Maine Motif Issue 3, Vol. II (Spring 2018) | Page 24

AB: The “Devil” in this case is a reference to H.H.Holmes, the serial killer that Tom
mentioned earlier. Holmes built this awful eerie hotel on the train line to the World’s
Fair and he lured young women into it, where he killed them and then incinerated them
in the basement. Very dark stuff.
This is a complete contrast to the “White City,” a reference to the World’s Fair itself.
Because of the delays in preparing for the fair, the architects in charge, led by Daniel
Burnham, made the serendipitous decision to simply whitewash all of the buildings. The
effect of this, creating a “white city,” only emphasized its utopian vision and hope for a
better future.
TL: When I first read the book I thought, “This is neat. Larson has superimposed a novel
on the history of architect Daniel Burnham and the creation of the White City.” I
shivered when I finally figured out all of it was true. H.H. Holmes was the country’s first
serial killer. (Editor’s note: recent research concludes with 98% certainty that Holmes
was also England’s killer Jack the Ripper.)
Andy, wasn’t the idea of writing a piece about a serial killer depressing?
AB: Yes, in a way. Certainly as I began considering how to approach the subject matter,
it was pretty dark. But I realized that the contrast Larson had set up created some great
opportunities for me musically. It gave me the chance to play with this completely evil
material side-by-side with music that was, hopefully, beautiful and ethereal.
The dichotomy between the story of Holmes and that of Burnham is
considerable. What challenges did the book present to you as a composer?
AB: Well, I think the initial problem was trying to determine what sort of story to tell.
There is so much in the book and it would be impossible to communicate most of that
material in a piece of instrumental music. So it became this challenge of trying to distill
the most important elements from the story and that ultimately became the musical
portrayal of the essence of these two people.
How did you represent Holmes musically?
AB: I actually used the same melodic material for both Holmes and Burnham, but
Holmes’ theme is set using an octatonic scale, which seemed appropriate because of the
predominance of minor seconds and, more importantly, tritones within that set. The