David Lang

Composer of the Wealth of Nations oratorio who discussed his creative process and audience reception.

“[instrumental music] We will be right back after the break. This is Freakonomics Radio and I'm Stephen Dubner. [instrumental music] David Lang told me he was going through some post-premiere depression after the New York run of his Wealth of Nations oratorio. …”

Composer discussing his creative process and the inclusion of past works in new pieces.

“I definitely was worried that people who knew that piece might think that it was a little bit of cheating. But I'm in my studio thinking my own thoughts, and this piece really is about me trying to figure out what I think and what I believe. And so it automati…”

The composer of 'Wealth of Nations' who is described as a fearless artist.

“It is the writers and the poets and the musicians who get silenced when authoritarian regimes take hold. David Lang is a fearless, fearless artist, but he's not laboring under the conditions Shostakovich labored under of great suffering, or Prokofiev. He's not…”

A composer who adapted Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' into a musical work and discussed economic concepts like opportunity cost.

“When it comes to silly ideas, I'm guessing that some listeners may think these past two episodes were a silly idea for a show that's supposed to be about economics. To which I would say, and I think Adam Smith would also say, everything is about economics, inc…”

The composer of the new musical piece based on The Wealth of Nations.

“At the end of March, the composer David Lang debuted a modern piece of music set to a 250-year-old book, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations.”

The composer who discusses his creative process, the evolution of his work, and his experience during rehearsals.

“I thought it was wonderful. I thought it was thought-provoking but also totally engaging. It was deep but accessible. There's a lot of different movements, obviously, and a lot of different emotions and a lot of different colors in the music. And you'll forgiv…”

The composer discussing his experience during the rehearsals and performances of his work.

“I think it's a little bit of everything. You know, I'd never heard the piece before either. If I had rehearsed with them for a month, I might actually be able to say, "Oh, this one note, can you bring it out a little more?" I might have more specific comments.…”

A decoder project for the AV1 video format that requires high-performance optimization.

“Right? Because, like, one of the projects, um, that we need to talk about is called David, right? So David is a decoder for the format, uh, that was done by Alliance for OpenMedia, uh, which is an, a video decoder called AV1.”