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.
I've been on a string quartet kick lately. Partly, I think it is because my subconscious is gearing up to write another one. I can almost hear it, almost being the key word. It would be a pure vanity project since there is no quartet anxiously awaiting a third string quartet from yours truly. Hell, there aren't that many interested in my second quartet. The first quartet, if you must know, was rolled up in a carpet and thrown off a bridge. We are all happier for that.
So, among the many sets and scores that I've been spinning, I finally got R. Murray Schafer's complete quartets. Schafer was a guest composer my first semester at the University of Kansas, back in 1994. I had no idea who he was and I think that was a good thing. His music and attitude towards music were completely new to me and I was really intrigued. He played his third quartet for us and I still remember it, even though this morning was the first time I'd heard it in 14 years.
Some of his theatrical and musical ideas in that work have gestated and emerged in my own writing. For example, his quartet ends with the first violinist repeating a simple figure as the performer walks off stage. There is a point where you don't know if you are still hearing the figure or if your brain is just inserting it. For any of you familiar with my solo trumpet piece, you'll see where I got the idea.
The big question is: why doesn't Schafer get the love in the US? He has some choral pieces that get done but those quartets, all 8 are total masterworks, are largely ignored around here. Carter's quartets get a fair amount of play and, while I'm a fan, they don't have the expressive emotive power of Schafer's works. There is a lot of music in Schafer's quartets, plenty for the performers as well as the audience. The sheer craft and musicality in those scores is totally off the charts. Quartets should be crawling all over themselves to play and record them. The scores should be easy to find. Yet, he remains a silent giant here in the States.
Don't even get me started on his flute concerto. Most people don't think they'll be blown away by a flute concerto. Those who know Schafer's concerto know the truth, though. That piece is awesome!
Maybe I'm wrong and just don't hang out with the right people. Is there love for RMS around here and I'm just being kept from it?
posted by Jay C. Batzner
"If 50 percent of your career is not filled with failure, you're not really successful."
Damn straight.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
Judging
So this week we all got together and judged entries for Electronic Music Midwest. It is a fun though strenuous day of going through 150+ pieces and making judgment calls. No judging system is perfect, but ours seems to work well for the festival. One thing we keep in mind is variety. We try to include a diverse range of electroacoustic styles (however you want to define that) and try not to let aesthetic bias cloud our judgments. For that reason, we try to use a diverse set of judges who will all hear something different in the pieces.
Going through that many pieces in one day really clouds the mind after a while. It is hard to not get cranky and burned out as the day progresses. I started to make a list of "things I never want to hear again" and planned to go home and compose a piece that was the antithesis of current trends. When I'm feeling a little bolder and have more time, I'll probably make the list public. And I fully admit that I am just as guilty of writing some of the things that I never want to hear. They work when I do them...
Next stage: tabulation of scores and the sifting of the selected entries. Then comes my time: programming. I get to take everything and dish it out into 8 or 9 concerts over a Thursday night - Saturday night period. It is a tremendous amount of fun to program the festival. There are so many possibilities and ways to organize pieces. I've blogged about that before, so I won't do it again.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
6/06/2008
XMV on Tuesday
Hey everyone, Those of you in/near Tribeca should go check out XMV (eXperimental Music Video) at Collective: Unconscious TONIGHT, June 6, at 10 PM (Admission is $7). Among other things, they are screening my Carnival Daring-Do which, if I haven't told you already, received "recognition" at this year's Bourge festival.
Have I mentioned that? I did? Well, I did it again.
Anyhow, the movie now has its own website, too. That must count for something, right?
posted by Jay C. Batzner
6/05/2008
My wife vs. Salome
My wife, Kris, and I are celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary this weekend. We have known each other a ridiculously long time. I remember her from the 6th grade as "the girl who played a flute solo on our band concert." I wrote a lot of flute music for a while and she is the reason why. Nothing impresses the chicks more than if they are your muse. Or so I have been told.
Anyhow, our wedding anniversaries usually involve a certain amount of inappropriate, non-romantic activities. One year we went out for a really fancy dinner and went home to watch Blue Velvet. The next year, no fancy dinner but we watched Eraserhead. This weekend's festivities will involve copious amounts of Indian food and swing dancing (although probably not at the same time).
There is a point to all this. Kris is a big opera fan and we checked out Salome from the library. Nothing more romantic than Salome, right? Except Berg and Janacek, of course. Kris didn't know the opera and I have only heard it, never seen it. Here is Kris' review of Salome:
"Two words. Cray. Zee."
Is it a wonder we have been married this long? Kris also takes credit for describing my music as "evil Copland." What's not to love about that?
posted by Jay C. Batzner
6/03/2008
Bourge mention - CORRECTION!
Wow, I just found out that my video collaboration, Carnival Daring-Do, got "recognition" at the Bourge Festival! How cool is that?
I'll tell you: pretty f-in' cool. That's right. I said "f-in'"
Also, mad propz go to Jason Bolte and his fine, fine, fine piece Scrap Metal which is, I think, the greatest piece for piano and tape since Davidovsky. He basically does what Davidovsky did, only in a much more current and expressive language. Check it out.
UPDATE: I misblogged about "honorable mention" before. My work did not get "honorable mention" at Bourge, it received "recognition" which, while a step below honorable mention, is still pretty sweet. Of all the multimedia entries there was one winner, 2 honorable mentions, and 2 recognitions. Being in the top 5 at Bourge is still, in my book, rather f-in' cool.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
