Jay C. Batzner (b. 1974) is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida where he teaches music composition and technology courses as well as coordinates the composition program. In his first year, Jay received two prestigious grants: one to create collaborative works with visual artist Carla Poindexter and the second to initiate electroacoustic music concerts in Orlando. Prior to this position, Jay was an active adjunct professor at several colleges in the Kansas City area while he completed his D.M.A. in Composition at the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory. While at UMKC, Jay received honors including a Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship and a Dean's Doctoral Scholar Fellowship.
Jay's music ranges from instrumental chamber works to electroacoustic compositions. He has participated in numerous national and international festivals including the Wellesley Composers Conference and the International Young Composers' Meeting in the Netherlands. His music is published by Unsafe Bull Music and has been recorded on the Capstone and Vox Novus labels. Jay is a frequent contributor to the new music website Sequenza21.com and a founding member of the composers organization The Collected.
Jay is a sci-fi geek, an amateur banjoist, a home brewer, and juggler.
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11/04/2008
Choke
Well, I forgot to prepare a bit for my theory class today. Not in terms of material (continuous variation forms) but specifically in terms of the music I was going to play. When talking about basso ostinato patterns, I have to play "When I am laid in Earth" from Dido and Aeneas. Yes, it has been anthologized to death, some people might find it cliché, but I never tire of that aria. It is so beautiful, so touching, a damned-near perfect example of what the Baroque folks were wanting from opera.
The problem, though, is that I get a little too moved sometimes when listening to it. I usually "desensitize" myself by playing it a few times before class. Today, however, I forgot. About 1/3 of the way into the aria I realized my mistake. By the time the aria was over and I stopped the CD player and had gotten to the front of the room, I could hardly speak. I had to distract myself by playing a little of "In our deep vaulted cell" in order to get the students laughing at the witches' echo effect.
It was a deeply personal moment in front of my 60 sophomores (well, 45 of them). Looking back (it happened about an hour ago), I think it was a good thing, even though it was embarrassing. Music moves me. It should move them, too. And I think many of them are going to go check out the opera.
For those of you who want to know the recording in question, it was the Harmonia Mundi disc with Lorraine Hunt as Dido. Doesn't get much more perfect than that. For those of you with Netflix abilities, I highly recommend the Mark Morris Dance Company's interpretation of the work.
*deep breath* On to the next class. We are talking about MIDI sequencing, which doesn't choke me up nearly as much.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
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