Composer Blogs@Sequenza21.com
Rusty Banks is a composer/guitarist/teacher originally from Jasper, AL, now living in Pennsylvania.

His compositions benefit from themes relating to regions or environments. For example, his composition commissioned by the Alabama Music Teacher Association's 2004 convention featured audio samples from the Cahaba River, Alabama's last free-flowing river. Another work, "Long Pine Creek: New Year's Day," uses sounds from Long Pine Creek in Nebraska. His compositions range from traditional concert music to sonic installations where boom boxes are scattered throughout a room. His music is described as thoroughly modern, yet accessible, a description he shudders at, but reluctantly accepts. His compositions may be heard on Living Artist Recordings, as well as his web site, rustybanks.org.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Heterophony

In one of my theory classes as an undergrad, my comp teacher noted that the prevalent interval classes had, for the most part, evolved along the path of the overtone series: chant (octaves), organum (fifths), common practice (thirds) early 20th century (seconds) later 20th century (microtones). So what was next, he asked with a smile.

I thought unison would be a dreadfully boring place to go, but then, Reich and Andriessen were doing things with imitation at the unison that was pretty exciting. There was also the idea of heterophony. While very common in non-western music, and even some western folk traditions, heterophony is only touched on occasionally by modern composers, and more as a decorative orchestration technique than a substantive idea in a piece.

One of my first successes with a more formal approach to heterophony is a movement from Taxonomy for flute and clarinet. The movement, Elaphe, evokes the genus of snakes it is named for by presenting patterns then blurring them (the main, if pitiful, defense ratsnakes have against predators). A pattern is presented in the clarinet, and the flute grabs on to certain notes, making it seem that the clarinet has left ghosts, or echoes, or is anticipated. While a bit more complex than doubling the melody with some ornamentation, it has a similar “thickening” effect that heterophony does in the music of Ireland or Thailand. One difference, however, is that in traditional heterophony the rhythmic edges are softened, whereas in this style they become more angular.

You can see the score and listen to the effect.

Betsy Bobenhouse, Flute; Christy Banks, clarinet.

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posted by Rusty Banks

Friday, March 13, 2009
Sexxxy Tuba

Here's a test mix for my latest commission; a tuba, electronics and boomboxes piece called 2ba4. The work starts much more sparsely with little sounds moving around the audience. By the end, it builds to this little jam.


The work was commissioned by tubist Matt Brown, who is a total mofo on the iron bass. It premieres April 5, 2009 as part of the Millersville University Tuba/Euphonium Symposium.

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posted by Rusty Banks

Thursday, February 12, 2009
John McCain: Ignorant of Economics as Ever


Today, John McCain said: “$50 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts — all of us are for the arts,” McCain said. “Tell me how that creates any significant number of jobs?"

Here's an open letter to someone woefully ignorant of economics at a time when our leadership needs to understand economics MUCH better than this.

Dear Senator McCain,

I composed music for a ballet that resulted in speaking engagements and community outreach gigs for me, employed 16 dancers, 2 choreographers, 4 instrumentalists, a sound and lighting crew, and numbers of other support crew. Around 1000 people saw the two performances. Many of the audience went out to dinner after, and bought gas (which was nearly four dollars a gallon at the time) before. The dancers stayed in a hotel (12 rooms) and imbibed at the local bars. The instrumentalists were flown in from all over the country. Only a little state funding went into this, so I promise you more tax dollars came back than went in. Senator, if you don't see how arts funding creates employment you are as ignorant of economics as you claim.

Rusty Banks, composer/guitarist/economy stimulator
posted by Rusty Banks

A Gig's a Gig, Life Is Art, Art Is Life...

Occasionally, Sequenza21 contributors have a discussion about what constitutes a "professional" composer. I always chuckle. Saying you are a "composer" is like a janitor calling himself a "mopper":

"My mopping talents aren't as appreciated as they should be, so I sweep and deodorize on the side."

This week I'll research extended tuba techniques for a commission I'm
working on, discuss libretti with a couple of sopranos, coordinate
outreach for a residency I'm doing in Wyoming, remix one of my
installation works for stereo/live performance, jury some pop music
recordings, teach a few guitar lessons, gather programs for royalties,
and try to hustle even more work of this nature. None of these distract from the others.

They all feed each other.

Most composers aren't composers. They're…

composers/performers/producers/educators/editors/administrators/hustlers.

Or am I the only one?
posted by Rusty Banks

Friday, January 09, 2009
All the One-Eyed Boys in Town

I just completed “All the One-Eyed Boys in Town.” I was asked by Mark Sheridan-Rabideau to write a work for the Continental Trombone Quartet with John Kenny as a soloist. The work makes use of Wyoming poet, Harvey Hix. I’m not that fond of works with narration, and I didn’t want to add a vocalist, so I had John (who is also a Shakespearian actor) record his readings of fragments of the poems and email them to me. These will be used in boomboxes that the players synchronize with. In the second movement the players play the same part, synchronized with their own boombox, each started about a half note apart.
posted by Rusty Banks

Saturday, January 03, 2009
Productivity in the arts

Can you write a minute of music in an hour? I mean really good, keepable material. Probably. Can you write eight minutes of music in eight hours? Could you write an average of ten minutes of music every other day? If not, why?
posted by Rusty Banks

Wednesday, August 13, 2008
SNAKES (a)LIVE!


Yay! TAXONOMY, my suite for flute and clarinet about snake genera, was selected for the S21 concert in December! Very honored. Here are links to scores/sounds for people wanting a preview. If anyone wants to perform some or all of the pieces, feel free (but let me know and send a program).

http://rustybanks.org/taxonomy.html

Also, I've listened to recordings Alex and Jeremy's works, and I can say I'm very much looking forward to hearing these works live.

Hoping to meet many of you in person,
rb
posted by Rusty Banks

Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Sonic Installations, Visual Temporality

A couple of weeks ago, I saw Cai Guo-Qiang's exhibit (retrospective?) at the Guggenheim. I love the sheer power of his work and how easily people can connect with it at levels varying from the playful, to the philosophical, to the technical.

The three pieces I enjoyed most were installations, one depicting a tiger being shot with arrows, one depicting a bombed car flipping through the air, and another involving wolves running into a plexiglass wall.

It struck me how, as a composer, I want more and more to create works that are like exhibits (installations, boomboxes throughout the room) and visual artists want to be more temporal (Matthew Barney’s Vaseline sculptures, Cai Guo-Qiang’s freeze frame-inspired scenarios).

Sure, multi-dimensional works like these have existed since the 1920s, but now they seem to have a new sleekness and maturity. Earlier, artists doing interdisciplinary/multimedia/event-based work had to consciously address their defiance of convention. This defiance often served as the "point" of the work and many great works came from this approach. In the post-pluralist age, this disregard (rather than defiance) of conventions simply helps direct attention to the intended artistic expression, providing an opportunity to create works as powerful, but more sublime, in such media.

posted by Rusty Banks