composer's notebook
essays & criticism on musical matters
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Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Buckeye Nation
Last week's visit to The Ohio State University was chock-full of reasons to be pleased... terrific performance, great people, fun seminars with the students... But giving the Wind Symphony's absolutely beautiful and sensitively-performed performance of my piece a run for it's money was Maestro Mikkelson's personal tour of the OSU stadium and state-of-the-art marching band facility. For this city boy, a 230-piece brass band (with matching silver instruments, of course) rehearsing in a cavernous room complete with double-gun video projectors, flat-screen displays for game-tape viewing, and John Madden-style telestrator for complete ease of marching analysis - well, it's not something one gets to see every day. And I'm not sure we should - my brain got full just watching these guys warm up. I'm guessing the marvelous excess is exactly what's needed to engage the 105,000 souls in the stadium, but I prefer to think of it as one more of those exotic Musics Of The World I wish I understood - a glorious noise requiring a lifetime of study, like African drumming or Indian ragas.
My thanks to the OSU Symphonic Band, Wind Symphony, Erika, Rich, Mark, Rick, and Russ for making mine a blowout residency! And next time I'll be drugging the lead sousaphone before pre-game and dottin' that 'I' myself.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Huge.
Today I fly to Columbus and Ohio State University, for a short residency, working with Russ Mikkelson and Rick Blatty's ensembles on As the scent of spring rain... and Avenue X. The rehearsals and seminars and such culminate in a Wind Symphony performance Tuesday evening, where my piece is nicely sandwiched between Mackey & Bryant.
I've been trying to think, and I'm pretty sure that OSU is the largest university where I've had the honor of a composer residency. I expect crowds in the 10's of thousands, just like at the Buckeye games. Stadiums full of people. For wind ensemble concert music. Chanting "Go Newman Go!" while waving giant foam fingers. Yes. This is what I expect.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
14th St.
The cross-street as living/breathing NYC arts scene... in the form of a couple of blurry cellphone snapshots, so nifty I thought they warranted another exception to the no-photo rule:
Last month, 14th St. played host to a bite out of a Richard Serra Torqued Ellipse as it was being transported home after this summer's MoMA exhibition.
And a craftsman plies his trade -- Will Write Art (for monetary contributions, of course). In a stroke of genius, he is set up outside Trader Joe's, which I thought was an inspired choice for one's personal card-table/typewriter artist colony.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Addendum
The breathing jazz-encyclopedia that is Jim Kull, of St. Charles, Illinois almost immediately weighed in on the Lush Life essay, pointing out:
1) That Strayhorn was 17 or something like that when he wrote it. I think I ignored that fact for obvious depression-inducing reasons.
2) That solo Strayhorn performance where he talk-sings like a cuddly Rex Harrison is not a "bootleg" at all - it's from Ellington's 1964 show at Basin Street East.
3) There's another Coltane recording (the one I was referring to was the title track on his 1957 Prestige release) - it's from 1963 with Johnny Hartman, and it's simply tear-your-heart-out beautiful. I bought it myself right away. Long live the iTunes Music Store!
4) That I omitted (not on purpose - I just dumbly forgot) the famous fact that Sinatra never recorded the tune, because he couldn't sing it. It was too difficult. There's a neat recording out there of the Capitol Records session in 1958 where he tries to sing it, and finally gives up, mumbling something about wanting to "put it aside for about a year". I've heard it on the radio a few times - it's a kick ... see for yourself. You can hear Sinatra slamming the door when he storms out.
I have my own addition, and that is we may have missed out on Nelson Riddle's arrangement (supposedly terrific...so what else is new) from that fated 1958 Capitol session, but we eventually got one he did for Rondstadt in 1984. She's OK, I guess. It's worth it for the spectacular Riddle work.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Jazz and cocktails
A short essay on the Billy Strayhorn standard, Lush Life, with as many audio links as I could gather.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
jiyonasan niyuman
In March of 2008, I will travel to Japan for the Japan Wind Ensemble Conductor's Conference, for the premiere of a new work they've commissioned. The announcement of my residency is up on the JWECC website, and a little poking around with the help of the internet translation engine makes for some giddy reading. Someday there will be an online Japanese/English translation matrix that works. For now, we enjoy light, Eastern-flavored poetry.
Photos of last year's conference are up there as well, where you can enjoy a pic of last year's resident composer John Mackey applaud with gusto at the premiere of his piece, kinguhuitsushiyazukiyatsuchihuaiya, which (you can probably tell from that title) is a barn-burner, with a killer hook.
I'm excited about how amazing the student ensemble is sure to be, but it's definitely going to be tight, writing this piece on time. Although at this point I'm fairly confident that the timing will work out without too many issues. In any case, the piece I have in mind is going to present an interesting (compositional) challenge. If I can pull it off, it's going to be quite something.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Up-dates
Happy Birthday wishes today to composer John Mackey! Time marches on. I remember when...
And because they are great kids and great players, I'll come through on a plug for the sax quartet who most recently kicked-b*tt on the Lullaby ... Ready to play your gig in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, out of Stephenville TX, meet Saxerkameradenschaft-pfiefer.