Meet Johnny Hachem and some of his music achievements: Johnny Hachem composed the music of many films, most notably the documentary film by Carmen Labaki: “I Knocked on the Temple’s Door”. To his name, he has a piano concerto, clarinet concerto, Violin concerto and a large variety of instrumental and orchestral compositions that have been performed in Europe & the Middle East. His music was broadcasted on different Radio stations in the Middle East, The United Kingdom, Brazil, Central America and The Caribbean. Hachem was a professor at the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music. He has achieved a Masters degree in composition with distinction. Read even more details on Johnny Hachem.
There are two schools: one is to repeat accurately and punctually all the previously written compositions, the other is to improvise and feel free to find the inner connection to them. Which one do you favour more? Johnny Hachem:Honestly, both. That’s why most of my solo piano concerts are under the title of “Composition and improvisation recital”. The 21st century brought tremendous amount of digital music making tools, lately even softwares, AIs started to do the work of composing, mixing and truth to be told, the streaming services encourages everyone to release new songs every month or even more frequently. Obviously, there is the question of quality and originality, too. What about you? Can you see yourself as an everyday new song writing artist or integrity and authenticity must meet uniqueness and genuine originality?
As for learning piano and music composition, Johnny got his training from the Lebanese higher Conservatory of Music and earned a master’s degree with distinction. Since then, there has been no looking back for him. In fact, Johnny has been composing for more than 20 years and has produced music for orchestras and chamber music. Moreover, many symphony orchestras have been playing his compositions on the stages in various countries across the world.
Oftentimes musicals and mainstream songs “borrow” from classical pieces, even without mentioning the actual origins. The reasoning is that “every note has already been used”, so, why not. Has it ever happened to you that your compositions welcomed you in someone other’s gown? Johnny Hachem: I think no, at least not until now, haha. Or maybe it’s happened and I’m just unaware of it? It can be! Why do you think modern compositions lack of the beautiful and elegant complexity of notes, chords; the ornaments such as turns, mordents, trills, acciaccaturas, appoggiaturas; the complete lack of meaningful structures and so on? And this goes both for each and every genre. Can it be because of the untrained ears will not buy into something they feel alien and untranslatable, “too much” or because majority of the songs are written by a handful of craftsmen in the background and the “indies” in any genres are just, well, simply not enough good?
Johnny has performed his compositions world-wide in countries including, Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Qatar, France, Switzerland, Germany, England, Spain, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. His most notable work include his composition for the documentary film I Knocked on the Temple’s Door by Carmen Labaki, and also for composing “The Fourth Watch”, which was performed by the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra in December 2014 and “The Battle of Siddim” performed by the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra in May 2017 and by “Lublin Philharmonic orchestra”, Poland in October 2017.
Classical music these days more of a sub-niche with rigid frames and for many it is boring and full with repetitions. It is true, even Verdi became quite “pop” in some of his works, not to mention Chopin or Donizetti. Ok, maybe Bartok was a different league and an exception; however, there is a trend to “lighten up” the classical pieces to make it more acceptable for the masses. As a composer and performer, how do you see this, what are your experiences? Johnny HachemJohnny Hachem: I will divide my answer into two parts: First, I believe that people listen to classical music more than ever, but that is through movies and video games, however, most of them don’t like listening to it in a concert hall and that’s because of the strict etiquette rules there; you can’t clap between the movements of the musical piece even if you were very excited, you can’t cough now, you can’t move… in other words, you can’t express your emotions as you do in pop or rock concerts… To tell you the truth, it wasn’t like that before. Joseph Horowitz, in his wonderful new book, Moral Fire, describes audiences “screaming” and “standing on chairs” during classical concerts in the 1890s. The New York Times records an audience that “wept and shouted, strung banners across the orchestra pit over the heads of the audience and flapped unrestrainedly” when listening to their favorite opera singer at the Met in the 1920s. And the strict rules started in 1960.