Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Readings: Composer Spotlight - Brian Friedland

Composer and pianist Brian Friedland’s recordings include compositions for chamber orchestra, big band, strings, brass, saxophone quartet, prepared piano, and many small jazz groups. While rooted in jazz piano traditions, he exhibits a wide range of influences in his music, from Balkan Folk to classical minimalism. Brian has released three albums, performed at venues across the US and internationally, and frequently performs and collaborates in his hometown of Boston. Grammy-nominated composer and musical collaborator Kim Richmond describes Brian's music as “not only professional quality material, but inspirationally crafted, an excellent and interesting mix of art works. He shows his dedication towards creating and performing new music.”

Brian participated in last year's Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Summer Intensive and was selected for the JCOI Readings on Thursday, June 16, 7:30pm at Miller Theatre, Columbia University for his piece Dreamscapes.

Composer and pianist Brian Friedland

American Composers Orchestra: Can you talk about the challenges of writing jazz music and other non-traditional forms for orchestra? What do you believe is the biggest payoff?
Brian Friedland: One of the biggest challenges is translating the ideas I'm exploring in my head or on the piano, to a full realization for orchestra.  There's a much greater range of sounds available then in any other situation I can think of, and to imagine ideas that are not necessarily idiomatic of orchestra makes me feel like I'm often leaping into the unknown.  Translating the rhythmic drive and compositional underpinning I'm used to hearing from a rhythm section is a particular challenge of moving from a jazz ensemble to an orchestra.

I think they biggest pay off is that my composing and improvising will be enriched from the process of writing for orchestra.  I think I will hear a wider range of textural possibilities and that the studying of orchestral music has put different kinds of melodic, harmonic, rhythmic ideas in my head.  On a different level, my composing for non jazz instruments and utilizing full wind and brass sections is much better understood.  I couldn't have correctly answered the correct ranges and tone colors for oboe and english horn before undertaking the piece.

ACO: Can you talk about your process of composing by transcribing your own improvisations? Do you set up a harmonic structure or "skeleton" to improvise off of?
BF: I record often when I am improvising, it helps me go back and identify my strongest ideas as well as material to throw away.  I never use the improvisation in its original form, there is a lot of tinkering as I come up with melodic and rhythmic variations and different harmonizations.  Usually I have the idea 90 percent formed before I attempt to write anything down.  When I go to write things down and commit it many small details can change, but the basic direction has been formed through a lot of trial and error.  Sometimes will have several pieces fully formed and will improvise many different transitions between them in order to figure out the best overall flow.

ACO: What are you looking forward to about the readings?

BF: I can't wait to hear what this piece I have spent hundreds of hours with actually sounds like!  Of course, it will be incredibly inspiring to hear my colleagues' approaches to writing for orchestra.

ACO: What has your experience in the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute been like so far?
BF: Incredible!  The workshop was as inspiring a musical situation as one can ever hope to find themselves.  Conversing with so many brilliant and diverse teachers and highly knowledgeable and accomplished participants left me feeling more committed to composing large ensemble music and fueled me with ambition for new projects.

Learn more about Brian at www.brianfriedland.com

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Readings: Composer Spotlight - Dawn Norfleet

Jazz flutist, vocalist and composer Dawn Norfleet's academic and musical journey started as a student in L.A. public schools, and eventually took her through Wellesley College and Columbia University where she earned a PhD in ethnomusicology. As winner of a national competition for new Classical choral works, her composition was performed by a Minnesota-based vocal ensemble. Dawn participated in last year's Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Summer Intensive, and was selected for the JCOI Readings, Thursday, 7:30pm at Miller Theatre, Columbia University for her piece SEED. She was kind enough to speak with us about the piece and her JCOI experience.

Jazz flutist, vocalist and composer Dawn Norfleet

American Composers Orchestra: Can you talk about the challenges of writing jazz music for orchestra? What do you believe is the biggest payoff? 
Dawn Norfleet: For me, the greatest challenge of writing jazz music for orchestra is creating something organic that feels both authentically jazz and authentically orchestral. Jazz and European concert traditions have different histories, roots, and aesthetics, so it takes sensitivity, respect, and expertise in both arenas. Although both ensembles use primarily European instruments and notation, central to jazz are "feel" and improvisation that come from African American aesthetics (like the blues) and performance approaches that directly engage the listener (as in clapping after solos, or vocal responses). Jazz ensembles highlight horns, and rhythm section; skillful balance is achieved between individual and group expression. Relative to jazz, European Classical orchestras emphasize strings and minimize percussion, individual expression and improvisation. Audience appreciation is usually demonstrated only at the end of the composition and all of its movements. Broadly speaking, the conductor and instrumentalists in Western Classical music aim to interpret the composer's musical intent; in jazz, while the composer's intent is considered, the musical expression depends greatly on the individual instrumentalists who are interpreting the music through performance. There are many things to consider while writing in a way that combines these different traditions. The payoff in composing jazz for orchestra, however, is to accomplish that which is truly one's own expression, while honoring the integrity of both traditions.

ACO: You say that following JCOI mentor James Newton’s advice about bringing our unique voice to the medium, you have incorporated African and other non-Western-derived percussive rhythm and counterpoint into your piece. Can you talk about these rhythms and methods of counterpoint and how they materialize in SEED? 
DN: Actually, with SEED, I wasn't aiming to compose "jazz music for orchestra", with whatever stylistic, instrumental, or improvisational expectations that arise with the label, jazz. What I aimed for here was to write something that authentically and organically represented where I was, musically, at that specific time. James Newton's advice to the JCOI participants was to write something that no one else could write, something that was authentically our unique voices. That set off a light bulb in my creative spirit. It was as though I had been given "permission" to write from the source of my inspiration, and not be concerned with writing a “jazz” piece for a classical orchestra, unless that was what my creative mind led me to do. When I was studying Western Art Music composition in grad school, I'd felt stifled by a pressure to compose chromatic or serial music, and to avoid rhythmic repetition, meter, and tonality. Although I found the challenge of composing in that vein intriguing, I really wanted the freedom to create as the composition directed me. As a result, I faced the Dreaded Blank Page many times, and not knowing how to remedy the situation, I feel that I didn't compose as much as I could have, had I been free to just write without restrictions. I realized years later, that these periodic writer's blocks were also due to a flaw in my compositional process: what I call a "crippling perfectionist" attitude that every note I wrote had to be some kind of masterpiece. I rethought that approach after hearing an interview of noted author on an NPR program several years ago. He said that he would advise his composition students not to try writing masterpieces, but to aim to get words on the page that didn't mind being around each other, thus releasing them from the pressures of perfectionism. That concept of getting my ideas "on the page" rather than questioning and rejecting ideas before getting them written down for development kept me in motion, when composing SEED. Once ideas are on the page, they can be developed. When I thought I'd worked through one idea to its fullest extent, I'd step away from it and free my mind enough to come up with something else. I learned to follow the advice I've given to my own students, to "get the darned thing on the page, then edit! Stop rejecting the darned thing before gets on the page!" With SEED, the ultimate challenge was to trust my musical instincts and choices, inspired with the knowledge that I can still develop the composition further as a result of the ACO Reading.

I've been writing music since I was 15. I grew up surrounded by 1970's R&B and funk bands, then jazz, having absorbed these styles from my musical family. My heroes included Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Steely Dan, and Earth Wind and Fire. From my mother, who was then a high school choir director in Watts, California, I gained an affinity for classical choral and vocal music. In college, I discovered African polyrhythms, early Italian Baroque polyphony, and meters considered unconventional in Western music but common in Indian traditions. SEED likely pulls a bit from all of the various traditions that influenced me, as well as from my background in songwriting. Just as my intent wasn't to write jazz for orchestra, I also didn't deliberately set out to compose something that sounded particularly African, Indian, or Black American -- but if ideas did sound that way, I was fine with it. Instead, I'd take an idea, and go with it wherever it took me. As a result, I think SEED reflects ideas that intrigue me: "non-traditional rhythms", funk, bird chatter, and sounds I hear around urban Los Angeles.

Structurally, SEED is comprised of five continuous, contrasting segments, with an overall metric feel of five (5/8). Within that meter, I explore different rhythmic possibilities in each section. The first section opens with the marimba playing a melody with 2+3 rhythmic grouping, while the strings and piano gently suggest percussion. It then shifts to a 3+2 feel with the other instruments taking over. In the second segment, I wanted to insert rhythmic space and stretch out the melody through inversion and other alterations, and experiment a bit with space and location of instruments. The third and longest section developed from an idea I'd sketched out in my notebook taken during a JCOI lecture. Here, I wanted to create a different feel by combining the two groupings 3+2/2+3 in the melodic structure and adding layers, like a theme and variation. The fourth section has a hint of acknowledgement of my Los Angeles hometown, with what I'd described for the trumpets as "quasi-mariachi" duet. The last section combines some of the rhythmic and melodic elements of the previous sections. Throughout the composition, I chose to utilize tonality, which I use all the time in my jazz and songwriting, but avoided as a grad student.

ACO: What has your experience in the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute been like so far? 
DN: I've thoroughly enjoyed the JCOI experience. It impacted my life on many levels. After having been away from composing Western Classical music for 25 years, this provided an opportunity to reawaken my interest in this area. Writing for orchestra is like a holy grail for composers and songwriters I know, whether working in jazz, R&B, world music, or pop. Everyone with whom I've shared my experience has expressed nearly as much excitement as I've felt. Regarding my JCOI colleagues, for the first time I've felt as though I was among kindred spirits. These are people like me, with diverse musical backgrounds that include jazz and other improvised music, but are also influenced by a world of other genres. Also like me, many are performing musicians, and even have similar quirks (like constantly flipping pencils, moving a knee up and down, or tapping out rhythms when sitting for a long time). My mentor, Gabriela Lena Frank, has been tremendously generous with her knowledge. This one-to-one mentorship is also a vital part of what makes the JCOI experience so valuable. I've had an amazing time, thus far. As the title of my composition suggests, SEED represents the germination of new creative ventures. The orchestra is no longer a Big Scary Thing for me as a composer.

ACO: What are you looking forward to about the readings? 
DN: Having these ideas in my head come to life through the experts of the ACO is something I can almost hardly imagine! Getting feedback from musicians, composers, and mentors is also something I'm excited about. I look forward to doing a lot more in the future with extended technique and improvisation for this kind of ensemble, as a result of what I'll learn during the sessions and feedback.

Follow Dawn on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Readings: Composer Spotlight - Ben Morris

Composer Ben Morris explores the intersections between jazz and concert music. Ben is currently pursuing his masters’ at Rice University as a Brown Fellow and interns with film composer Michael Bacon. His music has been performed by LUNAR Ensemble, Cadillac Moon, Living Earth Show, Resound Duo, Fredericksburg Brass, American Modern Ensemble, the Cleveland Orchestra, Imani Winds, the Frost Symphony and Concert Jazz Band. Ben received an ASCAP Morton Gould Award, a NJMEA Composers Award, the 2015 Frost Concerto Competition Prize, and two Klezmer Company Orchestra Composers’ Prizes, and three Festival Miami Composers’ Awards.

Ben's piece, titled Old Seven Mile, will be workshopped and read at the JCOI Readings on Thursday, June 16, 7:30pm at Miller Theatre, Columbia University. The work is named after the longest continuous bridge over open water, located in the Florida Keys, and is meant to convey the idea of the "bridge-in-progress." Ben was kind enough to expand on his program notes for our blog.

Composer Ben Morris

American Composers Orchestra: Can you talk about the challenges of writing jazz music for orchestra? What do you believe is the biggest payoff?

Ben Morris: While composing music for a chamber jazz group can be like setting some loose house rules for a close family, composing music for orchestra is like writing a law book for a big foreign city. During the composition and rehearsal process for a new orchestral piece, we composers don’t personally interact with musicians in the orchestra as often. Usually, the conductor will talk to the composer before rehearsals, and composers are limited to a few comments during the small rehearsal time. This approach is different from a jazz group’s, where rehearsals are more frequent and the performers are familiar with each other as artists. A lot goes unspoken – the composer knows for whom they are writing. 

The challenge of composing jazz-influenced music for orchestra is reconciling my tendencies to “let the performers go” with a more rigorously structured narrative form and nuanced orchestrational details. Orchestral music, due to the number of musicians (most of whom the composer won’t know personally) and the limited rehearsal time, requires controlled expression and unity of intent built into the music, which is communicated by the conductor. Concision and playability are important factors for writing orchestra music. Of course, the EarShot readings do a lot to ameliorate these challenges by breaking down some of the barriers between the orchestra and the composer by encouraging more discussion and feedback for the composers.

Ultimately, the biggest payoff for me is that I can create an enormous 3D world of sound – a totally immersive experience that an audience wouldn’t get as often from a small jazz combo or classical chamber group.  Nothing quite beats it. 

ACO: In what ways does your piece Old Seven Mile combine jazz and concert music?

BM: Big band music is in my DNA, and elements from classic and modern big band arrangements come out strongly in Old Seven Mile, which captures some of the energy of the music of South Florida.  The piece features a drum set “driving the bus” in lockstep with the basses and tuba, something that is idiomatic to jazz and funk music. Quick wind flourishes act like improvised interjections, while stretches of solo trombone and trumpet predominate the slower middle section. Another section of the piece features parallel rhythmic motion in the winds and muted brass like a big band sax soli a la Thad Jones or a Gil Evans Sketches of Spain harmonization. Rhythmically, the piece relies on shifting vamps and repeated grooves. A lot of big band sounds transfer quite well to orchestra, and that is something I take advantage of in the piece. 

The piece’s form, a big ABA with an energetic fast and end section and a slower middle portion, is typically classical. Textures in the piece, from percussion and piano flourishes, pizzicato strings, glissandi, and chorales, are very much grounded in contemporary classical music and the works of Joseph Schwantner, Henri Duttileux, Olivier Messaien, and Witold Lutoslawski. The two worlds can work surprisingly well together. 

ACO: What has your experience in the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute been like so far?

BM: As a composer in academia, my experience at JCOI is different from a lot of the other composers and mentors in the program, who are freelance jazz composers and performing musicians. A lot of these musicians really give a realistic picture of the possibility of crossing genres in a lucrative way outside of academia. It inspires me and gives me a clearer vision of where I am going as an artist, since they have all been there before and can advise me what and what not to do in the music industry. 

Each of the faculty and participants addressed the practical and aesthetic issues of the meeting of jazz and the orchestra in an open forum for discussion, allowing like-minded individuals to share their experiences. Each of us feels more prepared to tackle challenging issues of programming and getting our music out there - we have a toolset of approaches and responses to promote and deliver our own personal voices to a complex musical environment. It was also wonderful after the daily classes and workshops to share beers with such different souls and talk about the music we liked – everything from indie rock to metal to EDM to jazz to experimental classical. It was eye opening. 

ACO: What are you looking forward to about the readings?

BM: I am looking forward to hearing the range of creativity other participant’s works  - the readings will be fertile ground for the exchange of new ideas. Also, I’m actually looking forward to being put through the ringer and to learn some valuable lessons the hard way – in person and on the fly. It helps us all learn and move forward as artists. 

Folow Ben on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Soundcloud

www.benjaminmorrismusic.com

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Readings: Composer Spotlight - John La Barbera

Renowned composer/arranger John La Barbera has worked in the jazz world for over four decades, with performances and recordings of his music by Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Mel Torme’, Chaka Khan, Harry James, Bill Watrous, and Phil Woods just to name a few. His selected piece is inspired by a visit to the infamous Morro da Babilônia Favela in in Rio de Janeiro, where John witnessed severe poverty contrasted with intense human spirit and outreach. Morro da Babilônia will be performed by George Manahan and the ACO at the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Readings on Thursday, June 16, 7:30pm at Miller Theatre, Columbia University.

Composer/arranger John La Barbera

American Composers Orchestra: Can you talk about the challenges of writing jazz music for orchestra? What do you believe is the biggest payoff?
John La Barbera: To me, improvisation is the fundamental component of the jazz art form and I think the biggest challenge is to incorporate it in a symphony orchestra setting whose virtuosic players traditionally haven't been exposed to or have explored it.  I think this is changing with younger symphony players whose listening is more diverse and whose training has embraced jazz as well as music from other cultures.  Also, trying to incorporate "swing" syncopation has always been an interpretation problem but with jazz now being more inclusive of other cultures and styles, it clears the way for newer rhythms that are more easily performed by orchestras. I think the payoff is broadening the appreciation for jazz, reaching younger audiences, and filling seats with new patrons.

ACO: Can you talk about what jazz elements the audience will hear in your piece?
JB: One of the components of my piece Morro da Babilônia is a representation of the Brazilian choro and, as I explain in the description, the genesis of choro music and American jazz are chronologically aligned and both have improvisation as a principal component. They also share similarities in their solo instrumentation. I prominently feature the clarinet with written and improvised solo space and though brief, a melding of choro and ragtime elements.  In addition, I use "call and response" to bridge certain phrases and sections.  The audience will also hear "voicing" techniques associated with Duke Ellington that I've expanded and incorporated in the work.

ACO: You are extensively accomplished in the jazz world: your big band CD On The Wild Side was nominated for a Grammy, you are Professor Emeritus at the University of Louisville School of Music and an active clinician and lecturer. And yet, as a participant in JCOI, what do you feel like you still need to learn?
JB: Lots!  I'm always listening and learning and as I've gotten older, I find myself more and more interested in theory and how to manipulate it for maximum satisfaction and surprise for me and the listener. I also need to be better skilled in the natural dynamics of the orchestra and the subtlety obtainable by the individual and combined choirs.  In addition, I'd like to experiment with certain non-adjacent instrument combinations to achieve colors that might work somewhat like artificial harmonics in the overall sound of the orchestra.

ACO: What are you looking forward to about the readings?
JB: I'm really interested in hearing how the other composers incorporate the jazz component in their works. Also, networking with the other composers and mentors and exchanging ideas first hand will be a bonus.  By nature of our art, we composers are an insular lot and don't have many opportunities to interact like, say, instrumentalist do.  And of course, hearing a professional orchestra play my work will be a thrill.

Learn more about John La Barbera at www.johnlabarbera.com

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Readings: Composer Spotlight - Ethan Helm

New York-based saxophonist and composer Ethan Helm makes music that blurs the boundaries between jazz and concert music, creating points of sound where diverse traditions become inseparable. Ethan has composed and arranged for jazz ensembles, indie rock groups, and dance; he has performed at the Umbria Jazz Festival, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, and throughout the United States and Canada. Ethan grew up in a musical family in Southern California, and holds degrees Eastman School of Music and New York University. Ethan participated in last summer's Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Summer Intensive and was selected for the JCOI Readings, Thursday, 7:30pm at Miller Theatre, Columbia University with his piece The Glorious Train Ascending.

Saxophonist and composer Ethan Helm

American Composers Orchestra: Can you talk about the challenges of writing jazz music and other non-traditional forms for orchestra? What do you believe is the biggest payoff?
Ethan Helm: The biggest challenge for me has been the translation of language.  Orchestral and jazz music have their own separate goals, but use the same building blocks of music, as well as similar instruments and notation, to achieve their goals.  A trumpet part that is a page of eighth notes without dynamics or articulation will sound very different in the context of a jazz group than the context of an orchestra.  For example, I wanted some sections of my piece to have the dodging, diving motion of bebop, which I would typically notate in eighth notes.  To translate this to an orchestra, I decided to use more complex combinations of rhythms to exaggerate the effect, reasoning that a much bigger ensemble than a jazz quintet, playing in a hall much bigger than a jazz club, will “smooth out” eighth notes and dull the accents in the musical line.

The obvious payoff of these readings is that I get to hear my and my fellow participants’ pieces played by an incredible orchestra.  But also, working on this piece has planted some creative seeds in my brain, and it will be exciting to hear how these concepts are interpreted by other musicians, so I can continue to explore them in the future.

ACO: You write that your piece showcases the rich and masterful rhythmic jazz traditions that have found their way into symphonic music. Can you talk about any specific rhythms the audience will hear and why they are, as you put it, so transcendently beautiful?
EH: The piece is based on foundational rhythmic patterns of jazz, and from these the audience will hear very familiar forms: a syncopated big band shout chorus, a drum set playing a traditional swing beat, or a walking bass, for example. The element of swing is relatively easy to identify as a listener, but much more difficult to actually define in words or on paper.  Sometimes we notate it as triplets, sometimes as dotted-eighths and sixteenths, oftentimes as eighth notes and just specify in writing, “swing.”  And none of these solutions actually notate the rhythm perfectly, because there is no answer.  At least, not if we define swing as just one perfect repetition of a pattern.  I say jazz rhythm is “transcendent” because in order to understand its nature, we must resist our very human desire to quantify, to capture on paper and not worry about it changing.  When I listen and play this music, it feels like I am being called to think and feel on a higher level, to embrace a religious type of Mystery, and understand that the essence of this thing we call “swing” is never revealed all at once, but only in its many fluctuations through time.  I wanted to evoke this feeling of mystery in motion using the resources of an orchestra.  The audience will hear stalwart forms of jazz composition, but they will be stretched and modified throughout the piece, until they are unrecognizable, and their functions will be constantly shifting, as well.  The orchestra will reveal the ever-changing nature of jazz rhythm in dimensions I could never reach as a saxophonist in a jazz quartet.  I realize this is a lot of meaning to impose on a rhythm, but I spend a lot of time thinking about this!

ACO: What are you looking forward to about the readings?
EH: Well, I will take any opportunity to be in the room with the faculty of JCOI again, as they are all musical heroes of mine.  I also look forward to reconnecting with my fellow participants, who are now friends whose own work inspires and challenges me.  It will also be a rare pleasure to listen to my work performed without me also up there playing.  I will get to listen to my writing very closely without any other distractions, for better or for worse.  Although it’s also a little unnerving, because if the piece is a disaster I won’t be able to just focus on my saxophone part, I’ll have to listen to the whole thing.

ACO: What has your experience in the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute been like so far?
EH: JCOI has felt like one of those perfect communities that blends the right amounts of encouragement and challenge for optimal artistic growth.  Most of what we do involves solitary work at a desk, or performing in a depressingly empty bar on a Tuesday evening.  So to be surrounded by my musical heroes, and to meet so many other people with similar musical ideas and interests, has been a unique and important experience for me.

Follow Ethan on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Soundcloud
www.ethanhelm.com

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra: Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute - Joel Harrison: Day 2/Wrap up

20 lessons concerning the orchestra from the perspective of a jazz composer

1. Strauss said “what sounds good at a slow tempo will sound good at a fast tempo.”
2. A true pianissimo is hard to achieve.
3. Don’t over use percussion to drive rhythm. This over use of percussion derives from a jazz mentality where the drums are charged (perhaps too often) with driving drama.
4. Anthony Davis: “make the orchestra your band.”
5. Woodwinds are the most difficult section to deal with. They are all different, and can easily be subsumed by other families. Jazz composers don’t deal with them as much as they deal with brass, perc., and strings.
6. Transitions are a challenge. You can be a very good composer and still have faulty transitions.
7. Beware of over-use of unisons
8. Clear away instruments to allow your core idea to shine through.
9. Fast 16th note passages, esp. unisons, should be used very sparingly. They don’t provide nearly the excitement you might expect.
10. Strings are your friend! Use them as the core of the piece as often as possible, including as rhythmic drivers.
11. Subtlety and nuance are achieved through the sophistication of your orchestral choices. What we jazz composers know well is melody, rhythm, and harmony. But innovative orchestration is a high art, learned through experience.
12. Rhythm is our strong point, but you must be judicious in how you designate your rhythms into the orchestra so as to achieve the drive/ funk/ syncopation you desire. Things get muddy, blurry, cumbersome fast. Question previous strategies!
13. All the sections do NOT need to share the same dynamic. Consider foreground/ background, crossfades in sections.
14. Embellish repeating rhythms, consider shape.
15. Color comes from what you don’t do.
16. Energy can come from dissonance, harmony as much as a fortissimo.
17. Avoid too much block sound- use counterpoint.
18. Use space, let things sit, use pauses to prevent the feeling of things bumping into each other. It’s like a truck making a wide turn as opposed to a sports car.
19. Orchestration defines space and shape.
20. Think in 3 dimensions. An orchestra’s hall is not a small jazz club.

What are ways that you, as a composer, neglect orchestration as a primary tool?
Thanks to the great experience that the JCOI afforded me!

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra: Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute - Joel Harrison: Day 1

Joel Harrison in the Hotseat

I'm here in Buffalo getting used to the sound of my orchestra writing. I am not surprised to find that there is much I don't know...YET! It is really clear to me where I can make my piece better, and equally clear to me that I do have some good ideas that need time to gestate. Of course, the main issue, as far as lack of rehearsal time, is rhythm. To get an orchestra to groove is a challenge. Part of it is how you write the rhythms (or rather for whom), but part of it is the fact jazz musicians hear groove as a building block of their sound, often incorporating aspects of "world" music in their sound. Very few orchestras have had any exposure to these types of sounds on an ongoing basis.

That being said, this orchestra is really good, and all of us feel extremely lucky to have this opportunity. I am learning an incredible amount and the program is being run very well. Great to connect with James, Anthony, and Nicole as well as the other composers.

So incredible to hear the difference of the music as it sounds in your head, and the actual sound from the stage.

 

Please visit my composition blog - it's brand new - joelharrison.com/blog-press

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra: Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute - Dave Wilson: Day 1

Dave Wilson in the Hotseat

I'm sitting here in our meeting room at the Buffalo Philharmonic, waiting for the beginning of the readings in forty-five minutes. In about ten minutes, I'll have my final meeting with the conductor (which will last about five minutes), to go over any last minute notes or changes. Hearing my piece played for the first time yesterday was an incredible learning experience--from the first moment I began to understand even better how to clearly communicate my musical ideas in a way translatable to a symphony orchestra. Yesterday, musicians from each section met with us and gave us some immensely helpful input on how to make our parts even more easy to read. Throughout my music career I've usually worked as a player in situations like this, so hearing players communicate about issues of concern to orchestral musicians was refreshing and helped me connect even more to compositional and notation strategies for more effective communication of my musical ideas. I'm looking forward to the reading, and I'm sure I'll continue to learn even more in the next few days.

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Day 5 - Michael Dessen

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute - Day 5

by Michael Dessen

This morning George Lewis gave a class on "electronics and the orchestra." It was partly his own theorizing about our relationship to technology in broad terms, and partly a discussion of process-oriented techniques involving interactivity, spectral tools, and other topics far less familiar to JCOI participants than other technologies he didn't cover such as DAWs, synthesizers, and notation software. It was really useful to open up the imagination and get everyone thinking about future possibilities, even if these are techniques that none of us will be able to implement anytime soon given practical constraints. One point he made was that there are fairly few recordings of orchestral pieces involving electronics, something I imagine will change gradually, but still struck me as odd given how long electronic music has been around and how central it is to musical life today. I suppose this just goes to show how successfully the orchestra as an ensemble insulated itself from change in the 20th century, even if composers did develop all kinds of new compositional strategies in writing for it.

After George's talk was a presentation on engraving and copying by one of the librarians from the LA Philharmonic, Stephen Biagini. He gave a helpful rundown of all kinds of practical information about how to prepare scores and parts for orchestra, as well as common errors and examples of what not to do - the funniest example being a flute part in which the instrument name was appended to the title of a song called How Deep Is Your Love. His detailed advice on how to prepare parts properly was very serious, though, given the time pressures that you're under in rehearsals with any professional orchestra. He pointed out that by his rough calculation, the cost of rehearsing with the LA Phil is about $300 per minute.

James Newton gave the final presentation after lunch, and I was moved by the fact that James said he had to completely rework his presentation after talking to everyone during the week, since that gave him a better sense of what needed to be addressed. James is an incredibly dedicated teacher, and it really comes through in his presentation style as well as the content. His presentation included not only some good practical advice about how to get started writing for orchestra, but also reflections on a wide range of artists that have been important, personal touchstones for him in his own search to discover his voice as a composer. These included spirituals and Hendrix as well as Mingus, Ellington, Mahler, Ravel, Lutoslawski, Ornette Coleman and several others. One point he made that intrigued me had to do with Ravel's relationship to jazz. It's well known that Ravel was influenced by early jazz, but like many others, I had always thought that Ravel's exposure to actual jazz music was fairly superficial. James cited the book Ravel Studies which apparently details how Ravel studied early jazz deeply through private instruction with a jazz trombonist. James also made an interesting claim that most performances of Ravel's music - specifically the Piano Concerto in G Major - have not adequately captured the spirit of this connection. As with so many of the faculty presentations this week, this left me with several topics that I'm curious to explore more in the future.

ACO executive director Michael Geller offered an great, impromptu session on commissioning during our lunch break, full of information that will (hopefully!) be useful to us someday. The final session included a run-down of phase two of this JCOI project, in which all of us - and previous JCOI participants - are invited to apply for the opportunity to have a work read next spring/summer in four intensive sessions that they're now organizing. Although it will be competitive to get accepted, everyone I spoke to was very grateful for the potential opportunity to take forward all the experiences we had this week and put them into practice.

The week ended with a superb concert by wild Up featuring works by all the faculty composers as well as several others. The performers did an amazing job of capturing all the different aesthetic worlds that were represented on the very diverse program. They all seemed to really enjoy themselves and projected a great vibe, like a tight band. They also brought out a large and enthusiastic crowd, which is not easy to do in LA for contemporary chamber music. They're in residence right now at the Hammer Museum so if you're in LA, check them out in the coming months there. For anyone new to contemporary classical music, I can't think of a better way in. Many thanks to Chris Rountree and all the wild Up musicians, many of whom also gave us excellent instrument classes during the week.

I also want to express my deep gratitude to the ACO, especially Michael Geller and Greg Evans who were on the ground organizing constantly all week; to the faculty artists, who not only taught great classes but participated in one another's sessions throughout the whole week, creating a great feeling of community; and to all the other participants, almost all of whom had to travel a lot farther than me to get here, and made this such a friendly and exciting event. It's just a start, but a powerful one, and I look forward to seeing what will emerge from all the possibilities that the past week has set into motion. Many thanks!

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Day 4 - Samantha Boshnack

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute - Day 4
by Samantha Boshnack

Another incredible day here at JCOI, our next to last day – I can’t believe it.  Today George Lewis gave a fascinating lecture on “New Approaches to Form”.  It covered a ton of information and we listened to many different composers. When thinking about form we examined modern music that did not think of musical progression in the standard way. In John Zorn’s “File-card compositions”, he would write down a description of what he wanted on file-cards and arrange them to form the piece.  This was an example where each moment of the piece is individual – it doesn’t need to come directly from what is before or lead into what is after. 

Next came an incredible panel discussion with three conductors - wild Up’s Chris Rountree, La Jolla Symphony’s Steven Schick, and Pacific Symphony’s Carl St. Clair.  I thought a great description of the conductor was the “membrane between idea and execution”.  I recently had my first experience of working with a conductor on my music and couldn’t believe how important and transformative this membrane is.  In the orchestra world there is an incredible amount of pressure on conductors.  They are responsible for the time management of a large amount of musicians, dealing with the dwindling finances that orchestras are facing, programming series that will sell tickets, not to mention the composer.  The conductor manages time and fear.  Everyone wants to deliver a great performance; there is always a fear of failure and a short amount of rehearsal time.  The conductor has to create a feeling of confidence amongst the musicians, allowing the time to be used more effectively.

We have been speaking about classical musician’s fear of improvising; which is hard to understand amongst jazz musicians.  The conductors agreed that classical musicians needed to adapt and be more versatile, and that this may help to save the dying orchestra.  There was talk that the curriculum needed to change in the music conservatories to produce musicians with a broader skill set.  I wondered to myself if the change in musical education should begin with even younger students.  Let more kids use music as a tool to find their own individual voice in addition to a regimental and disciplined practice – maybe it would create greater music appreciation across the board, producing bigger audiences and a more creative society.     

   

Steven Schick told an amazing story of playing a new composition in his orchestra.  Sometimes there is a fear that audiences won’t like newer music that is more atonal and complicated then say Haydn or Vivaldi.  He made the experience personal to the audience by telling them and the orchestra that he liked the piece, rather than holding the composer at an arm’s length.  In the end the piece was a success.  I have often thought that we underestimate audiences.  If you are friendly to them they are more likely to listen closely and find things they like about the music, even if they don’t fully understand what is happening.  “Play difficult music for them as if it’s not difficult”, Rountree said.  

Carl St. Clair painted a friendly and inspired vision of the orchestra as many people pooling together to bring new works to their fullest potential.  “A lot get’s done if there’s no credit.”  Musicians and the conductors “pool together” musical ideas to create better music then what the composer wrote.

I loved when one of the conductors said how musicians learn more about Beethoven and Mozart from creating a new piece of music then by continuing to play those composers.  They learn how to create a new piece – which is exactly what Beethoven and Mozart were doing.   

A common theme today was how important it is for music to be continually adapting and changing from what came before.  Derek Bermel spoke of his many influences and said, “If you limit your intake, the genre becomes stagnant.”  George Lewis quoted, “Your history is going to come into your music if you let it.”  As American composers one is exposed to a multitude of cultures, which can be a great resource and create music that is unlike anywhere else.  All genres have room to move somewhere new.  This may sound jaded, but it seems that all music with integrity is really struggling in today’s corporate-run America, maybe because exercising one’s mind doesn’t help to sell product.  It has been thought provoking to be at this institute with great minds from two genres that are maybe struggling the most – jazz and classical.  Hopefully this “pooling together” between us all, as if we ourselves were an orchestra, will create solutions or at least inspiration for this incredible group of American composers.  

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Day 4 - Michael Dessen

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute - Day 4
by Michael Dessen

Today was once again packed with energizing conversations and presentations. 
We had an instrumental session on piano and harp in the morning, including a 
terrific whirlwind demo of many pages of harp technique notations by Anne
LeBaron. She vowed to make us all want to compose for harp by showing the 
wide range of sounds that can be achieved through conventionally-accepted
notations, in addition to demonstrating the fascinating, personal techniques
 she uses in her own music.

 Following that was George Lewis' seminar on new approaches to form, a dense 
overview of this topic with examples from western music spanning the 20th 
century. On One level, George was introducing general trends he sees in
 20th-century composers' explorations in new forms, including "depiction,"
 "indeterminacy/open forms," "repetition" and "noise." But as with any of
 George's talks (my post yesterday included a disclaimer that I studied with 
him closely for years), there were layers within layers of provocative 
questions. One of these was his constant weaving together of examples from
 European and African American music in order to reveal resonances among 
formal innovations in these traditions. In addition, he framed the 
presentation by arguing that the dominant discourses of form in common
practice western art music - especially notions like "coherence," "logic,"
and "continuity" - should not be accepted at face value, but are instead 
"fraught" in profound ways and can often serve as "ideologies and moral
precepts." If you're familiar with George's scholarship, you know that such 
comments are the tip of an iceberg of cultural critique and historiographic 
intervention, but he also spoke to us more directly as composers when he
 brought up the fact that each piece we create involves a choice as to whether or not to use "received forms." He emphasized that rejecting
 received forms forces you to confront the amorphous and difficult question
 of how to deal with form, and to examine the relationship between your forms
 and materials.




Even though everyone here at JCOI is super polite and respectful, this is a 
topic bound to strike some nerves, since it's hard not to sense at least a 
whiff of value judgment in this formulation. One of my favorite moments so
 far in the symposium was in the discussion session after George's talk, when one of the younger participants asked if George thought that it is still possible to find room for innovation within traditional ("received") formal
 approaches. I started thinking that this question can only be approached by 
doubling back on the question itself and asking what we mean by "innovation"
 to begin with, in a potentially endless loop of deconstruction, but at the
 same time I was also thinking about my empty stomach like everyone else in
the room, as we were already very late for lunch and this was the last
 question before the break. George improvised a quick solution, if not a
 resolution: "For now, I'll just say this: Yes and no."



Later in the day, Anthony Davis discussed his recent opera Wakonda's Dream,
which I don't have time to cover here, but was another wide-ranging view
 into Anthony's long relationship with operatic writing, building on his 
presentation of Amistad that I discussed in yesterday's post. Derek Bermel 
then gave a presentation on his  music and background that was very 
inspiring and helpful for me, and tackled some of the same questions George 
raised about form but through a different lens. Among other works, Derek 
played an excerpt from a concerto for clarinet that he wrote for himself to
 perform with the ACO years ago, one of his first major commissions. He
 explained that when he wrote it, he had been deeply immersed in listening to
 "What Love" performed by Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy on a live recording
 at Antibes (1960), and that he was fascinated with the musical conversation 
between the two, the sense of characters personified through sound. He
 recalled that he tried to capture something of the spirit of that music in
 the concerto, but was worried at the first rehearsal that the orchestra 
wouldn't be able to play his piece, since the parts involved new kinds of 
performance techniques. The conductor urged him to simply start out by 
playing his own part, rather than try to explain the techniques first, and 
Derek said that once the orchestra heard how he begin to play, they simply
 got it and everything worked. This story struck me in connection to the 
questions about new performance practices and orchestral culture that I mentioned in yesterday's post. At least in the context of that specific 
piece, it seems like Derek found a solution that allowed him to bring
 something powerful to the orchestra that was formed through his own
 relationship with improvisatory music.



He also spoke at length being immersed in hip hop and other forms of black
 music as a white kid growing up in a predominantly black neighborhood in New
 Rochelle during the 1970s and 80s. He mentioned being especially influenced
by Eric B. and Rakim's albums when they were first coming out in the late
 1980s, and I loved hearing that in this context because I share a deep 
respect for Eric B. and Rakim's albums from that time, even though I'm not
 very knowledgeable about hip hop. As Derek talked about what this music
 meant to him, I was impressed by how well he navigated this tricky subject.
 He didn't over simplify the questions around race that it brought up, but he
 didn't exploit them in a shallow way either. He discussed formal aspects of
 the music and his explorations into analyzing it, rather than just making
 vague references to hip hop in order to color his profile as a composer.
 He's written about these and other topics in online essays found here, and this talk intrigued me to check out his writing more in the
 future.



Another intense panel today included three conductors, Carl St. Clair, Steve 
Shick and Christopher Rountree. In addition to some useful information about
 the mechanics of dealing with orchestras (how much advance time do they need
 to get bowing markings into the parts? how should you interact with a 
conductor during rehearsals? how big should the score be?), the panel also
 moved eventually into some rich questions around improvisation and the
 potential for transforming the orchestra and moving away from the assumption 
that every orchestra has to be modeled on the great institutions of the
 past. Carl St. Clair described his vision for leading the Pacific Symphony to
 be "the new orchestra of the 21st century," and he and Steve Shick, as 
orchestral conductors, passionately encouraged us to be part of that larger
 process of change, echoing the comments Derek Bermel made about orchestral 
evolution in the opening session that I reported in my first post. Steve 
made a great point that the best mind set for us to bring to our interactions 
with an orchestra is to think of them like a big group of fellow musicians.
 It seems simple when I put it this way, but Steve captured this idea
 brilliantly in the conversation. But it was also refreshing to hear Carl St.
 Clair's brutal honesty on the pressures and challenges facing even a
 conductor such as himself who is already committed to championing new music.
 His jaw nearly hit the floor when Christopher Rountree reported that for 
tomorrow night's closing concert of chamber music, they had 25 hours of 
rehearsal, exponentially more than the PSO ever has for any single concert.
 And Carl also gave some powerful insight into how the current paradigm of
 orchestral programming is shaped at a fundamental level by marketing. For
 example, he explained that his programming decisions have to take into
 account the "data" he's given on the ticket sales that will be generated by
 a choice to program Beethoven's 5th compared with the 4th, and he commented
 that he can't program as much new music during the weeks when they are
 marketing season ticket renewals. For all this darkness, though, there was
 still plenty of enthusiasm and a feeling among everyone in the discussion 
that such circumstances make it all the more urgent that we work together
 now to envision new directions for the orchestra of the future. Citing the 
statistic that the average age of the season ticket holder is 65, Carl 
eloquently connected JCOI's aims to the economic crisis facing the orchestra
 today, stating that the orchestra "must find new relevance, and that new 
relevance is going to be a new identity."

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Day 2 & 3 - Samantha Boshnack

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute - Day 2 & 3

by Samantha Boshnack

Back again, Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute continues on at full speed.  Again, there are so many ideas circulating, so much exposure to music, theory, and information that is all very new to me.  I’m going to give a run down of some things I thought particularly interesting.  Again, my words are gross over-simplifications of the topics and I am unable to cover everything without writing all night.    

Day 2 started off with a lecture from Anne LeBaron on the 20^th Century orchestra.  It was a fascinating look at how composers came from what was before while codifying their own ideas - something I think we are all striving trying to do.  We analyzed scores from Stravinsky, Varese, Messaien, and Takemitsu, examining who influenced them and what they developed that was new.

Nicole Mitchell presented on her work and experience.  She is an incredible flautist and composer.  She has a deep improvising background (she is the co-president of AACM in Chicago) and has begun to tackle the world of contemporary classical music composition with great success.  Nicole spoke about how she puts her own flute techniques onto the paper.  There is such a rich oral tradition in jazz; it is a challenge to try to notate all of the crazy techniques and rhythms that an improviser will play naturally.  She spoke on directions in African American Art; outlining that artists can be present focused, past focused, and future focused.  By being visionary and future focused African American musicians have created new worlds and new opportunities for themselves.  I thought to myself (as someone who thinks about gender roles in the music world a lot) that the same is true for women.  I am excited that there are many other female jazz composers at this institute and have enjoyed learning their experiences and stories.

Alvin Singleton gave us a fascinating look at his solo works.  He began writing solo pieces when he learned that it is easier to “write for your friends” (so true).  As one can imagine solo writing is very hard to pull off - Singleton had us all enthralled by these pieces.  I loved the refreshing emphasis he put on following one’s intuition in composing.  This may be because I rely on it so heavily, but I also think music is so spiritual and on another plane, that it’s nice to think not every composer needs to know a ton of technique and theory to write something important. 

Anthony Davis presented his opera “Amistad” to us.  It was amazing.  I’ve always been a fan of opera.  He showed us how composing an opera let’s you create a whole world unto itself.  When asked if he knows as he’s writing where the opera is leading to musically, he said, “I’d rather discover it.”  Apparently, Wagner always wrote the climax first and then wrote the rest.  An interesting image he created was of Ellington writing opera for instruments – each member of his band was a character in the story.  It may be a new way I try to look at the members of my bands - except hopefully with less drama then an opera. 

Today, George Lewis presented some of his beautiful compositions employing new music techniques (quarter tones, etc.), improvisation and electronics.  I loved when he said that music comes from communities.  If you want to do something weird and new the first thing you have to do is go and find people to do it with you.  I feel so fortunate to be at this institute and feel I have so much I will bring back to my community in Seattle.     

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Days 2 & 3 - Michael Dessen

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute - Days 2 & 3

by Michael Dessen

Reading Samantha's wonderfully detailed account of day one, I realized that I didn't introduce myself at all in my first blog entry. I'm a trombonist and composer, and you can find out more about me here. But I should offer a full disclosure here that I came here already knowing a number of the JCOI faculty artists, especially George Lewis and Anthony Davis, who have been important mentors for me since graduate school. Nicole Mitchell is also my colleague at the University of California, Irvine, where we're both core faculty in an MFA program in Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology, and I know several
other members of the JCOI faculty, so I may not be the most impartial observer.

Last night we had a second marathon session in which the participants each shared a short recording or performance to introduce themselves. As with a similar session the previous night, I was impressed with how many people stayed late for this, including many of the faculty. Given how balkanized music worlds can often be, it was also encouraging to see everyone listening intently and respectfully for three hours to such a wide aesthetic range of
works.

While building on the positive energy of day one, the plot has definitely thickened over days two and three as more complicated questions emerged. There is always plenty of practical information to deal with, such as in the instrumental classes offered by members of wild Up, but on a deeper level, it's now clear that JCOI is about much more than learning orchestration techniques. Over the past two days, we've heard presentations by many of the
composition faculty - Alvin Singleton, Nicole Mitchell, Anthony Davis, James Newton, Paul Chihara, Anne LeBaron and George Lewis - and this has enlivened the conversations happening both inside and outside the classroom. The threads are still coming into focus for me, but I'll try to sort out a few below.

Anthony Davis gave a presentation yesterday on his opera Amistad, and it seemed that many participants who weren't familiar with his music were knocked out by it, especially his command of the orchestral medium. Anthony described how he now hears the orchestra naturally when he writes at the piano, telling us "I don't even hear the piano anymore." He related this to Duke Ellington, pointing out that Ellington honed his orchestra over the years like a very personal kind of instrument, and he pushed us to each consider what it would mean to do the same, to use the orchestra to realize our individual music, rather than to simply take a "generic," safe approach.

But both in that session and in later conversations, several people shared a feeling that this challenge is more daunting than it might seem. We all know that orchestras are hardly hotbeds of innovation in performance practice; pieces get very limited rehearsal time, and most professional orchestra players are far less open to working on new approaches to performance than musicians in new music chamber ensembles. Anthony's insistence that we should be cultivating individuality and using our writing to "set new standards" that future orchestral players will have to meet was inspiring, but I'm pretty sure he'd also be quick to admit how difficult it is to get the culture of orchestra or opera worlds to open up to new ideas or methods (the innovative projects of the ACO notwithstanding). Just get Anthony
started on this topic and I promise you'll be in for a lot of stories! So as one participant put it to me later, if barriers in that sense still exist for someone of Anthony's stature, imagine how an orchestra would react to less established composers like us arriving with parts that involve cultivating new performance practices or sensibilities. This isn't to dismiss Anthony's message, but to clarify that JCOI represents a more complex, long-term, and fundamentally cultural project than it might seem on the surface.

The instrumental demo sessions we've had with wild Up members reflect this same creative tension in a different way. On the one hand, it's exciting to engage with these performers; they're part of a generation of virtuosic musicians who are dedicated to collaborating closely with composers on new methods. Naturally our discussions in these sessions often go into questions of extended techniques, since they're as eager to talk about those topics as we are. But then, suddenly, someone will shift gears and remind us that in the case of orchestras, we need to be a lot more careful about what we try. In one session, wild Up's director Christopher Rountree even pointed out that some orchestral musicians have contracts specifying that they will not be required to perform certain extended techniques like multiphonics.

I don't mean to be overly negative, since I think the possibilities we're all pointing towards are genuinely thrilling, if still embryonic. But it's still a very loaded set of questions for me and many others here. Today, for example, a fellow participant expressed to me a deep concern that in moving into a more conventional model of notated composition, we risk stripping something essential from the musical value system that is bound up with collective, improvisatory performance traditions.  How we can bring to orchestral composition something genuine and powerful from our experiences as improvisers, and what are the different challenges - logistical, economic, technical, aesthetic, cultural - that come with this process?

Both James Newton and Nicole Mitchell gave inspiring, positive talks yesterday on this topic, and each spoke about seeking ways to compose fully-notated or orchestral music while drawing on what we value from our experiences as improvisers. James' stance hit me hard when he spoke of the decades of collaborative and individual practice that improvisers go through in order to access a very special kind of musical, even spiritual experience "on the bandstand." He seemed to be saying that having cultivated this feeling through years of hard work now enables him to step back study it analytically, and to explore techniques for translating it into new forms via notated composition. Nicole also spoke eloquently about this exploration in terms of "expansion" rather than giving anything up, pointing out that you don't have to stop being an improviser as you move into studying new forms of composing. Both Nicole and James brought out the importance of envisioning alternate future realities in our work as composers, and played moving examples of their own recent compositions while humbly pointing out that this is a long, ongoing project for them that in some sense is just beginning.

The other composers' presentations were equally inspiring for me, though each in a distinct way. Alvin Singleton played several of his pieces and talked about not only the music, but also his personal pathway to becoming a successful independent composer, from growing up in Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn and sneaking out of his parents' house in high school to go hear Ornette Coleman's first band in NYC, through various schools and many years establishing himself in Europe to finally make his return back to the states. One of the younger participants commented that she appreciated his story as a reminder that finding one's way as a composer is not necessarily a straight line from point A to B, as formal schooling systems would have us believe. This resonated with me because I teach grad students who often express a similar feeling of being overwhelmed by pressures - both real and self-created - to codify their artistic identity and broadcast it at every online corner before they hit their mid-twenties. Hearing someone as experienced as Alvin talk about composing in the broader context of his life is always a very memorable part of these encounters. This was also true for Paul Chihara's energetic presentation this morning, which was hysterically
funny - he could easily work as a standup comic. But underneath the humor, Paul's talk was also filled with provocative ideas and reflections on his long career in film music, including fascinating asides on Los Angeles music history, Hollywood, Takemitsu and many other subjects that seemed to burst out unexpectedly in every moment.

To close out today, we had intense sessions with Anne LeBaron and George Lewis, each sharing some of their recent works. While totally different from one another, Anne and George both presented music and ideas that I think pushed some new envelopes we haven't encountered yet this week. Their session was powerful for me personally, and set a perfect stage for tomorrow, but I'm out of time so I'll have to return to that in a future post. I look forward to more dialogues with everyone!

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Day 1 - Samantha Boshnack

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute - Day 1

by Samantha Boshnack

My name is Samantha Boshnack, I am a trumpeter/composer living in Seattle, WA.  I just had the most incredible day.  Today was day 1 of a five day intensive for jazz composers living all over the country to learn about writing for a symphony orchestra.  That may have been the starting point, but we learned about much more than that.

A little background on myself, I play all kinds of music on the trumpet.  For the last 8 years or so, I have been writing for Reptet the instrumentation is four horns, bass, and drums.  This past year and a half, I added to that B’shnorkestra a 13-16 piece orchestral project (with rhythm section) and Sam Boshnack Quintet (trumpet, clarinets, piano, bass and drums).  I guess I fall into the jazz realm as a composer but I draw from a lot of things.  

I really had no idea what to expect going into this intensive.  I knew that it was probably going to feel crazy to be surrounded by so many other composers.  And it was - crazy in a really inspiring way.  To be around so many who are trying to create something new and putting their whole lives into their vision; in a world that can sometimes feel like it doesn’t care much about innovation or sophistication in music.  As I looked around and interacted with the peers and faculty throughout the day, I could see the hunger in everyone’s eyes to soak up as much as they could from this experience.  I could sense that it was refreshing to all of us to be surrounded by others working in such a tough field, a kind of comfort in numbers.  Even though we were from different parts of the country (and some had or do live abroad) we all had so much shared experience and so much to talk about. 

  

As I write this I have to apologize for any mistakes I may make and/or ideas that I can’t quite convey right now.  It’s midnight and I have been on a rollercoaster ride of ideas all day and heard so much that inspires me.  So I’m going to sketch some stuff out tonight, and hopefully can continue to develop on themes throughout these days.  I can tell already that certain ideas will probably resurface over and over.   

We started at 9 a.m. with a welcome from George Lewis and Michael Geller.  Then we jumped into orchestral evolution with Derek Bermel. Derek is a composer that I started listening to when I got the list of faculty for this intensive and his music totally blew me away.  I hadn’t been that excited by a new orchestral piece in a long time.  He had a 90-minute presentation planned out for us that took us through many orchestral pieces spread over hundreds of years.  We heard Gluck, Haydn, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Stravinsky, Ligety and more.  It truly was a whirlwind and it was great to spend time listening and studying scores.  We also learned a lot about history, instrumentation, and the personalities of the composers. We learned that the orchestra as an ensemble has gotten more specific in its instrumentation.  In the beginning, orchestral composers would be less specific, or write for what they had, or what could fit in the space - more than a standardized instrumentation.  That has changed over time into what we think of as the orchestra. 

It was interesting to think about how the course and history of the outside world affects what movements of music are picked up and which are forgotten.  Also how the development of the instruments themselves affects how music is written.  Over the course of the day we learned both how the composer pushed the instrument into new territory, and how sometimes it's the other way around.  

As someone coming into this who is pretty self-taught when it comes to orchestration, it was so great to hear things that I had come to myself, but never known if they were true. 

Some notes I took during Derek’s speech were:

-Each instrument is like speaking a different language, each section is too. 

-In an orchestra the strings are the driving rhythmic force and the percussion is ornamental. 

-Great composers are great orchestrators. 

Paul Chihara gave us an incredible presentation filled with his music, the music of others, and lots of life stories.  He said a few things that stuck with me such as, “We don’t make choices”.  His story as a composer seemed like a wild road filled with lots of amazing opportunities.  

He called himself a film composer.  He spoke about technology and how much that has changed music.  Composition was created around the idea that musicians perform it live.  Because of technology, now that is no longer always the case.  

James Newton played an incredible piece of his for us called “Looking Above, The Faith of Joseph” written for solo piano.  He explained to us about a method he created called “The Transformed Entrance” where he instructs the performer to “channel” famous performers like Cecil Taylor or Elvin Jones.    

I was excited by his quest to bring the improvising tradition into the new chamber and orchestral music world.  Also, I loved hearing him stress that we should look at our time on the stage, and how it affects you as a composer.  The excitement of live improvisation – how can we bring that into notation?  This is what “jazz” composers bring new to the table and it felt important that we were all trying to figure out how to best tackle it.    

Members of the ensemble “wild Up” did presentations on the violin and the oboe, clarinet & bassoon.  Wow, these performers were incredible.  To be honest they did things on there instruments I didn’t know were possible and taught us all so much, giving us ideas on how to write for them.  It made me really excited for their performance on Saturday.  

After all of this, we continued on until 11 pm (with some breaks) listening and sharing scores.  About half of us presented.  There was seriously some amazing music played from prodigies to established composers and many in-between.  Everyone was very supportive of each other it was a lot of fun.  

Like I said, I think tonight’s writings will be truly tip of the iceberg.  In my current state of exhaustion, there is no way I could accurately convey the amount of ideas I will be mulling over for years to come or the excitement that was in the room.