Music composition majors look forward to showcasing talent and creativity in recital on Thursday.
Webhed: Music composition majors showcase talent
A song stuck on repeat, even a great song, can be personal insanity for some, but for composition majors it’s another ordinary day.
“Sometimes during the day or in the middle of the night when I am trying to go to bed, I’ll just be sitting there and I’ll hear cool music in my head,” said Austin Harris, a first year master’s student studying music composition. “It sounds really cool and it’s not a song that anybody else has written before.”
The goal for music composition majors, in the School of Music, is to be able to play an original composition at the Composition Department Recital held at the end of every semester. The fall semester concert, will be held Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Glidden Recital Hall, and will include a wide variety of styles and some invented instrumentation.
“One of the pieces will use an instrument I invented called a ‘Turner winch,’ ” said Turner Matthews, a senior studying music composition. “There are three Turner winches in my thesis. I am going to use the middle one and do some live looping with it and create these really cool textures.”
The recital showcases the different pieces students have been working on. Throughout the semester, the students work on projects, recruit players, rehearse and put on a concert of their original pieces, said Mark Phillips, distinguished professor of music composition and electronic music. This year, the second half of the show will feature a collaborative piece.
“(This year,) two grad student composers have combined forces to create a theatrical, musical production with characters and creating a storyline,” Phillips said. “That’s not very typical.”
Matthews had a standout performance last year after he received a Provost’s Undergraduate Research Fund, which allowed him to fund his imagination and create an array of percussion instruments made from hardware, Phillips said.
“A lot of studios wouldn’t be this accepting of how experimental I am and how my colleagues are, especially me because I build things,” Matthews said.
While students are able to put together cohesive pieces for the end of the semester, composition goes further than the music playing in someone’s head — it’s transforming the music into something real.
“Hours are spent at the computer just clicking notes into the screen with the intention of creating something beautiful you hear in your head.” Harris said. “You’re just trying to get it out on your computer and reproduce it.”
Reproducing a melody is a “battle” to create the music without “destroying” the original idea, but the idea almost always changes, Harris said. His style of composition derives from playing rock and worship music at a kid, but he now focuses on microtonal composition.
Harris said, rock songs typically have two main elements: the verses and chorus. Classical composition includes more elements and is less repetitive than a rock piece. It focuses more on development and music theory, but an amazing rock song can be created with three simple chords.
Composition is different for each composer. Matthews’ ideas are usually improvisational and are formed while he sits and plays an instrument. When he likes an idea, he takes it further with different variations and patterns.
“I really enjoy experimental things,” Matthews said. “My goal as a musician is to make an experience that’s not like anyone else and then write so that goal is met so I am making new sounds and inspiring people.”
On Saturday, the composition department is bringing the Happy Maladies, a young musical group from Cincinnati. The group appears as a typical folk-rock group, but the performers combine the classical world with the indie-folk-rock style of music, said Harris.
“They are one of the most innovative groups in their genre that I’ve ever seen,” Matthews said.
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