Where the edge Lies.....

As a performer of music in contemporary America, my career as a musician has a somewhat unusual twist. I got my undergraduate and master's degrees at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC, a move that I do not regret because of the outstanding education given there. The school does not have a jazz program, but they do have an extensive classical music program with two orchestras, six choirs, two wind ensembles, and a host of smaller brass ensembles.

Because of the way the program is organized, I was able to gain a great deal of familiarity with composers within the classical era tradition. The director bands at Bob Jones University, Dr. Dan Turner, has the objective of programming brand new music written specifically for the wind ensemble on each concert. Granted there were some pieces of historical importance written for the wind ensemble that are routinely performed (Holst Suites, Vaughn Williams Toccatta Marziale, Sousa marches, etc.) but the majority of the music consists of works that have been written within the past fifteen years.

Because of this emphasis on recently composed music, the names of major composers who are alive and writing for the wind ensemble are quite familiar to me. Personally, I particularly enjoy performing the wind literature of Johann De Meij, Philip Sparke, James Barnes, and James Curnow. The types of sonorities, the creative harmonic progressions, the metric complexity, and rhythmic diversity that these contemporary composers are able to achieve in the music they write for the modern day wind ensemble is quite fascinating.

Even though not much music is currently being written for the symphony orchestra in comparison to the wind ensemble, I have had the opportunity to familiarize myself with the orchestral compositions of John Adams. Adams particularly is a fascinating case, since very few contemporary works are written for the symphony orchestra that are able to gain a foothold within the symphonic repertoire. Yet contrary to this prevailing trend, Adams has managed to write several highly successful works for this ensemble.

As far as modern brass literature is concerned, I spent several semesters playing in a brass quintet and brass choir that regularly explored music of contemporary composers such as Husa, Plog, and Ewazen. This was a remarkable experience for me, since these works were quite current, gave a great of interaction between the performers, as well as displayed compositional technique that is decisively current and quite varied.

I have also had the privilege of performing numerous contemporary trumpet solos on my recitals as well as having worked on some on the side. In addition, I am in the stages of programming several significant trumpet solos that have been written within the last twenty years for my DMA recitals. The one thing that sticks out to me in looking at these works is the diversity of approaches in composition utilized by different modern composers.

My main weakness then lies in popular music. I am familiar with some of the figures within this field (composers and performers) but I am admittedly somewhat deficient when it comes to being knowledgeable about their music. I don't mind exploring and learning more about these composers, their philosophies, and the compositional methods that they fostered. In fact, as a musician, it is absolutely essential to understand what is going on around us at any given time in the world.

I do not necessarily agree with or enjoy some styles of music. This should not sound odd in any way, since composers throughout history have been vocal about music they detested as well as music they loved. In addition, my field of expertise is avowedly such that popular music typically gets passed over in favor of other music that is going to be on one of my upcoming concerts or recitals. I plan to, over the course of this class, acquire a working knowledge of music styles since 1900 that I do not have a familiarity with, in order that I might understand better how they fit into the historical continuum.