Grad School, Conducting, and Another Big Project
Quarterly Composition Compilation
June 2024
What a crazy 6 months it’s been! I had every intention to do an update around March of this year, but got sidetracked by some major developments right around that time. So buckle your seatbelts, because there’s a lot to unpack this time!
Master’s Programs
I have officially decided to attend Boston University this upcoming Fall! There’s a long and very complex story behind the decision (if you’re interested, just ask next time you see me), but I’m thrilled to be continuing my education in what I hope is a fantastic music program. What I’m not so thrilled about is moving from Utah to Massachusetts, or the price tag to attend BU, but I’m trusting that it will be worth the effort. I signed up for classes 2 weeks ago, and started actually getting excited about what I get to study (so very excited for private composition lessons!).
With my schedule being based around school semesters, I might just do a QCC thrice a year (once a trimester? Trimesterly? Not sure if there’s a word for that…) to coincide with the end of each semester, plus one for summer, but we’ll see how my class load ends up being. And hopefully there will be plenty of updates still!
Conducting
My super professional conductor portrait. Not pictured: the desk chair I’m sitting on in my bedroom.
Special thanks to those of you that came out to the concert I conducted in March! I thought it turned out splendidly and had a wonderful time seeing the orchestra’s hard work come together, as well as the opportunity to study conducting and rehearsal management on a deeper level. If you weren’t able to make it but want to see the videos, the American Fork Symphony put together a YouTube playlist of the concert that turned out pretty well. 😊
AF Symphony “Rhapsody In Blue” Playlist
Since then, I’ve given a lot of thought to how conducting could factor into my composition career. I actually had a mentor reach out to me around the time I was deciding which master’s program to attend (the same one that got me this conducting gig in the first place), and he encouraged me to include conducting in my future plans in some shape or form. Many great composers were also great conductors, and as a “day job” it could prove to be a good source of income that is symbiotic with a composition career (along with providing a great way to get pieces premiered). I haven’t come down one way or the other yet, but I decided that I definitely need some formal conducting training, and to incorporate that into my master’s degree.
What’s so interesting about all this is that conducting had never been on my radar previous to this gig, but so many of the skills I picked up working in public education ended up being directly applicable to conducting a large group. We’ll see where this all leads, but I don’t think this will be the last you hear of my conducting adventures.
Parts 2 and 3
And I almost forgot to mention that I had another conducting opportunity earlier this week, and will have another one next month! Due to how scheduling worked out, the orchestra performed (and will be performing) many of the pieces we did in the March concert during the summer. Rather than have another conductor learn the pieces (and train the orchestra to play them under a different conductor) the symphony decided to have me conduct those pieces as part of the program. Our concert on Monday went pretty well (especially when you consider the environmental challenges of an outdoor performance), and I’m excited to conduct again in July.
OK, that was a lot, but now let’s talk about stuff I’ve written!
Creation Symphony
At the March concert I conducted we premiered the orchestral version of In That Day, and I thought it turned out pretty well! The feedback I got from everyone was that they loved it but it was over too quickly, which surprised me a little since I usually have the opposite problem. XD There were a few things about my orchestration that I would love to tidy up when I revisit this, but for now I’m pleased with the final result. If you want to see the video, here’s the link:
In That Day – American Fork Symphony
As far as the rest of the Symphony, I haven’t touched it since the last update. Due to the logistical demands of premiering the piece I think this will need to be backburnered for a bit, but I plan to revisit this at some point in the future. The nice thing is that I already have a pretty solid draft of the whole thing, which will (hopefully) make things move along quickly once I do.
Summary: In That Day (Orchestral Version) premiered by the American Fork Symphony. Rest of the Symphony shelved for the time being.
Colors Upon the Sea
This piece made a comeback! The symphony loved this piece so much that they wanted to play it again at the summer concerts, and asked me to include it as one of the pieces I conduct. It’s been fun to revisit this from a conducting perspective, while also having the flexibility to rewrite a few things – for example, there were some clarinet arpeggios that were really awkward to play, so rather than work it into the ground I just rewrote the parts and it sounded much better. 😊 I also realized that I know relatively little about string pedagogy, which has made interpreting my bowing and articulation marks a challenge for the strings, but we’ve been learning together and making edits as necessary. At some point I’d love to revisit the piece and incorporate some of these changes, but that’s probably a bit further out.
Summary: Performed again at the Freedom Festival concert on June 10. Will be performed again at the Steel Days Kickoff Concert on July 15
Skyward Suite
New project here! Earlier this year I was re-reading one of my favorite sci-fi series and suddenly had the idea to write some music to go along with it. And in typical fashion, what began as a main theme with some variations expanded into a 5-movement suite with a bunch of themes and developments. Each movement is at a different stage of development, so rather than try to write an update for the entire suite I’ve broken it down by movement.
Movement 1 – Fanfare for the Defiant Defense Force
I love the main theme, and once the piece arrives at the brass fanfare it flows really well. What I’m not happy about is the introduction – I wrote it a little too cinematically (like the opening scene of a film) which would work in that context, but starting a fanfare with some cool ambient textures and bell notes is a little underwhelming. The problem I’m having is figuring out how to start the piece with a bang and then seamlessly transition it to the first statement of the theme. If I can get that figured out, then the rest of the piece should come together very nicely.
Movement 2 – Taynix Trouble
I absolutely adore this movement! It’s wacky, mysterious, energetic, and delightfully odd. I built the main melody off the octatonic scale (in this instance, emphasizing the minor notes), but the accompaniment is mostly augmented scales (made up entirely of major 3rd intervals). Maybe this is just the music nerd in me, but playing around with those limitations was both intellectually stimulating and highly enjoyable. There’s a few small things I want to tweak on this one, but it’s getting closer to a finished first draft.
Movement 3 – Dance Among the Stars
This is by far the most simple movement of the suite, but the simplicity provides more emotional weight. I did one pass on the orchestration, and it came together beautifully; I’ll likely make some edits and tweaks, but for all intents and purposes the first draft is finished.
Movement 4 – Battle of Alta Second
I challenged myself to write an action-oriented movement in compound meter (6/8 and/or 9/8) which would then segue into the buildup of tension in simple meter (2/4, 3/4, and/or 4/4) until the climax and victorious finale. My only complaint currently is that the beginning sounds too similar to a piece written by one of my favorite composers, so I’m trying to figure out how to replace and/or modify it to be its own thing. The nice part is that after the introduction it takes on a life of its own, I just need to figure out how to get there.
Movement 5 – Finale
This definitely needs some more work. I wanted it to be a victorious restatement of the main theme with callbacks to the other themes (in the imaginary film I’m writing this for, it would be the end credits), but so far it’s fallen a little flat and had trouble getting momentum. Hoping to revisit the piano draft soon.
Summary: New project! Each of the 5 movements in various stages, from piano draft to orchestrated draft 1.
Final Musing
So there it is, 6 months of updates! A lot has happened since December of last year, much of which has been unanticipated and caused no small amount of stress, anxiety, and excitement. I don’t know that I have a big life lesson to pull from everything that’s happened, but I have a feeling that this is all leading up to something great. A lot of the disparate “puzzle pieces” in my life have been falling into place in ways that were unexpected but awesome, and I’m starting to glimpse the picture that they’re making. Perhaps it will be a while before I can say with certainty what that picture is (right now it looks like an artistic depiction of a cat drawn by a 2-year-old), but for now it’s enough to know that things are moving in the right direction.
Until next time,
Jacob Whitchurch
June 6, 2024
