Conducting at IMEA

You guys!  I had such an amazing time on January 16th at the Indiana Music Educators Conference in Ft. Wayne! I cunducted an "open rehearsal" of three of my pieces - Avatar, Winstride and Gauntlet - and answered questions from teachers.

Johanna Marvin and her Riverside Middle School Orchestra rehearsed the music ahead of time, but we had never met in person before that day. They did such a great job and I think everyone had a good time.

I also got to meet orchestra teachers from around Indiana and participate in a reading session of new music , which was a blast. So how did they get me to come to the event? They asked. It was that simple. I usually charge a nominal fee and ask for expenses to be paid, but other than that, it's pretty straightforward.

Then I had to rush home because on the afternoon of the 17th, the OMEA District XIV Honors Orchestra performed their concert, which featured the world premiere of Victory At Home - a new piece they commissioned me to write.

It was a full weekend and one that I won't soon forget!  Thanks to Johanna Marvin, the IMEA, the ASTA, the OMEA and all the students of the Riverside Middle School Orchestra for being so great.

New Music Selected: Maharaja

Guess what, Interwebs?  Alfred Publishing selected three of my submissions for their 2011 String Orchestra catalog!  (I'm sure this news will be met with great elation by the approximately zero people who read this blog.)  Never the less, I'm excited about it and I feel compelled to describe each forthcoming piece. I want to give them their own space, so each one will get its own blog post, starting with Maharaja:

The MENC has dictated in its National Standards that young musicians should be exposed to music of international origin, in order to foster an understanding of foreign cultures through their art.  This has not been difficult, because folksong arrangements from Japan, Latin America, Australia, and all over Europe are readily available and quite popular.  The exception: India.  There are no "Indian" songs available to string orchestras.  Traditional Indian music defies simplification and arrangement because it:

1. is a mostly improvisational musical genre.
2. doesn't really have "melodies" in the Western sense
3. utilizes sounds that are nearly impossible to replicate with Western instruments.

It's a challenge, to say the least, but one I was up for.  I decided that the key was not to approach Indian music from a "classical" perspective with all its confusing ragas and improvised noodlings, but instead, to approach it from a pop music perspective.  The "Bollywood" style uses Western tonality, forms, and  instrumentation but with a distinctive South-Asian flair and often the addition of tabla drums and sitars.  It's a fascinating blend of Indian and Western pop styles.  And that would be my starting point.

When writing my new, forthcoming piece, Maharaja, I started as I always do: with meticulous research.  I listened to countless songs and watched videos on YouTube to get an understanding of Bollywood style - its conventions, typical rhythms, melodic style, forms, and use of instrumentation.  The piece is based it on the "Asian" scale with flat third and sixth degrees and sharp fourth degrees.  I made sure to use idiomatic flourishes and syncopations, octave interjections in the violins, and even approximated the sound of tabla drums with slurred pizzicato in the 'cellos and basses.  Bollywood music is typically very rhythmic and, in lieu of using a drum kit, I opted for finger snaps.

Honestly, I submitted Maharaja with little hope of it being selected for publication but, once again, the selection committee surprised me.  I'm very glad they did, not only because I poured a lot of time and love into its creation, but because Indian music has a close plase in my heart.  As a small child my family lived in Sri Lanka, just off the coast of India and my parents lived in India before that. The two countries have somewhat similar cultures and musical traditions. I grew up surrounded by wicker, brass, Sri Lankan and Indian artifacts, and stories of the Para Hara.  My childhood nickname was that of a bell-shaped Buddhist shrine.  Long story short: I've always had an affinity for South Asian culture and I'm thrilled that I can share that interest with orchestra students of the world.

New Performances: International Edition

The vast majority of my published music is sold in the US, but a small percentage of my total sales comes from international buyers. Not all countries have American-style school music programs, so the demand for student-level string orchestra music is much lower.  Occasionally, though, I hear about performances of my music outside the US.  Here are two I stumbled across recently.

First up, we journey to the mysterious land of kangaroos and Vegemite: Australia.  Here's the Sydney Youth Orchestra performing Lemon Twist:

Wasn't that great?  You can really tell how much those young musicians really enjoyed playing it.  Watching the Violin II's and Violas bopping along to the rhythm makes my heart swell.  That's what it's all about

Up next is the Orquesta de Cuerdas de Grado in Córdoba. That's Córdoba SPAIN, y'all.  I've heard of performances in Australia and Canada, but this is the first time I've heard of a performance of my music in Europe.  I'm a little awed.  They do a great job with Gargoyles:

Professor D. Gabriel A. leads a fantastic orchestra and it looks like he has a well-balanced program there at the Córdoba Professional Conservatory of Music.  Good tempo, great sense of style.

At this point I should remind readers that I'm available as guest conductor, so if anyone in Europe wants to fly me out and pay my expenses to visit their program, please drop me a line.

Too Difficult?

Here's a quandry I thought I'd express to you, interwebs: when it comes to music for student orchestras, how difficult is too difficult?

In the past I've written music with rhythms that makes students' eyes cross.  Despite taking it slow, counting it out, teaching by rote, and being very methodical, I find that these rhythms are completely un-performable. And yet, the same students have no problem singing the exact same rhythms when they appear in pop songs.  It must be something about the written music. Needless to say that I'll either simplify it before submitting it to my publisher or just abandon it altogether.

On the other hand, when I write a purposely challenging piece (like Agincourt in 7/8 time) I hear kids say "Pffft.  That's totally easy.  We could play that in sixth grade."  (Though how well remains to be seen.)

Shifting is challenging, part independence can be challenging, and so can triplets against duplets, fast technical passages, key changes, and good old-fashioned expressive musicianship.  I've thrown all of those things into various pieces and kids blow it off like it's nothing and my publisher rates the difficulty 2.5 out of 4. These are all things that students should be able to do at some point as they advance at their instrument.

Question #1: Where's the line?  Does it depend on the individual player or group? Or am I being lied to when it comes to how challenging to make a piece of music?

Question #2: Are students being pushed too far too soon? Are teachers pushing advanced music and techniques too soon at the expense of fundamentals and basic technique? 

This also brings up the controversy of "teaching to the music," to which I am opposed.  My philosophy is to use music to reinforce the lessons, but many teachers choose the music first and then teach students the techniques they need in order to play it.  In my mind, when you teach to the music it sets up a very specific context for the technique and students find it harder to apply that technique to another piece of music.  Teaching the lesson first and then applying it to a piece ensures that students understand the fundamentals first - the whys and hows - before trying it out.

The reason I ask is because I'm working on a challenging piece that I intend for high school groups.  I'm including all the challenging techniques listed above and if I've done my job right, the orchestra, director, and audience should be completely exhausted by the end of the piece.  But is is too hard?  Am I writing myself out of an audience?  What say you, interwebs?