Jay C. Batzner is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida where he teaches theory, composition, and technology courses as well as coordinates the composition program. He holds degrees in composition and/or theory from the University of Missouri – Kansas City, the University of Louisville, and the University of Kansas.
Jay's music is primarily focused around instrumental chamber works as well as electroacoustic composition. His music has been recorded on the Capstone, Vox Novus, and Beauport Classical labels and is published by Unsafe Bull Music.
Jay is a sci-fi geek, an amateur banjoist, a home brewer, and juggler.
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1/06/2006
Greetings from the Wild Midwest
Hello Sequenza 21ers. I'm thrilled to bring my sub-literate ramblings on music and composing to a wider audience.
So, why read this? What am I up to? These are the quintessential questions.
Right now I'm completing my dissertation at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. The piece is called Illuminations and it is for a large wind ensemble. Writing for such a large number of instruments has brought the issue of "Me vs. Conventions" to the fore. What are the major conventions I hear when listening to a "band piece?" How do I feel about them and how do I deal with them? Do I want to deal with them at all or should I ignore them and hope they go away?
This critical mindset is, primarily, because I know this work is going to be combed over by my committee and they will be critical about everything and anything. So I'm trying to "head them off at the pass" and make sure I know what I'm doing. Oftentimes, I don't know what I'm doing when I compose. I used to, but over the last few years I just start writing and I stop when the piece is done. At some point I look over what I've done to make sure I'm being internally consistentt but I've lost a sense of the Master Plan when I write.
What conventions do I think of? I think of conservative pitch language, busy percussion writing, and color for color's sake. Right or wrong, these are the things that pop to mind.
So how am I dealing with them? I typically like a fairly thorny pitch language. I've toned it down a bit but I'm still sticking with one of my all-time favorite harmonies. Take an augmented triad. From the bottom note of the triad, go down three stacked fourths (so something like: G-sharp, E, C, G, D, A). Aw-yeah. Love that chord. Love it. It has some very dissonant and consonant potentials. I've made two 10 note versions of this chord and used them to spin out a whole array of harmonies. Illuminations' harmonic structure is not built around a typical transposition scheme of these 10 note chords. I've come up with a more satisfying harmonic map. I'll bore you with the details of it at a later time. There are times when the major/minor aspects of the chords are quite strong and times when I accentuate the sevenths and ninths. Got that convention covered. I like how I'm dealing with it.
Busy percussion writing. I'm tired of percussionists running all over the world to hit stuff. I'm not interested in writing a ballet for the percussion players, I'm interested in using their skills for important moments. I'm using fairly simple setups, only 3 players plus timpani, and NOTHING WILL BE BOWED. I've bowed plenty of percussion things in the past but in this piece it is strictly verboten. I'd rather my percussion writing be thin, simple and effective instead of busy and distracting. I'm still dealing with this issue. Not satisfied with my work yet, but the piece ain't done yet.
Finally, color for color's sake. There are so many great opportunities for color combinations in writing for wind ensemble. How do you balance them and make them special? If I wrote for unusual timbres all the time I fear the work would become a dull gray haze or the sonic equivalent of cotton candy. The colors would detract from the work's structure and purpose. My solution is to stick with conventional scoring for the bulk of the piece. There are coloristic concertinos from time to time, but typical tutti scoring (loud brass chords and woodwind runs) still drives the overt climaxes. For the final third of the piece, which is a lot more subdued and introspective, I have a specific timbral plan. Timbre becomes a much more important parameter for the finale of the piece than it was before. This should, I hope, make these timbral spots much more effective and necessary to the work instead of some kind of fancy-pants icing on the cake.
Sorry for such a lengthy ramble right out of the gate. This is how my mind works, though. Right now, at least. My blogs are, at times, a way for me to work things out and publically display my ignorance. I'll let you know if my plans change and I decide to scrap everything I just told you about.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
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