studio class » Michigan State University Music Composition

Ethical Schmoozing

Nov 092010

Hello MSU composers! For those of you I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting my name is Tim Patterson. I’m the red headed guy that has been coming to your studio class. Thank you for allowing me to join you and letting me share my thoughts in this blog post!

I moved here with my wife Sarah in August so she could obtain a masters in violin performance studying with Dmitri Berlinsky. So far East Lansing has treated us well and we’re looking forward to the upcoming few years in store at MSU.

ANYWAY, on to the topic I wanted to present: Ethical Schmoozing. In my short time pursuing composition I have had the pleasure of studying with a very talented composer named Forrest Pierce. In addition to teaching composition Dr. Pierce spent a good amount of time teaching his students about what it means to be a composer and what one must do to be successful in todays competitive world.

Ethical Schmoozing is one of the greatest concepts that I took away from our time together. I’m not talking about schmoozing in a manipulation sense but more in a networking way as to build relationships to advance our professional lives as composers.

As composers we depend on other people to play our music. The exception to this of course is the composer that can also play their own music on the desired level necessary. In my experience this is rare. We spend most of our time writing/listening to music or being in class where at the end of the day a three hour practice session isn’t at the top of our list.

Okay, so I need players. No problem, I can just hang around after an orchestra rehearsal and hand a complete stranger the score and ask them if they have time to practice my piece then perform it. How often have you attempted this or something similar and end up being turned down or get a VERY rough performance? My guess is more times than you’d like. The first part of this hypothetical thought was on the right track though… “okay, so I need players. No problem, I can just hang around after an orchestra rehearsal…” then… MEET PEOPLE! Pick a section and introduce yourself to about 5 people and just simply get to know them. Ask them about the piece that they’re rehearsing in orchestra or a solo piece their teacher has them working on. GET TO KNOW THEM, BE INTERESTED, BE CHARMING, NERD OUT ON THEIR INSTRUMENT, ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT WHAT THEY SAY! Out of the 5 people that you meet you will probably keep one or two of those connections. You have just planted the seed of a relationship that could very well bring you great success in the future.

The next time that you are walking down the hall and you see said performer say hi, wave, acknowledge that you met them and want to continue the friendship. Dr. Pierce used to say, “Whenever you introduce yourself to anyone remember that this person you are meeting could very well be your best friend some day.” I’m not saying that you need to be best friends with every performer that you meet but friendship is ESSENTIAL. When someone is your friend and you know them past “here’s the score, can you play? ” they will put soooo much more effort into your music and you will get a beautiful performance/recording.

You don’t necessarily need to meet people either. Think about a class you have, say music history, and think of the four people that sit around you. They are most likely musicians and you have most likely talked to them once or twice. Find out what they play and go with the serendipitous flow of life and eventually ask to write them a 3-4 minute piece. Doing this you will learn how to write for that instrument, make a new musical connection and most importantly make a new friend.

When any of the grandmasters of composition wrote a concerto it was NEVER just a piece they wrote that someone eventually decided to play, it was a piece written FOR somebody. I’m sure there are exceptions to this but I would argue 99% of the time the piece was born out of a flourishing, close musical friendship. In my 4 years as a young composer any great performance/recording that I got was from a friend. Check out my profile page and listen to some of my recordings, lots of practice and good rehearsals went into those. Over the summer I wrote a piano piece for one of my groomsmen and I’m now starting a cello sonata for a friend. These friends will work hard on these pieces because they know that I value and love them and put loads of work writing a piece just for them.

A word of caution though. Make sure you know your friends ability. Sit down with them and have them show you how their instrument works. Have them play a piece they’re working on. Consider yourself a tailor that is designing a dress or a suit. It would be a shame if you finished it and it was too tight or fell right off them!

To conclude I wanted to reiterate the importance of knowing people correlating to your success as a composer. A musical friend you meet now might be in a future interview 10 years down the road or might be a world famous flautist in 20 years that is recording a CD of new works. You never know.

Once again thanks for letting me join your studio class and letting me blog. I look forward to hearing the concert tonight! I also look forward to meeting you, if I haven’t already…

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Studio Class Notes 29 Oct 2010 (Ricardo Lorenz)

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Oct 292010

Dr. Lorenz visited to talk about the premiere (last week) of his new viola concerto, Canciones de Jara, performed by Roberto Diáz and the MSU Symphony Orchestra. He discussed the complicated relationship between the U.S. and Latin America.

He shared a short film called 9-11/9-11 by Mel Chin, who he met at the MacDowell Colony. The film tells parallel stories about the military coup d’etat in Chile in the twentieth century and the World Trade Center attack in the twenty-first. It links them in a long cycle of cultural violence.

At MacDowell, Lorenz found many of the artists creating works that were critical of the culture, contemporary politics, and social issues. They seemed unaware of and uninterested in “classical” music. “There’s room to make statements and connect to individuals in classical music…It is grounded on very powerful events that affected me when I was growing up and still affect me.”

Lorenz has observed a growing number of students interested in studying film music. He thinks this could be because film music is more present in our society. He is still confident however, that the kinds of specific artistic principles that can be conveyed in film can still be effectively presented in art music that does not include images or text.

composer Ricardo Lorenz and violist Roberto Diáz

“I was playing a double game,” Lorenz says. Canciones de Jara is a statement (about violence, terrorism, and politics) while remaining a concerto. Audiences who know nothing of the Victor Jara’s songs, the source of the musical materials in the piece, can still experience Canciones de Jara as a viola concerto.

After Dr. Lorenz’s remarks, we had a class discussion about music’s ability to convey empathy. Specifically, we talked about some of the specific sounds Lorenz used in the concerto: a siren, a person talking through a megaphone, and a guitar, itself amplified by a megaphone. To conclude, we listened to excerpts from the recorded premiere.

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Studio Class Notes 15 Oct 2010 (Heather Maxwell)

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Oct 152010

Guest artist Heather Maxwell has been in residency this week in the Residential College of Arts and Humanities. She is a composer/songwriter/singer/musician of African fusion music. She is playing this afternoon in the RCAH theater at 5:00.

On her career:

Attended Interlochen and Michigan as a voice major. Despite difficulty with theory classes, she became more comfortable as a composer after studying music in Africa. She also learned various African instruments, including the balafon and kamele n’goni. She works through instrumental improvisation, focusing on rhythm. Then she moves to Garage Band and builds up layers of other rhythms. Because balafon is a pentatonic instrument, she tends toward tonally repetitive sounds. Through working with other musicians, she expands to other tonal spaces. She also incorporates improvisation and dance into her music.

On dance:

When learning African music, Maxwell was in a class with students playing various instruments and dancing. Everyone was expected to play each instrument as well as dance. Dance became very important to the way she experienced music, and in particular, rhythm. Trying to consider the music analytically can make the music more difficult to perform.

Future project:

Maxwell would like to work with a composer to transcribe marimba music from Mali for Western musicians to read. This marimba music was at times ritualistic, but often for entertainment, but most importantly it was ubiquitous. She would like to not only like share this music with people who don’t have the opportunity to hear the music in person, but also make it available for educators to use with music students at various levels.

On bodies:

Maxwell observed that many of the dances she was learning seemed designed to take advantage of bigger dancers. Also, they look different from the front and the back. Malian culture does not value thinness the way we do in the West, and Malian society (either gender) doesn’t have a “complex” about body image.

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Translating creativity

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Oct 102010

We talked in studio last week about domain-specific creativity and the possibility of extracting general ideas from those specific activities, ultimately translating the ideas to divergent disciplines through networking. Incidentally, I’ve been watching a few dance films lately, specifically studying how the addition of the camera revolutionizes the relationship between audience and performer. Traditionally in a live setting, a dance might be seen only from certain angles, with some distance necessarily present between audience and performers. In the dance film genre, the camera allows for any and all spatial relationships, which (with some editing) may shift constantly or employ special effects like slow motion or time lapse. In the dance film Amelia, performed by Canadian company La La La Human Steps, the camera not only zooms in for close-ups on eye movements and facial expressions, it also swirls around the dancers as if it were a dancer too. These moments of close-up action are contrasted with distant camera shots from far above or from the opposite side of the room. The audience is in and around the dance in a way that would be impossible live. The Amelia score is composed by David Lang, adjunct composition professor at Yale and 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner. Something I enjoy about the music is how Lang pairs minimalism a la Arvo Pärt and Steve Reich with lyrics from some of Lou Reed’s songs written for Velvet Underground. Although Phillip Scott of Fanfare magazine sums up the work as “abstract,” I think the cinematography and musical score of Amelia together succeed in being both profound and accessible.

What do dance films have to do with new music? I’m not sure yet. The camera allows the audience to be close—even uncomfortably close—to the performers and move around them, almost joining the performance. I equate that to a music performance situation in which traditional boundaries between performer and audience are blurred. Perhaps it means creating a situation where the audience is free to join in the performance, or maybe it means moving the performance out of the traditional context of the concert hall. I’m not assuming anyone is particularly interested in hearing a live performance of my music at the bus stop, but I would be interested to see how people respond. The “audience” in this setting has no obligation to stay and listen or even pay attention; they are free to encounter the art in any way they please. The Dresden Semperoper Ballet has taken works to the public at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin; here they are performing Johan Inger’s Empty House. Semperoper dancers made interesting use of the performance space too; in No Thumbs, they used the nearby escalators as a creative way to enter and exit. Actually, it was a multi-level-plus-escalators performance, since they continued dancing even as they reached the second level. Imagine if Hubbard Street Dance Chicago showed up at Water Tower Place and started dancing Jiří Kylián choreography. I’d like to be there if that happens.

One goal of this type of performance is to create an audience… by ambush. Along these lines, the group Improv Everywhere is pretty good at making a scene. Joshua Bell played in Union Station once, dressed like a typical guy, and didn’t get much notice. In contrast, when percussionist Evelyn Glennie played at Grand Central Station she drew a crowd. Maybe the difference is Bell had his violin case open for donations, and people felt uncomfortable giving money so they didn’t hang around. Or maybe it was the time of day and location. There are probably numerous factors affecting audience interest and involvement in this situation. In any case, the situation might be worth exploration. My point in all this is not to belittle traditional performance settings, but to consider what other performance situations might be possible. The dance film genre offers me a fresh perspective. I feel like the idea is there, but for now I’m lost in translation.

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Studio Class Notes 17 Sept 2010

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Sep 172010

Attention! Studio class has moved to room 135, Music Building. Still at 2:30 on Fridays.

Notes:

The third Premieres concert of the semester will be December 7. We would like to work on doing something special with this particular concert to bring in a larger and more diverse audience. Some suggestions:

Use special media, collaborating with artists from Art, Theater, or Comm. Arts departments.
“24-hour concert” of pieces created in only 24 hours.
Writing for a specific ensemble or instrumental studio.
Repeating the concert at another venue:
- RCAH Auditorium
- SCENE Metrospace
- Basement 414 in Lansing
Use a particular theme. Poetry and music? Dance?
Poetry
- several pieces inspired by the same poem
- performances of poems with music
- improvised poems with improvised music

The most popular idea at the moment seems to be the poetry theme. We need to start planning some more specific pieces and collaborations. Let’s do that for the Dec. 7 concert. Phillip will be getting in contact with some slam poets to collaborate with on this concert. Perhaps we can do the film project in the spring?

Going around the room, introducing ourselves and discussing what we’re working on. (I’m not going to take all this down.)

The rest of this semester, we will, among other things, be inviting each member of the composition faculty back to discuss a particular work or current project of theirs. Dr. Lorenz has a premiere of a new work coming up soon for viola and orchestra based on the music of Victor Jara.

Composer Ricky Ian Gordon may be here sometime this semester or next. His visit will be sponsored and organized by the voice/opera department. There will be opportunities for private meetings/lessons. composer/songwriter Heather Maxwell will also be here at some point this semester.

We each signed up for a Monday this semester to post to the blog. Here it is:

Sept:

20: Phillip Sink
27: Jacob Halmich

Oct:

4: Patrick Gullo
11: Kendra Kestner
18: Victor Marquez
25: Matthew Karram

Nov:

1: Seth Burk
8: Tim Patterson
15: Caleb Hugo
22: Brittany Booth
29: Nate Bliton

Dec:

6: David MacDonald
13: Sam Merciers

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Studio Class Notes 10 Sept 10

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Sep 102010

Welcome back! First studio class of the 2010-2011 academic year.

Dr. Sullivan just got back from a few weeks in Porto, Portugal, where he spent time at Casa da Música. Click that link and visit the site. The architecture of the hall is beautiful. They have several resident ensembles and conductors, as well as three resident composers. One of the three residencies is reserved for a composer under the age of 30. They don’t distinguish between “classical” and “experimental” music, and they are equally interested in jazz and popular music. The new music ensemble is called Remix.

The audience is large and diverse (in precisely the same way such audiences in the US aren’t). There are electronic music games for kids to use and play creatively. As Dr. Sullivan describes it, Casa da Música seems a lot like a community center that has a particularly creative focus. “It really is a center of cultural activity.” People of all ages and interests come together to see, hear, and create.

One of the discussion topics for studio classes this semester will be audience engagement and outreach in new music. New music concert attendance is “pathetic.” Fifteen years ago, Dr. Sullivan claims, he had as many as 80 people coming to new music concerts and participating in subsequent discussions. In contrast to this, participants in Porto were open to experimental creative projects.

How can we be more proactive about growing attendance and participation (and more importantly, engagement) in new music at MSU and in the Lansing area?

Victor Marquez-Barrios is this year’s composition area graduate assistant. Victor would like to find ways to improve the Premiers concerts this year. Not only improving the performances and presentation, but also improving the audience and the audiences general experience. Dates for the semester’s concerts are on the calendar (undergrad composers: Oct. 19, grad: Nov. 9, last concert: Dec. 7, all are at 7:30). Five weeks before the concert, let Victor know you’re interested. One week before, give the complete program info here. We have a third date in the book for December that we can talk about later.

Sam would like people to “Like” the MSU Composition Facebook fan page and for composers to invite their friends to “like” it as well. Dr. Sullivan wants people to feel more comfortable plugging their music and performances thereof. We all agree that advertising for performances must be as creative as the performances themselves.

SCENE&heard continues at (SCENE) Metrospace on Friday, 8 October at 7:30pm. The concert is about rhythm, and will feature music by Steve Reich and Louis Andriessen, as well as traditional music from Africa and the Middle East.

This semester we will create a blogging schedule to encourage traffic to this blog. We will also share research about music of the last ten years.

New show opening tonight at SCENE that includes a piece by Nate. Saturday night is an interesting concert/CD release at SCENE (doors at 7:00, music by 8:00, admission $5). Another cool concert at Mac’s Bar on Michigan Ave. starts around 9ish on Monday night.

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Speaking of masterclasses…

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Apr 202010

I found out last week that I will be presenting a piece in a masterclass with John Corigliano on Saturday morning at 10am. I’ve been a bit anxious about it since then. Anyway, yesterday, the same day Corigliano arrived in our fair city, John Adams posted a funny and thoughtful essay about composition masterclasses on his blog.

If you’re an instrumentalist or a singer, such a class is a pretty straightforward affair. You play your Chopin etude or sing your Puccini aria, and some honored guest artist, after politely listening, heaps gobs of fulsome praise on you and then over the next twenty minutes ritually disembowels you before an audience of your peers and your embarrassed teacher. And the whole thing is captured on video so you can enjoy it over and over.

With composers it’s a slightly different kettle of fish…

…The piece is over and now it’s time for The Master (i.e. the guest disembowler) to say something meaningful. This is not as easy as you might think. You want to be helpful and not just make bland, encouraging comments like Mom and Dad. On the other hand you remember your own student days and recall how super super super sensitive you were. An unkind cut can be devastating…

Be sure to read the whole thing and click through all of his hyperlinks. You’ll be glad you did.

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Studio Class Notes 16 April 2010

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Apr 162010

String quartet reading session this morning went great. Dr. Lorenz would like to do more in the future specifically for string quartet.

This is the last regular studio class of the semester. Next week, we will instead meet at 10:00am with John Corigliano. Today, we will wrap up the semester’s topic(s).

Premieres concert program info is due next Monday. The concert is April 27 at 7:30 in the College of Music Auditorium and will feature solo works by MSU composers.

MSU Theater Dept.’s production of RENT runs Friday, April 16 (tonight) through Sunday, April 25.

Evan Bushman’s senior recital is tomorrow, Saturday, April 17 at 6:00 in Hart Recital Hall.

Sunday, 8pm, Hart Recital Hall, Marissa Olin is presenting a lecture recital on two pieces by Dr. Lorenz.

Corigliano will arrive on Monday, a complete schedule of his events is forthcoming.

Discussion of Jennifer Higdon and John Corigliano:

Jennifer Higdon was recently awarded a Grammy for her Percussion Concerto and a Pulitzer for her Violin Concerto.

Higdon seems not to be terribly concerned with being completely original. Recalling Dr. Lorenz’s “4. You accept that composing is a way of life in which attitude is more important that style.” This contrasts the innovation in Corigliano’s Circus Maximus, where he juxtaposes familiar sounds in unfamiliar ways. Neither one is really using groundbreaking musical material. The expression of ”attitude” is different for each composer.

Listening:
Higdon: Percussion Concerto (2005)
perf. Colin Currie, percussion, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, c. Marin Alsop
album: MacMillan: The Confession of Isobel Gowdie; Ades: Chamber Symphony, Op. 2; Higdon: Percussion Concerto (on Amazon and iTunes)

Discussion of Matt Karram’s correspondence with David Gillingham:

Gillingham wrote that a composer has to be prepared for a lot of rejection. We have to have a thick skin. All of us have to do something else (like teach) as a “day job.” He says that we are all (he includes himself) waiting to be “discovered.” Many of his students are pursuing music for film and television to support themselves.

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Studio Class Notes 5 Feb 2010

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Feb 052010

Upcoming concert: Thursday, Feb. 11, 7:30 at Wharton Center. Wind Symphony will be playing (among other things) Jennifer Higdon’s Oboe Concerto. Please attend if you can to support our colleagues in the band department who support us. Higdon (whom Kevin presented last week) also won a Grammy award last week.

No studio class next week. We will return to the regular meetings on Feb. 19 with a presentation by Mark Sullivan.

The salsa band (including Nate Bliton), Feb. 18 in Hart Recital Hall.

Deadlines are approaching for participation in the Premieres concerts: Feb. 8 – Premilinary deadline for grad students. Feb. 15 – Program information deadline for undergraduates.

Discussion of SCENE&heard: we should all be better “entrepreneurs,” make performance opportunities for ourselves. The performance was successful. [Thanks to all involved and all who attended. -Dave]

Discussion of the DSO readings: it was a great experience for everyone. Thanks to the 5 composers whose works were read for accepting the criticisms in front of the group. Slatkin and the orchestra were quite generous with their time. It was great to have the two composers there. Cindy McTee in particular sent individual comments to the composers.

Corigliano discussion: Corigliano’s music is based on simple, large-scale structures. On a smaller scale, complexity is evident. Large scale dictates the smaller structures. “The oboe concerto, I think is the piece that finally pushed me into another world of composing. From then on, I have used this method of composing. I have made the big decisions first instead of the small ones…to me the idea of the bigger shape being governed by the smaller shape just seems backwards. I have come to realize that what the piece is about is the larger shape, from beginning to end.” In the last movement of the oboe concerto, Corigliano uses a special technique to imitate the sound of the “rheita,” a traditional Middle Eastern double-reed instrument.

Listening:
Corigliano: Oboe Concerto (1975)
perf. Humbert Lucarelli, oboe, with the American Symphony Orchestra, c. Kazuyoshi Akuyama
album: John Corigliano: Poem in October/Oboe Concerto/Three Irish Folk Settings (on Amazon)
[This recording appears to be out of print.]

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Studio Class Notes 29 Jan 2010

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Jan 292010

Reminder: DSO readings are this coming Saturday (tomorrow). VANS LEAVING AT 7:30AM NOW. DON’T BE LATE!!! If you want to get breakfast before we leave, some composers are getting together at Hannah’s Koney Island in Hannah Plaza on Hagadorn at 6:30am.

Upcoming special presentations in studio class:

Feb. 19: Dr. Sullivan
March. 5: Dr. Jason Price
March 19: Dr. Hutcheson
March 26: Dr. Ruggiero

(no class Feb. 26, Apr. 30)

Dr. Lorenz’s Top Ten List of ways to tell you are a composer of concert music:

10. You feel like you are a bit different than everybody else, like you have something unique to offer the world if only you could get people to hear it.

9. You also have a sexy, valuable commodity to sell but, unlike multinational corporations, you do not have the unlimited manpower and capital they have to market their product. In short, you have to go at it alone.

8. A teaching job, or any other kind of job, is simply an excuse to allow you to continue composing.

7. You struggle understanding the paradox that classical music has lost its hegemonic status over contemporary culture even though everything about your music education seems to deny this current reality.

6. You feel that life gets in the way of composing, and not being able to solve a compositional problem because of dealing with life feels like suffering from a bad case of constipation.

5. The differences between you and a fifteen-year old is that you volunteered to go public with your life journal, you have not matured the need for approval, and you still desperately seek idle, playtime.

4. You accept that composing is a way of life in which attitude is more important that style.

3. You admittedly suffer from Dr. Frankenstein’s syndrome: right off the bat, you think your works are abominations, even though there is no real evidence of that being the case.

2. As much as you like them, dead composers are not your peers or your role models. In fact, they are your greatest competitors. You are better off sticking with your living peer composers, especially the ones you know personally.

1. You surrender to the fact that composing is a very long-term investment, one in which satisfaction and recognition arrives in geological time.

We will continue to discuss and refine this top ten list in studio class. Please drop some knowledge (or opinion) in the comments to this post (click the post title).

Kevin Wilt presented on Jennifer Higdon:

Higdon teaches at Curtis. She is, however, a very active composer. “Blue Cathedral” has been performed over 200 times in less than ten years since it was written.

Listening:
Higdon: Blue Cathedral
perf. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, c. Robert Spano
album: Rainbow Body (on Amazon, iTunes)

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Older Entries

Michigan State University Music Composition

Ethical Schmoozing

Studio Class Notes 29 Oct 2010 (Ricardo Lorenz)

Studio Class Notes 15 Oct 2010 (Heather Maxwell)

Translating creativity

Studio Class Notes 17 Sept 2010

Studio Class Notes 10 Sept 10

Speaking of masterclasses…

Studio Class Notes 16 April 2010

Studio Class Notes 5 Feb 2010

Studio Class Notes 29 Jan 2010

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