ted hearne
bio // calendar
// music // links
// webpage
// katrina ballads
Jan 31, 2009
5:25pm
percussionists endure
the last few months have been difficult in that i have been consumed with school obligations - spending lots of time in new haven but finding little to no time for composing; missing new york and everyone in it. this is a trade-off i knew would happen, as the strange degree program i’m enrolled in promises that all academic obligations toward a DMA be completed in just one year. this of course is awesome for me - next year at this time the only “work” i’ll have toward the degree will be composing… oh, i can’t wait. but for now, i am writing papers and studying for comprehensive exams and teaching the fundamentals of music to undergrads (which i’m finding time-consuming but really really fun).
so i can’t wait to move back to washington heights for good. a truly warm music community has come into fruition here and i am looking forward to stepping back into it. one of the things i will miss about yale, though, is the kick-ass percussion department. last week i made arrangements for a quartet of players to read through my new piece THAW, which was commissioned by Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion and will be premiered on April 7 (on a concert with Andriessen’s Workers Union, and a performance of Rzewski’s Coming Together on which I will be performing as the narrator!)
the yale players (lia de roin, mike szell, mike compitello - pictured below - and ji hye jung- linked there playing the shit out of the marimba) saved my ass by playing through my piece which, as it turns out, kind of sucked! or rather, it featured many misestimations, over-details and generally boring passages. furthermore, there were some really nice moments which i never would have realized existed in the first place had they not given me fair hearing while i was in-progress.
you see, i’m writing THAW for four players, three of which play glockenspiels for most if not all of it. glocks are the only pitched instrument in the whole piece. i love the glock (obviously) but seriously misjudged the amount of rhythmic and pitch subtelty that could be perceived in a situation where they were not accompanying other pitched instruments. in other words, the line between the point where it sounds like a lot is happening and the point where the musical changes souns like an indecipherable mess was a lot closer to simplicity than i had estimated. and since i was trying to ride this line, the result was a piece that was at times both messy and boring. and while i’ve been composing for many years, and also received good advice about this piece from people who are much more experienced than i, absolutely nothing could have done as much for my conception of the piece as hearing it played by 4 willing musicians.
that interaction with the players is one of the things i love most about being a composer, and it’s why i’m suspicious of those who feel a composer should always be able to work everything out on their own before bringing a piece to performers. where my knowledge and the performers’ knowledge intersect, hopefully we are both willing to stumble a little bit in order to come to a common understanding and discovery of something new. for those of us that work hard on perfecting the art of writing our music down, i think we should be weary of any circumstance that yields a seamless transition from score to sound. if the common language of notation is used to only communicate commonly-held musical ideas - like a cast waiting to be filled in with specific notes and rhythms - the resistance that comes from the collaborative process will become dull or vanish completely.
anyway, many thanks to the percussionists at yale for taking the open approach. i’m in the process of revising and finishing THAW and am excited to work on it again in april in my beautiful hometown.
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Page 1 of 1
bio // calendar
// music // links
// webpage
// katrina ballads
Jan 31, 2009
5:25pm
percussionists endure
the last few months have been difficult in that i have been consumed with school obligations - spending lots of time in new haven but finding little to no time for composing; missing new york and everyone in it. this is a trade-off i knew would happen, as the strange degree program i’m enrolled in promises that all academic obligations toward a DMA be completed in just one year. this of course is awesome for me - next year at this time the only “work” i’ll have toward the degree will be composing… oh, i can’t wait. but for now, i am writing papers and studying for comprehensive exams and teaching the fundamentals of music to undergrads (which i’m finding time-consuming but really really fun).
so i can’t wait to move back to washington heights for good. a truly warm music community has come into fruition here and i am looking forward to stepping back into it. one of the things i will miss about yale, though, is the kick-ass percussion department. last week i made arrangements for a quartet of players to read through my new piece THAW, which was commissioned by Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion and will be premiered on April 7 (on a concert with Andriessen’s Workers Union, and a performance of Rzewski’s Coming Together on which I will be performing as the narrator!)
the yale players (lia de roin, mike szell, mike compitello - pictured below - and ji hye jung- linked there playing the shit out of the marimba) saved my ass by playing through my piece which, as it turns out, kind of sucked! or rather, it featured many misestimations, over-details and generally boring passages. furthermore, there were some really nice moments which i never would have realized existed in the first place had they not given me fair hearing while i was in-progress.
you see, i’m writing THAW for four players, three of which play glockenspiels for most if not all of it. glocks are the only pitched instrument in the whole piece. i love the glock (obviously) but seriously misjudged the amount of rhythmic and pitch subtelty that could be perceived in a situation where they were not accompanying other pitched instruments. in other words, the line between the point where it sounds like a lot is happening and the point where the musical changes souns like an indecipherable mess was a lot closer to simplicity than i had estimated. and since i was trying to ride this line, the result was a piece that was at times both messy and boring. and while i’ve been composing for many years, and also received good advice about this piece from people who are much more experienced than i, absolutely nothing could have done as much for my conception of the piece as hearing it played by 4 willing musicians.
that interaction with the players is one of the things i love most about being a composer, and it’s why i’m suspicious of those who feel a composer should always be able to work everything out on their own before bringing a piece to performers. where my knowledge and the performers’ knowledge intersect, hopefully we are both willing to stumble a little bit in order to come to a common understanding and discovery of something new. for those of us that work hard on perfecting the art of writing our music down, i think we should be weary of any circumstance that yields a seamless transition from score to sound. if the common language of notation is used to only communicate commonly-held musical ideas - like a cast waiting to be filled in with specific notes and rhythms - the resistance that comes from the collaborative process will become dull or vanish completely.
anyway, many thanks to the percussionists at yale for taking the open approach. i’m in the process of revising and finishing THAW and am excited to work on it again in april in my beautiful hometown.
blog comments powered by Disqus
Page 1 of 1
percussionists endure
the last few months have been difficult in that i have been consumed with school obligations - spending lots of time in new haven but finding little to no time for composing; missing new york and everyone in it. this is a trade-off i knew would happen, as the strange degree program i’m enrolled in promises that all academic obligations toward a DMA be completed in just one year. this of course is awesome for me - next year at this time the only “work” i’ll have toward the degree will be composing… oh, i can’t wait. but for now, i am writing papers and studying for comprehensive exams and teaching the fundamentals of music to undergrads (which i’m finding time-consuming but really really fun).
so i can’t wait to move back to washington heights for good. a truly warm music community has come into fruition here and i am looking forward to stepping back into it. one of the things i will miss about yale, though, is the kick-ass percussion department. last week i made arrangements for a quartet of players to read through my new piece THAW, which was commissioned by Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion and will be premiered on April 7 (on a concert with Andriessen’s Workers Union, and a performance of Rzewski’s Coming Together on which I will be performing as the narrator!)
the yale players (lia de roin, mike szell, mike compitello - pictured below - and ji hye jung- linked there playing the shit out of the marimba) saved my ass by playing through my piece which, as it turns out, kind of sucked! or rather, it featured many misestimations, over-details and generally boring passages. furthermore, there were some really nice moments which i never would have realized existed in the first place had they not given me fair hearing while i was in-progress.
you see, i’m writing THAW for four players, three of which play glockenspiels for most if not all of it. glocks are the only pitched instrument in the whole piece. i love the glock (obviously) but seriously misjudged the amount of rhythmic and pitch subtelty that could be perceived in a situation where they were not accompanying other pitched instruments. in other words, the line between the point where it sounds like a lot is happening and the point where the musical changes souns like an indecipherable mess was a lot closer to simplicity than i had estimated. and since i was trying to ride this line, the result was a piece that was at times both messy and boring. and while i’ve been composing for many years, and also received good advice about this piece from people who are much more experienced than i, absolutely nothing could have done as much for my conception of the piece as hearing it played by 4 willing musicians.
that interaction with the players is one of the things i love most about being a composer, and it’s why i’m suspicious of those who feel a composer should always be able to work everything out on their own before bringing a piece to performers. where my knowledge and the performers’ knowledge intersect, hopefully we are both willing to stumble a little bit in order to come to a common understanding and discovery of something new. for those of us that work hard on perfecting the art of writing our music down, i think we should be weary of any circumstance that yields a seamless transition from score to sound. if the common language of notation is used to only communicate commonly-held musical ideas - like a cast waiting to be filled in with specific notes and rhythms - the resistance that comes from the collaborative process will become dull or vanish completely.
anyway, many thanks to the percussionists at yale for taking the open approach. i’m in the process of revising and finishing THAW and am excited to work on it again in april in my beautiful hometown.
