Composer Blogs@Sequenza21.com
American composer Tom Myron was born November 15, 1959 in Troy, NY. His compositions have been commissioned and performed by the Kennedy Center, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, the Topeka Symphony, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Bangor Symphony and the Lamont Symphony at Denver University.

He works regularly as an arranger for the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, writing for singers Rosanne Cash, Kelli O'Hara, Maxi Priest & Phil Stacey, the Young People's Chorus of New York City, the band Le Vent du Nord & others. His film scores include Wilderness & Spirit; A Mountain Called Katahdin and the upcoming Henry David Thoreau; Surveyor of the Soul, both from Films by Huey.

Individual soloists and chamber ensembles that regularly perform Myron's work include violinists Peter Sheppard-Skaerved, Elisabeth Adkins & Kara Eubanks, violist Tsuna Sakamoto, cellist David Darling, the Portland String Quartet, the DaPonte String Quartet and the Potomac String Quartet.

Tom Myron's Violin Concerto No. 2 has been featured twice on Performance Today. Tom Myron lives in Northampton, MA. His works are published by MMB Music Inc.

FREE DOWNLOADS of music by TOM MYRON

Symphony No. 2

Violin Concerto No. 2

Viola Concerto

The Soldier's Return (String Quartet No. 2)

Katahdin (Greatest Mountain)

Contact featuring David Darling

Mille Cherubini in Coro featuring Lee Velta

This Day featuring Andy Voelker


Previous Posts

Free Stuff
Name That Tune 49
C'è musica e musica
A Day and a Night of Berio
Name That Tune 48
Name That Tune 47
Name That Tune 46
Name That Tune 45
Name That Tune 44
Name That Tune 43

Visit Tom Myron's Web Site
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Artist's Statement

Twelve or thirteen years ago, when I first started getting performances, I was asked to write an "artist's statement" (I forget why.) Today I found a copy of it during a massive studio cleaning-

My music comes from my experience of the world around me and the people in it. I believe that the creation and performance of music is a social activity with the power to civilize. I believe that it is one of the most profound expressions of our shared humanity.

Since music can only exist in time it should never waste time. For this reason I believe that a composer must strive constantly for the greatest possible understanding of and fluency with his chosen materials. I try to write music that is follow-able without being predictable. This to me is the essence of originality (as opposed to novelty.)

The qualities that I admire most in a piece of music are intelligence, energy, sonic beauty, humor, wit and compassion. Style is important only in so far as it is an honest manifestation of the composer's desire to communicate with his listeners. In fact, I believe when it comes to really good music, there are no styles, only people.

For all that I now understand about how the world really operates, I can honestly say that, if called upon, I'd be willing to let this stand. Put another way, I'd like to think I'm a better composer now, but still the same guy.
posted by Tom Myron

Monday, April 25, 2005
Richard Yates



Alas! when passion is both meek and wild!
-John Keats

As an artist and as a man Richard Yates has never been for the faint of heart. His territory was the pervasive sense of hollowness and self-deception that began to haunt America?s ?Greatest Generation? as the 1950?s gave way to the 60?s and 70?s. His dialog is astonishing. It rings in the mind's ear like music and his ability to use it to let his characters unwittingly lay bare their delusions (particularly artistic delusions) is peerless.

But for all his works relentless intimacy Yates, for me, is ultimately a ?big picture? writer. With few other writers do I experience the unity of the story itself and the way it?s being told so keenly. From the subtlest modulation in tone to the over-arching structure of an entire novel, his best work achieves a formidable narrative momentum that is capable of conjuring deeply haunting images out of the simplest gestures without ever resorting to sprawl or ?special effects.? In fact, one of the most salient features of his authorial voice is its near-invisibility; a fact that contributes in no small measure to the work?s ultimate impact as shattering, believable and utterly beautiful.

As a composer I am very interested in fairly traditional ?large forms?, particularly spans of music that develop in various ways over periods of 25-35 minutes. The problems of making a piece of music function in time in a way that justifies the amount of time it takes to unfold strike me as similar to those involved with making the sections of a novel hang together in a satisfying and meaningful way. In that sense I consider my work to have a ?narrative? dimension, one that places those larger elements of the work in the service of the musical material that is being developed.

In his 1981 essay ?Some Very Good Masters? Yates writes about his craft in way that strikes me as very ?composerly.? His thoughts about Fitzgerald and Keats can stand in for mine on Bartok and Barber.

??F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby turned out to be the most nourishing novel I read, in much the same way that my discovery of John Keats some years earlier made most other English lyric poets seem insubstantial. Like certain of Keats's poems, Fitzgerald's novel is a short piece of work that gains range as it gathers momentum, until the end of it leaves you with a stunning illumination of the world. And the best part of this for an apprentice writer is that the novel can be seen not only as a miracle of talent but as a triumph of technique, suggesting at least a hope that you might be able to figure out how it's done.?
posted by Tom Myron

Sunday, April 17, 2005
Wide Ranging Influence

Recent discussion of lists and influences has made me think about the artists outside the field of music whose work has helped me define my aesthetic as a composer. A short list would have to include:

Will Barnet
Albert Maysles
Joan Mitchell
Richard Yates
J.F. Powers
Werner Herzog
Kingsley Amis
Scott Prior
Ed Pincus
posted by Tom Myron

Sunday, April 03, 2005
Working Together in Dream Time

For my first-ever blog post I'd like to pass along one of my all-time favorite stories. Although it's a story about the movie business, it has helped me to handle my dealings with seemingly intractible institutions and individuals across the artistic spectrum.

During the late 60s and early 70s Hollywood studio executives were flipping out over the popularity of low-budget European art films with young audiences. In an attempt to cash in on the action they started giving low-budget single-picture deals to hip, young, untried American directors with non-mainstream sensibilities.

One of these filmmakers was a young man named Henry Jaglom. When Jaglom came to Hollywood to make his first studio picture he was assigned the crew that had just finished shooting Love Story. Every day he would come to the set and start to line up the first shot of the day. No sooner would he ask for a specific lense, light or camera angle when someone would tell him "That's not gonna work." Day in and day out it was the same story. "It's not gonna cut." "It won't play." "But we've always done it like this."

At his wits end, Jaglom decided that he needed to consult with the one director he had admired all his life- Orson Welles. He went to Welles and laid out his problem. Welles said "Here's what you do. Tell them it's a dream sequence."

The next day the usual chorus of dissent began. Jaglom said "But this is a dream sequence." For the first time since work had begun there was total silence on the set. "Ooooohh- A dream sequence! Okay" a crew member said. Within five minutes the camera operator had the camera off the tripod and was rolling around on the floor with it. The gaffer bounced lights off of mirrors. People in white clothing were filmed against a white background. When it came time to wrap everyone agreed that it had been one of the best days of filming ever.

What this story means to me as a composer is that if you can make people feel that they are contributing to a project rather than working against it you won't need to waste a lot of time trying to explain yourself. Not a bad thing to keep in mind when attempting to create time-based art in a world where there simply is no time.
posted by Tom Myron