Two words come to mind with regard to the music of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick: accessible and eclectic. This is one composer who has not lost the ability to spin a good tune or a beautiful melody, who has the ears and the experience of his audience constantly in mind. He does this in a way that has become more and more a part of the young American composer’s bag of compositional tricks: drawing from sometimes vastly different influences in order to achieve a successful musical drama.
Heggie’s melodic instincts are solid and generous. They are on display from the moment the overture begins (you can hear the beginning of the overture on the landing page of the opera Moby-Dick on our website): while the strings, harp and triangle provide a bed of shimmering e-minor (perhaps evoking a calm, sun-splotched sea), the winds play a two-note rising figure which quickly expands into a simple, memorable motive that wanders up and down the scale. A lone clarinet plays a related theme that has a slightly exotic flavor, a theme that will later be associated with the South Seas native, Queequeg. These two ideas overlap and play with each other, other groups of instruments taking their turns with them as the overture becomes more expansive. A second attractive and memorable theme is introduced by a solo oboe, an idea that is associated with Captain Ahab’s obsession. (This melody later appears in Ahab's Act I aria, "I leave a white and turbid wake" when he sings that the setting sun no longer gives him enjoyment, "it is anguish to me since I can ne'er enjoy.")
The composer knows that judicious (but not overdone) repetition of these simple motives aids greatly in audiences’ enjoyment of opera. Like the Wagnerian leitmotif, the use of groups of readily knowable themes in the development of a score creates an overall sense of unity for a two or three hour stage work. Unlike the leitmotif however, Heggie is looser with the attachment of these themes to characters, ideas, emotional states or props. This creates a freer and more attractively ambiguous texture.
Orchestral color is of primary importance to Heggie, with solo instruments and unusual groupings constantly creating an overall kaleidoscopic effect. Voices, too, create a similar effect. The use of the bright, steely heldentenor quality for Ahab is very effective, making the character part hero, part god, part military officer, part wounded seaman. It brings to mind the use of a similar quality for Verdis Otello, particularly when the Moor is in deep personal anguish over the seeming infidelity of Desdemona. The use of a single female voice in the opera (the soprano trouser role of Pip, the cabin boy) also brings a brilliant touch of color in an otherwise dark palette of all male voices.
In terms of Heggie’s American eclecticism there are elements in Moby-Dick which feel derived from many different sources. The use of compound meters and odd, syncopated rhythmic combinations suggests jazz roots though one would never describe this score as ‘jazzy’. The use of choral forces to sing sea shanties (entirely of Heggie’s invention) brings a sense of authenticity to the scenic proceedings. One can hear the influence, as well, of composers like Britten, Copland, Bernstein (the most eclectic composer of all!), even Philip Glass and the minimalists. Yet, as is true of the best American eclectics, one never loses the sense that this composer is fully in charge, that his voice is the one we predominantly hear. In the opera Moby-Dick Jake Heggie does what all great composers of opera do: he communicates an epic story using music as surface and music as subtext, supporting and challenging the audience at the same time.