Concert Season!
Quarterly Update 06-01-23
Hello again after so long! What I love about doing these quarterly is that I actually have a lot to talk about, so without further ado here we go!
Project Updates
The Lonely Machine
We got a premier for this one! Earlier this month, the American Fork Junior High Concert Band performed this piece for the Pops Concert, and I was pleased with their efforts and the performance they put on. My goal with this piece was to write under the limitations of grade 1.5 (for those to whom this is unfamiliar, grade levels are a standardized system that band directors and composers use to measure difficulty in concert band music), and I got much closer to the mark this time than the last piece I did (The Great Golden Dragon, for those keeping track at home). There are a few things about the individual parts that I would tweak if I were to go back and do it again, and perhaps a textural change or two, but I’m overall much happier with my progress as a middle-school band composer.
My favorite part of this piece was using a hairdryer in the percussion section. The beginning and end sections of the piece lay down a slow percussion groove that’s intended to convey a gigantic machine lumbering across the landscape, and I couldn’t see another way to get such a mechanical-sounding instrument. I was also happy about the scales and modes I used – the piece starts out using a whole tone scale (whole steps between each note), the build uses an octatonic scale (alternating half and whole steps), the climax uses Lydian (Major scale with a sharp 4th), and then it returns to whole tone to finish out. Except for the final note by the clarinets, which breaks my pretty strict adherence to those rules. 😉
I uploaded the MIDI rendition to the dedicated page (click here to check it out!), as well as the program notes and the cover design.
Special thanks to Lance Major, Kiersten Adams, and the AFJH Concert Band students for putting in the time to practice and perform this piece, I really appreciated the opportunity!
Summary: Piece premiered and recorded, finished working on it (for the near future, at least)
The Lost Star Princess
We’re still at the same place as far as premiering this piece, but I did get to put the sheet music in front of Utah Premier Brass and hear them sight-read the piece. Putting it shortly, I was astounded at how good it sounded! This piece has been in various stages of conception and refinement for the better part of 7 years (I originally wrote it as an instrumental solo for my Songwriting class in 2016), and to hear it performed by live instruments was incredibly gratifying. I was also worried that I had made the individual parts too hard, and that the big ensemble moments I was envisioning wouldn’t turn out, but the musicians did an excellent job reading and really made those moments pop. And our Eb Cornet soloist did fantastically as well! Both the director and the group manager really liked how the piece sounded (the former was very pleased with the changes I made after consulting with him), and they decided to definitely program it for next season. I brought up that the ensemble was overplaying the soloist and that I might need to score things thinner to compensate, but the director was adamant that my writing was more than acceptable and that the group can easily compensate for that once we begin rehearsing it next season. I also talked with the percussionists and got some valuable feedback on the drumset part (some of the notation was a little ambiguous, so I’ll be going back to fix that).
In case this hasn’t come across, Utah Premier Brass’ reading of this piece was incredibly validating and boosted my confidence as a composer. I really can write good music, and given the opportunity there are many others that feel the same way.
Summary: Initial reading by the group, working on minor changes to the drumset part.
The Creation Symphony (formerly Symphony E)
Major progress here! First off, yes, I do have an official title for this piece that (I hope) makes the “story” and subject matter of the piece clear. I am attempting to musically portray the story of the Creation and Fall (as told in Genesis), as well as write a few character pieces about related subjects. As I stated previously, I had started on the piano drafts of the piece to figure out the formatting and flow of things, and then moved to orchestration. After orchestrating the first 6 “movements” (yes, I have a problem with writing too much music) I showed the drafts to my parents for feedback on the core conceit and if it was too disjointed; they were highly complimentary of the piece and felt that the “narrative” was very cohesive and focused, and the conceptual basis for the work very moving. They also provided some valuable feedback on the long form, and on some specific things to dig into for a couple of the pieces.
(As a sidenote, this is the first time I’ve had “Beta listeners” involved so early in the process, and it has been so helpful that I’m inclined to do this on all my projects moving forward.)
After this, I sat down to start working on revisions…and then got totally sidetracked and accidentally wrote another movement. Whoops.
For context, I’m utilizing a full Symphony Orchestra (Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion, Strings) with SATB choir that will be singing predominantly in ancient Hebrew* (the lyrics will largely come from the original Hebrew text of Genesis). In showing the 6 movements to my parents, something that felt lacking was a good ending; the 6th movement ended, but it felt like there needed to be more afterwards to wrap everything up. So when I sat down to write after this feedback, I started writing a “recap” movement that was going to revisit all the main themes and then have a big ending; problem is, I needed some good lyrics. So I looked up some verses in the Old Testament (where I’m getting all the Hebrew), settled on Isaiah 12, and proceeded to look up the recitation on YouTube since the way Hebrew is spoken can be different from how we transliterate the text (I’ll do a whole post on this later, it’s fascinating but complicated). Except, instead of simply reciting the text, the reader began to sing it, and it was haunting and beautiful. And I realized that I needed to use these lyrics to write in that style, so I started drafting, and well…ended up with a totally different piece than I imagined. Which is great, but still left me without a recap piece. So I starting working on that next, but haven’t quite figured things out yet (it’s not flowing like I want it to).
And that’s where I am currently on this piece. Super excited to have things sort-of nailed down on the format and “story,” and really looking forward to continuing to refine the piece.
Summary: It’s complicated. Movements 1-6 orchestrated, incorporating Beta listener feedback. Movement 7 piano draft finished. Movement 8 working on piano draft.
*I’ll do an official shoutout in a later post, but my good friend Kelsie has been an invaluable resource in helping me get the Hebrew right. She has a master’s degree in Hebrew Studies and has done a great job of simplifying the complicated nature of Hebrew into something this composer can understand. I’m incredibly relieved that someone more qualified (indeed, one who has “mastered” this) is looking over my amateur translations and transliterations to make sure I’m not messing up syntax or getting the pronunciations wrong.
Final Musing
This last quarter has had a lot of unexpected turns and surprises – pieces sounding better than expected, accidentally writing others – and it’s taught me a lot about flexibility. Something I’ll often tell my students is that the most successful people are also the most flexible because they are able to take unexpected circumstances and turn them into something wonderful. Last fall, I and many of the students I work with went to a national marching band competition, and despite not placing as well as they hoped I personally felt that they were more successful than prior years we competed at the same competition. The reason for this? These students were flexible. They dealt with schedule changes, temperature fluctuations, logistical nightmares, late lunches, and the like, in healthy and positive ways; they were unruffled by things not going the way they expected. As a composer, I often ask myself how healthily I deal with changes, and how I can better cope with the unexpected; this last quarter has taught me that if I am willing to be flexible then unexpected turns and surprises can become tremendous opportunities.
Until next time,
J.M. Whitchurch
06-01-23
