Yo-Yo Ma interview transcript
Recorded May 29, 2001
Posted September 10, 2001

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Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Yo-Yo Ma: Oh, it's wonderful to be here today.

DO: When you first heard about this idea of a concert for remembrance and reconciliation, what was your reaction when you were asked to participate?

YM: I think I was startled, actually. I think having people want to do something is one of the most exciting things. I think that when somebody wants an event to happen-this event took six years in the making, of planning, of people having lots and lots of meetings, figuring out which composers to ask ... I had never really thought about it. I do think of music as a means to locate memory. And I do think of music often as something that has healing powers. So I was startled, but I was very attracted to the idea, because I thought: What a wonderful thing to do. I think one of the hardest things to do for people is to be able to acknowledge memory and then to move on. And I thought that their enterprise was a very worthy goal.

DO: Was there any thought in your mind of a risk of reopening old wounds because of this event?

YM: Well you know what's funny is that I was in Scotland on the 50th anniversary of D Day. And it was amazing to read. I mean, the papers were full of stories of people who just—after 50 years—they were able to finally say some things. Maybe there's a danger of opening old wounds. But I think there are also many people that really want to know what those memories are. And I think that's ... we know with Memorial Day, I've just seen, actually heard, a lot of people talk about their experiences during the Vietnam War. And it is cathartic. And it's a wonderful thing to do.

DO: How would you describe—what words would you use to describe—the moods of the four new pieces that were played tonight?

YM: Oh, my goodness. ... I think it's interesting to hear what each individual composer's view is of something that they knew about or experienced or whatever, and I think, for some composers, the sense of it ... we played the folk songs and some of the music. The folk songs are embedded within the music ... some of the compositions are more abstract, and some are very much more tactile, very living. You know, the bass drum in the Mamiya—I actually flinch every time I hear it. I can't see Earl play the bass drum, but when I hear it, I'm not prepared. I know it's loud, but each time ... I actually have a huge physical reaction to it. So, so it ranges from the abstract in concept in saying well okay, let's think about ... just how many, how many ways can ... for example, can be played? How many different versions you could have it going all at the same time. You could have Mr. Imbrie writing a piece about yesterday, today, and tomorrow, really giving you that span of time, and you have the two middle pieces, ah, I think with Chen Yi and Mr. Mamiya really have giving a sense of the moment and then the fallout from the moment. So I think we have all of those versions.

DO: It was challenging music ... it was provocative, maybe risky music ... if you wanted to convey the feeling of reconciliation, remembrance, would it have been easier, would it have been too easy to go for more conventional music that would have conveyed more conventional emotions?

YM: Well, I think this is always a choice, and I think this is a choice that Young-Nam made and I thought it was a very courageous one. I remember earlier conversations where we thought we could play the Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time, which was written in ... concentration camp in 1941 I think. And, ah, but they chose really to go for four new ways of thinking about it, and I thought that was quite amazing.

DO: When your friends, when family members heard about the idea for a commemoration, what did they think? Did they think it was a good idea? a bad idea?

YM: I mentioned this to my mother the other day, and I'm actually curious to tell her more about it, because all I had at that moment was a concept, you know, to say I hadn't come to the rehearsals, I didn't know what the music sounded like. All I could say: Well, this is happening. And I thought she was interested, and I'd be curious to see what her reaction is afterwards.

DO: What would you like listeners to take away from this performance, from this commemoration?

YM: I don't know, I think this is an individual choice. One of the ... I was thinking actually before the concert, that ... how hard it is for people to really get into the inner lives of others. And I think music is a very good way to express that. And in that sense, people having compassion for tragedies that happen. War is obviously a tragedy for all parties. And, politics aside, there's a space for thinking about what people go through in order to go to war. And that compassion, you know, it's hard to get there, and I do think that music is one of the good means of trying to get people to feel more attuned to each other's points of view.

DO: Let's go a little bit farther on that. Mr. Mamiya talked in his interview about the magical power of music—that composers, that performers, should not allow their work to be used for negative propaganda, for bad things. The magical power of music. What does that mean do you think?

YM: Well, I'll give you a specific example. I love Mr. Mamiya's music. I've played a lot of his music before. And I think sometimes we're flooded with statistics. If you hear 100,000 people died, is that more of a tragedy than when 10 people died? It's very hard to feel scale when you're dealing with emotional compassion. And what I think Mr. Mamiya did in this piece ... you know, there's one little figure where the two violins are going du-du-du-du ... it's just it's something that is so simple. And it's actually the simplest thing: Anybody can play it or write it. But in the hundreds of years of people writing music, I've never heard something like that. So what he was able to do was to choose a number of sounds that we can all understand, and he found a way of giving a gesture an aesthetic that actually led us someplace. That hasn't ever been done before, and we all get it. That's magic. And I think sometimes it takes a very specific person's feeling and compassion and incredible craft, to be able to say: Okay, I can take you someplace. And that's a place that I know about, and that you will know about also from this experience. I think that's a form of magic.

DO: What would you like to see happen, after this. Where would you like to see this go, should there be more?

YM: Hey, this is not my idea. I'm just the cello player here. I think that there is so much discord in the world-that, rather than people looking at differences all the time, I think there are so many unifying factors that we can explore at the cultural level. And I think why I'm interested always is because music is what I do, I'd like to see how ... what are the ways that music can actually join people together and join people's inner lives and putting them in a certain frame that is conducive to better conversation.

DO: I know you've already taken on the question, and I guess I'll put it to you one more time, because maybe I forgot some of the words you said. Why remember the atrocities committed in China and Korea? Why bring it up?

YM: I think that for me the most important thing in life is to try and understand things. I think I've always wanted to understand the world around me. And I think once you understand, I think the next thing to do is move forward. So, it's not remembering so that you can point fingers and do whatever, but rather it's acknowledgement so that we can move forward. Because there's a lot to do. And there's a lot to live for. And that's really the principle aim.

DO: Has the idea created hard feelings that you know of between groups of people? Asian-Americans, Korean-Americans, Chinese-Americans?

YM: Not that I know of. I just think that it's, you know, I think this is something, it's done in the most open spirit, and I hope that it's received as such.

DO: I guess finally, sort of finally, what would reconciliation look like, do you think, as it moves forward?

YM: Well, I think reconciliation has ... people moving forward implies that people can live fully in the present, accepting whatever is in the past. Listen, nobody has a clean past, and just so that we have a great life, all together. And that wouldn't be a bad goal.

DO: Yo-Yo Ma, thank you so much for you time.

YM: Thank you. It's great to be here.