes away the sins cfthe world grant them eternal rest. Now Divine experience gets per sonal. A relationship between humans and their Creator unfolds, and again music is called upon to express foe un fathomable. “Agnus, Agnus, Agnus Dei. Lamb ofGod,” mutters Ostin, exploring even as he reminisces. “I think it might be trying to find out who it is that wei’re talking about Idon’tknow. I just wrote what I wrote.” His eyes flash as a spirit takes him. “ I don’t write notes; I write colors,” he declares, suddenly Ostin foe Sage. “I don’t write music; I arrange notes. “There’s a definite reason why Isay that. The music is made when it is performed.. .you never know what can happen, because each individual mo ment is different, because each indi vidual is different moment to moment People grow; people learn, learn dif- Composer Ostin Drais sits in Clackamas’Skylight Dining Room, discussing his Mass No.1, a compilation of early choral works. ferent moods.” V: Gloria Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men of good will. Gloriais foe capstone of foe Mass, both due to its emotive force and it’s placement—last rather than second. It is also foe only piece with instru mentation. “I felt because of foe power of foe text it needed to be accompanied,” saysOstin. The result is a marriage of reverent and joy fol voices with a lush and heartbreaking piano. But too much joy can be a bad thing. “To me, this piece needs to be so contained,” Ostin insists. “That’s where foe power comes from.” This reserve is perhaps better ex plained in spiritual terms: “It’s almost like this person who is glorifying God is scared of Him, br does not want to look, does not want to open their eyes for fear of being blinded; I’m not sure. That is foe way I hear this particular piece.” VIrCredo / believe in One Gdd, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible. The Credo is perhaps foe most daunting portion of foe Mass No, 1, and likewise represents Ostin’s great-" est hurdle in completing foe work. “This is where I really experimented in painting, because every single thing I’ve written is taken straight away from foe meaning of foe text, and my own interpretation of it,” shares Ostin. “Judicare vivos et mortuos. ‘Who judges foe living and foe dead,”’ he translates, pondering, searching for words. “You have this celestial being who works with, or understands and talks to, both foe living and the dead. It kind of brings everything back to earth.” * * * It is a high honor, indeed, for one’s inmost thoughts to be given life in the voices of friends. “I don’t know if I feel like I don’t deserve this,” confesses Ostin. “I don’t like people with swelled heads, and I think what could be happening is, I am purposefully keeping my ego down.” Confidence is also a factor. “For a longtime, I didn’treallythink highly of my own stuff,” Ostin admits. “Ittook some people drumming it in [to con vince me] that, ‘you write good stuff.”’ The pull of these forces results in a strain between artist’s humility and supporters’ encouragement, and foe ensuing tightrope walk is precarious to foe very self. “What I’m trying to do is keep me who I am, instead of being influenced, or tainted, if you will,” says Ostin. After all, who would want an Ostin Drais any other way? World premiere performance of Mass #7 by Ostin Drais: Performed by the Clackamas Community Chamber Choir Date: March 12, 2000 Time: 7:30 p.m. Place: St. Mary Cathedral in Mount Angel Admission: $6 adults, $3 students
