The composer of the Sex and the City music has created a dramatic piece for the Orchestra of the Swan. Christopher Morley spoke to him.
Sex in the City arrives in Shakespeare’s birth-town tomorrow night, when Douglas Cuomo, composer of that sensational television series’ title-music, arrives for the European premiere of his Black Diamond Express Train to Hell.
“David Curtis, conductor of the Orchestra of the Swan, co-commissioned this piece along with the American Composers Orchestra in New York City,” Douglas tells me from his home there.
“David heard about my idea for it and said ‘I want it for the Orchestra of the Swan’s Stratford Spring Sounds Festival 2011, and I’ll put up some funds to commission it so it can get written’.
“I’m very happy and grateful to David for that,” he adds.
Doug will be playing sampled sounds as his piece unfolds.
“The sampled sounds in Black Diamond Express Train to Hell are from a sermon recorded in 1927 by the Chicago preacher Reverend AW Nix, which was released as a commercial record on the Vocalion label,” he explains.
“At that time in America the record industry was starting to become more popular, and records were sold in various kinds of stores – there weren’t really record stores (come to think of it, there aren’t any now either – an interesting bookend). They were sold in general merchandise stores, and these records were not just music there was also a whole genre of sermons.
“This particular recording was very popular in its time, and it’s not hard to know why once you hear it – it’s an amazing performance. Nix is so charged up, his voice quickly gets to the point that he’s on the edge of singing.
“That’s a very dramatic place for a voice to be, and he sustains an incredible level of intensity throughout. In his voice you can hear precursors to gospel singing, delta blues singers like Son House and even R&B singers like Otis Redding, and remember this is 1927, decades before any of this. It’s a very intense and beautiful thing.
“I have an interest in this part of American music and culture, and when I first heard this particular recording I immediately knew I wanted to use it.”
So where did the title come from?
“I know a good title when I hear one. I shamelessly named the piece from the title of the sermon. Nix is preaching that all sinners are on a train to hell and they should use their free will to get off. Each type of sinner has their own station stop – drunkards, liars, gamblers, there’s even one called Dancing Hall Depot.”
