Our Composition Department spent the last few weeks immersing ourselves in music by Kati Agocs, a wonderful Hungarian-by-way-of-American-by-way-of-Canadian composer. We focused our energies on three works, at her suggestion: St. Elizabeth Bells for cello and cimbalom The Debrecen Passion for 12 female voices and orchestra Vessel for 3 female voices and 10 musicians After digging into … [Read more...]
Archives for 2015
nu stuff
Our nu ensemble had a fantastic concert last Saturday night: seven pieces from the last five years, all by composers between the ages of 23 and 45. The program: Ted Hearne: But I Voted for Shirley Chisholm Derek Arnold: Cook’s Wall Cheyne Runnells: Mistakes Were Made Donnacha Dennehy: That the Night Come Caroline Shaw: Entr’acte Dak Van Vranken: Hag Stefan Freund: The Soldier Dances With … [Read more...]
Words and music
It’s a truism that great poetry doesn’t always make for great lyrics. Most composers who have set a lot of poetry can attest to the fact that some of the things that make a poem come alive on the page or when spoken are the very things that make it DOA when set to music. I haven’t heard much discussion, though, of the ways that poorly constructed poetry can make for effective music. I’ve been … [Read more...]
Herschel Day
Today is the 277th birthday of William Herschel, a man who shows us just how vast the change has been in the fortunes of the arts and sciences. Herschel has often been dubbed the Father of Modern Astronomy, the first person to discover a planet unknown to the ancients, a fellow renowned for building some of the finest telescopes of his day. But his day was not an optimal time for … [Read more...]
Entr’acte
Between performances of Lo, her new quasi-violin concerto, Caroline Shaw paid a visit to our Composition Department yesterday. Her visit came in two chunks: first coaching a graduate string quartet in her 2011 composition Entr’acte, then speaking with the composition students about her music and theirs. If you haven’t heard any of Caroline’s music, type her name into your favorite search box … [Read more...]
What we say is new
Any composer’s work can be appreciated both for its connections to historical antecedents and for the way it reflects a distinct artistic voice. Some music leans more heavily to the former, some to the latter. In talking about my music, I tend to focus on connections to my forebears. I could just as easily emphasize things that are specific to our time, but I don’t for a number of reasons, … [Read more...]
I.D.
Art serves many purposes. I want to write about two today: life-enhancement and identity. I’m not going to define life-enhancement. We all have an idea of what that can mean, for ourselves and for others. In some cases it may be a simple appeal to our pleasure receptors – sounds, sights, ideas that we respond to favorably. And by “favorably” I don’t necessarily mean that we like them: sometimes … [Read more...]
What Happened
If you find yourself in the middle of Virginia this Saturday night, check out the Garth Newel Piano Quartet concert: they are playing a piece of mine from 2004 called What Happened. What Happened was premiered in Paris by the Atlantic Ensemble; it is in three movements: Gathering, Congregation and Scattering. The second movement carries a delicious Daniel DeFoe quote from 1703: Wherever God … [Read more...]
Unpacking your piano
My colleagues and I taught a seminar on writing for piano last Friday. Referencing a wide range of thinking going all the way back to Cristofori, we focused mainly on innovations of High Modernism to the present. High Modernism came in the form of Webern, Copland, Sessions and Boulez, which established our baseline. From there we looked at Crumb, Ligeti and beyond. Over the course of this … [Read more...]
American Festival of Microtonal Music
We have a very busy week here, with the American Festival of Microtonal Music coming to town. Curated by two of our alumni, the festival has three concerts in three different venues on consecutive nights. My interest in microtonality has been that of one surveying a lovely, distant vista, as opposed to someone tilling the ground in hopes of a harvest. But I love giving my students an opportunity … [Read more...]