“I consider it a great honor to once more compose music to Supreme Master Ching Hai’s poems. Composing for her words was an inspiring experience for The Real Love. This year’s show will prove to be even more successful and meaningful. Thank you, Supreme Master Ching Hai.” --Don Pippin, Tony and Emmy Award-winning composer

One of Broadway’s most esteemed musical directors and composers, Tony and Emmy Award-winning Don Pippin has worked on some of Broadway’s most well-known musicals such as Mame, A Chorus Line, Oliver!, and La Cage aux Folles.

For over a decade, Mr. Pippin served as music director of New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall. He has led London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in The Music of Jerry Herman, and the National Symphony Orchestra for Jerry Herman’s Broadway, in homage to his longtime Broadway collaborator. Mr. Pippin has also collaborated with such great singers as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Julie Andrews, as well as movie stars like Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, and Doris Day.  

In 2011, Don Pippin joined four other esteemed Broadway and Hollywood composers in scoring the musical, The Real Love, which was inspired by Supreme Master Ching Hai’s life story and based its lyrics on her poetry. Attending the sold-out world premiere in Pasadena, California, USA, a cheerful Mr. Pippin had said, “It has been a new experience in my life because I never have the opportunity to work with such beautiful words to set to music like Supreme Master Ching Hai’s. She is so beautiful, what she writes, and it inspires music.”

Mr. Pippin thus gladly welcomed the opportunity to compose for Loving the Silent Tears, saying that it was a great honor to do so.

Mr. Pippin composed the opening song, “Never Set Foot,” as well as the song for the Italy scene, titled “Initiation,” both with lyrics based on Supreme Master’s poems from her brilliant collection, Silent Tears.

“This time I did the opening number, which was really marvelous,” he shared. “And I must say that the arrangement and the way it was done was so thrilling, to see it work. Last year I wrote the opening number. So I seem to have become the opening number writer. But the thing I really loved writing was the Italian number for Mark Janicello. He’s brilliant. I went on YouTube and I saw many of his things and heard him sing. So I felt I really knew his voice. So it was wonderful to write for that voice.” 

Acclaimed Italian tenor and principal cast member Mark Janicello expressed his admiration and appreciation of Mr. Pippin on several occasions, saying that Mr. Pippin’s composition fit his voice “like a glove.” Mr. Janicello expressed, “I’ve got four-and-a-half octaves, and I sing everything from pop to Elvis to Lady Gaga. And he [Don Pippin] just duplicated what I can do and how I communicate, and he put all of it into this amazing song. The song was written to my voice, it’s beautiful. It does everything that I do best. And I can only say, Don, thank you so much.”

During his creative process of composing for Loving the Silent Tears, composer Don Pippin wrote down his impressions of Supreme Master Ching Hai’s poetry. The following are excerpts:

For the glorious operatic song “Initiation,” Mr. Pippin highlighted the power and clarity of Mr. Janicello’s voice through an impressive melody. He also paid particular attention to cultural detail, with the intro featuring the serenading strums of a mandolin – reminiscent of a quaint Italian scene.

Italian tenor Mark Janicello in “Initiation”

“The thing amazing about her poems,” said the distinguished composer, “[is] you cannot just read through it once and say, ‘Oh, well, that’s nice,’ or ‘that’s this.’ You have to really read them different times, when you’re in a different mood, because you’ll get a different feeling about it each time. The opening number particularly, her humor is so strong in that. And then she can become so deep in her thought process. The lady is fantastic.”

Both humor and profound meaning indeed are seen in the first two lines of “Never Set Foot,” as well:

Company performs “Never Set Foot”

Mr. Pippin revealed that while setting the poem “Never Set Foot” to music, he decided to start over after receiving more inspiration:

Tony & Emmy-winning composer Don Pippin on the red carpet

When the musical’s much anticipated world premiere finally took place, Supreme Master Television sought a few words with Mr. Pippin to find out his reaction to the show.

“It would take two hours for me to tell you!” He beamed. “It deals with not only peace in general, but inner peace. So it really has a lot to offer. … It was so wonderful. It was thrilling. Visually, it’s such a feast of… It’s amazing! And how the actors learned to do all of that so fast…! It was a little rehearsal actually for a major show, and it was thrilling.”

Mr. Pippin also commented on the work of the dancing members of the cast, saying, “The whole thing is really a dance concert with songs and with principals doing roles. The dancers are brilliant!”

Finally, when the conversation turned to the possibility of another new musical, Mr. Pippin’s candid reply was: “We never know from year to year.”

He then added, “But I have a feeling you have not heard the last of Supreme Master Ching Hai’s poems. I hope to be back soon.”  

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