I was surprised to identify, in the placid strings that conclude the extraordinary film A Quiet Passion, a bit of decomposed Ives:  the action dissolves into The Unanswered Question, stripped of trumpet and winds. What is left of The Unanswered Question when the question and increasingly agitated answers are removed?  “The Silence of the Druids—who Know, See and Hear Nothing,” in Ives’ words, … [Read more...]

We had composer Chris Heckman in on Friday to talk with our composers about careers in Film Composition.  Chris is a good colleague who has worked on projects for Disney, Danny Elfman and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.  He was direct and informative with the students: no sugar-coating, no blasting the bad guys, just shared a clear sense of how the profession works.  A few themes emerged. … [Read more...]

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of getting young composers opportunities to hear their music played, and how some schools put more emphasis on showcasing the work of the composition teachers.  Obviously, students should hear the music their professors write, but not at the expense of hearing their own work. A few days later I received a flyer from a prominent school emphasizing … [Read more...]

The most stable chord, traditional teaching tells us, is the root position triad – the one with the fundamental on the bottom. A more elusive arrangement puts the third of the chord in the bass – nice for subverting the obvious hierarchy of the root. That leaves the 64 chord, meaning a triad with the fifth in the bass.  Traditional teaching tells us this chord requires special treatment.  It … [Read more...]

Caught the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) exhibition Dispatches this weekend.  Dispatches was mounted just before the 2016 election; in its own words it “includes a survey of works from 2010 - present and launches a series of commissions, or "dispatches" on current events and the critical issues of our time.”  Works exploring environmentalism, the war in Syria and the 2016 … [Read more...]

When I was an undergraduate student, I won a prize that got me a reading session with the school orchestra. I showed up for the session and discovered that one of the professors had decided to use the time to get a reading of a piece he had written.  I got five minutes at the end of the session.  The orchestra got through the first 20 measures of my piece, a work I had spent the better part of … [Read more...]

We have eighth blackbird in residence this week, stimulating us with their sharp and sparkling brand of new music.  On Wednesday, they recorded music by some of our student composers, last night they played a vibrant program of works by Andres, Muhly, McGowan, Hearne and Dessner.  Today they are presenting a seminar on building a career in contemporary chamber music and giving master classes and … [Read more...]

In 2009 I heard the Prism Quartet play Pagine, a set of arrangements by Salvatore Sciarrino of works spanning several centuries.  I was taken with suppleness of the ensemble, its ability to adapt itself to widely divergent styles.  I was also struck by the license Sciarrino took in collecting vastly different works into a single set, a license that fit nicely with my view of music. The … [Read more...]

Every year, we have our composition students do focused study of the works of a living composer, then Skype with that composer to discuss the music.  This year, one of the composers we focused on was Chen Yi, and we met with her this past week. Chen Yi is a fantastic subject for young American composers to study because her life experiences are dramatically distant from theirs, and that … [Read more...]

When did singers and songwriters first start getting lumped under the moniker “artists?”  I think it happened during my lifetime, but I’m not sure, because I’ve spent a lot of my life in a cave.  Hank Williams, Sam Cooke wrote and sang their own songs, but I don’t think they were generally referred to as “the artist.”  Or, rather, when they were referred to as artists it was meant as a compliment, … [Read more...]