Jay C. Batzner

Plugs

2008-07-18T08:22:00.003-04:00

There are a few discs out there which I think should be on your radar. I present them for the following reasons:
1. They are great recordings
2. They are self-released works (mostly available on iTunes)
3. They are friends of mine (therefore I'd feel scummy putting these in the CD Reviews on this site)

Torrid Mix by Mike McFerron
Mike McFerron's electroacoustic music gets featured on this disc (can we call them "discs" when they come out on iTunes? Isn't that like talking about "tape" pieces these days?). Most of the stuff is groove-oriented, especially the title track Torrid Mix for piano and tape (there I go again). McFerron is a great composer and these pieces are creative and well crafted works. Definitely worth getting.

In lake'ch by Paul Rudy
This is a thirteen-track, hour long electroacoustic piece which is simply brain-alteringly awesome. The sounds are stunning and the organic growth is crazy-awesome. Some of you might shudder at the thought of an "hour long electroacoustic piece" but you gotta trust me on this. This piece needs to be as long as it is. Excerpts and individual tracks just don't do the piece justice. Put it on and soak in it for a while. You'll be glad you did.

60x60 2006-2007 by Robert Voisey (and 119 others, including yours truly)
The third CD release of the Vox Novus 60x60 is out and in effect. As a "bang for the buck" recording project, you are never going to do better than buying 120 pieces by 120 composers. There are great tracks, there are funny tracks, there are tracks that are just weird. The best thing is, if you dislike a track, you only have about 45 seconds until you hear something else.

60x365 Selections by David Morneau
The 60x60 project on steroids, David Morneau's 60x365 podcast concluded recently. It turns out he has made a limited number of discs containing 72 tracks from the podcast. I got one and it is really, really cool. David's choices are smart and represent the best aspects of the project. The collection is artistic, funny, cathartic, quirky, and well worth owning. If you are interested in the disc, and you should be, David told me that individuals should contact him directly.

Dr. Horrible

2008-07-17T10:44:00.002-04:00

This week only, you can watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog, a web-only musical written by Joss Whedon. It stars Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, and Nathan Fillion and it is woderfully entertaining. Acts I and II are out now with Act III to follow on Saturday. Sunday it goes offline (but will be for sale on iTunes and will eventually come out on DVD).

It is the only super-villain musical you will ever need. Until I write one, of course.

Juggling

2008-07-12T19:24:00.004-04:00

After being on the road for a few weeks, I find myself woefully behind on my composition projects. Oh, I had such fancy plans when May started. So far, I've completed two things. Suddenly I realized that there are some July 15 deadlines on the horizon. The horizon, unfortunately, is Tuesday.

So what do I do? Should I
#1: try to eke out the contest projects in short order?
#2: forget the contest deadlines and work on pieces that others are waiting for (no deadline, though)?
#3: scrap both of these and write something totally different, based on an idea I got last week?

If you have a suggestion, please make it soon. Tuesday isn't far off...

R. Murray Schafer string quartets

2008-06-20T11:42:00.003-04:00

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?

Great quote

2008-06-13T14:57:00.002-04:00

From John Larroquette's "Random Roles" interview on The A.V. Club:

"If 50 percent of your career is not filled with failure, you're not really successful."

Damn straight.

Judging

2008-06-13T14:34:00.003-04:00

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.

XMV on Tuesday

2008-06-06T07:48:00.005-04:00

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?

My wife vs. Salome

2008-06-05T19:14:00.003-04:00

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?

Bourge mention - CORRECTION!

2008-06-03T15:25:00.006-04:00

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'"

Here be the link for all you doubters. (scroll all the way to the bottom, the multimedia category is last)

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.

Shameless Self-Promotion

2008-05-16T09:06:00.003-04:00

Hey, if any of you are in the area, check out my trumpet piece being performed next Saturday. If you can't make it, pick up a copy of the CD Fleeting Visions when it comes out in a few months!

http://beauportchamberplayers.org/Concerts.html

Program Notes

2008-05-08T15:38:00.004-04:00

I typically hate writing program notes. They seem somewhat artificial to the process of composing or listening. If it weren't for all that brooding Romanticism from 150 years ago, I don't think we'd be burdened with the expectation that I the composer must tell you what everything in my piece "means." Why not say nothing and let the listeners, you know, listen.

Anyhow, I write program notes. They are brief, they don't tell you much, but today I wrote what is probably the single most honest program note I've ever done. My Songs of my Youth are finished, ready to go out in the mail tomorrow morning. Here are the notes:

"Each of the five movements in this suite were inspired by various pop songs from the early 1980s. I decided to take short, memorable, and in some cases iconic, licks and hooks from these songs and abstract them, mutate them, hide them, and embrace them. For a while in my musical development, I shunned and hid any of my earlier musical tastes. I carried my pop music history with shame as I set out to become more erudite and sophisticated. In recent years, I�ve realized how wrong it was for me to have that attitude. All my musical tastes, from Spike Jones and the City Slickers to Witold Lutoslawski, from John Luther Adams to Huey Lewis and the News, from Faster Pussycat to Elliott Carter, make up who I am as a composer. The hardest part about writing these pieces was choosing and limiting myself to five songs. Invariably, you the listener will want a different song added to my collection. I can�t help that but I can encourage you to take that song and let us hear it synthesized through your years of experience. In other words, go write your own piece! These were tremendous fun to compose and I hope that they are fun to perform and to hear."

I'm looking back on the last 18 months and I find myself in a much different space. I like where I am now. I wonder where it will take me.

Deadline

2008-05-07T14:51:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone,

The Submission deadline for Electronic Music Midwest 2008 is May 15! To submit works, please visit http://www.emmfestival.org (choose "Call for Submissions").

Just wanted to keep you all informed...

Tribute

2008-05-04T08:46:00.002-04:00

I'm done with the semester. I need not return to my office until August unless I really want to (and I don't). This semester was particularly roller-coasterish. The composition degree was put in "abeyance" in early March, meaning that the crop of interested students were having their degree plans aborted by the administration. Well, in early April, based solely on these composers' music, the administration reinstated the comp degree. And they decided to un-cancel Composition I.

My teaching load is going through the roof. In addition to the 3 classes I was scheduled to teach I'm now teaching Comp I (which is full and was pretty much full 3 days after it was restored) in addition to 3 new composition majors, all with tremendous potential and skill. I volunteered to take on this much teaching since it was either that or no composition instruction at all.

So, I've been thinking back to my own composition instruction. Charles Hoag, now retired from KU, was my teacher. I studied comp with a few others before I went to KU, but Hoag was the first that really made any kind of impact on me. One year, I compiled a list of his sayings. Here is a short version of the list. It gives you some idea of my own pedagogy, which frightens me more than you might think.

The Quotable Hoag

Everyday Phrases
�Whoa! Scared of that!�
�...which is why you have retained me at great expense...�
�You will go into the library with gun and camera...�
�Clear as mud?�
Pot of Jack- (noun) French for �jackpot�
�Shuck and bop�- (verb) doing your own musical thing (i.e. �shuck and bop all over the National Anthem.�)

Steinbeck:
�...was a pinko from the word �go.��

Elliott Carter:
�The last of the crusty old men.�

Aaron Copland:
�It is safe to say that awkward voice-leading doth a style make.�

Cellists:
�Boy, those cellists always think they know where the fish are.�

George Crumb:
�The Dead have Mossy Wings?? That is an image I would rather not have, thank you very much.�

Brahms:
�Yeah, you musicology types think Brahms is new music.�

Stravinsky�s Le Noces:
�This piece is Orff-ly familiar.�

Schoenberg:
�You see, not everything that Schoenberg did was wrong!�
�The great thing that Schoenberg had that Hitler did not was that Schoenberg was not crazy.�

Beethoven:
�Sometimes I�d like to go back in time and break Beethoven�s hands with hammers. And I�d do it out of sheer professional jealousy...�
�You know, those historians like to say that Beethoven �didn�t have a lot of melodic gift.� Boy, I�d sure like to �not have a melodic gift� like that!�

Libretti:
�A bad libretto is like bone disease.�

Conducting:
�More wrist, less ass!�

Tristan und Isolde:
�Wagner knew that the key to musical eroticism was putting the resolution off until the last possible moment.�

Jazz:
�Yeah, that vintage age jazz is too old for me, which makes me happy.�

Supporting the arts:
�Somebody had to go out and shoot the bear so someone else can stay back and draw on the cave.�

Geography:
�I�ve met a lot of nutcases from Petaluma, California.�
�I wouldn�t retire to Benington, Va, but it is a good place to buy socks.�
�Russia was not famous for movie technology.�

the Diminished Major 7:
�That�s a heavy chord.�

the double dotted quarter note:
�...is the greatest thing since axle grease.�

Instructions:
�Here is a barrel. In it are fish. Here is a gun. Shoot the fish.�
�I don�t need a page full of melodies, just give me one that sounds like Pucinni...�

Student Compositions:
�You write it and I tell you how bad it is...that�s my job. No fair you guys cutting down your own music, what the hell am I here for?�
�You can change it �til the cows come home and it�s still going to suck.�
�Just finish the damned thing!�

Music in General:
�There is something wrong with all the music out there...except maybe Brahms.�

Pre-Reviews

2008-04-23T11:09:00.004-04:00

Ok, I'm starting to get some reviews from one of my compositions. The great part is that I haven't even finished the piece yet! Here are some initial reactions to my solo marimba suite (in progress) tentatively titled Songs of my Youth.

from Ryan Churchill, longtime friend and band, erm, Wind Ensemble director:
"You and I both are probably headed for hell anyway, this just puts you on the fast track."

from Heidi Parker, my sister:
"Shame on you! Shame! Shame! Bow your head in shame!!!"

Strong stuff, eh? The thing about Songs is that each movement is an abstraction from some early 80s pop tune. They are incredibly fun pieces to write. I don't know if they are fun to listen to but based on these reactions I think I am going in the right direction.

I almost forgot to mention the tunes:
1. Come on Eileen
2. Don't Dream it's Over
3. Careless Whisper (which yielded the above comments)
4. Always Something There to Remind Me
5. Take on Me

Quote of the Day

2008-04-11T07:55:00.001-04:00

From my wife, listening to David Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion.

"I like this. This isn't what I expected from a Pulitzer winner. I really like this."

I do love teaching

2008-04-10T14:46:00.002-04:00

I had a really good energizing day today. My comp students invaded Music Forum, our twice-a-week performance venue. I wrangled an entire forum last semester for the Comp 1 class so the whole class could take a piece from idea through performance. It worked well. This semester I had fewer students but they each had 2 short pieces or 1 longer piece. The whole thing was well attended and well put together. I'm very proud of them all.

Also, in my freshman theory class, I gave a composition project assignment. Some students have stopped by with their pieces and I'm really pumped about what they are doing! I love looking at their scores, seeing potential, and offering my own humble suggestions. I tend to shotgun out a lot of options, often contradictory ones, to get the students thinking of their own ways to navigate their pieces.

For some sadistic reason it is much easier to see potential in my students' works than it is to see in my own. I have several short marimba pieces to complete in the next month and I'm just stuck. I know what I want to do but it just isn't happening. Maybe I need to ask my students for help. Come to think of it, that is EXACTLY what I am going to do!

Opening Acts

2008-04-07T09:31:00.003-04:00

The animation Carnival Daring-Do that I did with Carla Poindexter is getting its first screening this weekend at the Palm Beach International Film Festival. Next weekend, Fresno. In Fresno we are opening for Jellyfish, which won the Camera d�Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Quite an interesting pairing, if you ask me, which you didn't, and I'm honored that they have put our film with something that people might actually go and see.

That is good. I like that.

Favorite Fools

2008-04-02T07:35:00.002-04:00

I like the subtle nature of most of the April Fool's jokes that I encountered yesterday: Clinton challenging Obama to a bowling match and George R. R. Martin decides to merge his two popular fiction series were two of the best.

My favorite, though, was the musical one. YouTube looked perfectly normal, yet every movie you clicked on the front page took you here. Notice the 6 million views? A lot of people bit on this one. Hell, I fell for it 3 times until I realized the "broken" link was intentional. So yes, my favorite fool of yesterday was me.

Go figure.

Ideas

2008-03-27T10:35:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone,
Vox Novus is in the finals for voting on ideablob for their online submission process proposal. Lots of us probably write for and attend the 60x60 concerts and want to help them out.

Vote early, vote often!

I'm a dork

2008-03-25T11:32:00.003-04:00

So I got a little "free money" and I spent it on Elliott Carter scores. My freshman theory class would clearly put their hands in L shapes on their foreheads if it was still cool to do that.

Anyhow, I got a great deal on the hard bound collection of string quartets. I saw it everywhere else for $90 but found it at Compumusic for significantly less. I'll be happy when it gets here.

Ok, I'm happy now, but I'll be happier when the box arrives.

I should have posted this yesterday...

2008-03-20T09:59:00.003-04:00

To celebrate the 5 year anniversary of the Iraq War, here is a musical tribute that surfaced about 2 years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmsOIjzQ1V8

The band is the Asylum Street Spankers. It will most likely offend you.

Plans within plans

2008-03-17T11:50:00.002-04:00

Well, last week qualifies as one of the Worst Weeks Ever, but I'm getting out of it. Some things get better on their own, others you have to grab and shake until they turn positive. This is me grabbing and shaking.

I had a successful recital earlier this month and you can hear a recording of Throb for marimba duo on my website. The bigger news is the acceptance of Carnival Daring-Do, the video collaboration with Carla Poindexter, to the Palm Beach International and Fresno Film Festivals. We have also made it to the final round of the High Falls Film Festival, with this interesting tidbit:

"There was an interesting split among our viewers. Some complained that the sound was unpleasant, harsh, and annoying. Others liked the music and sound effects and felt that both fit the film well."

While I would never shun universal support, I always like it when my music is more...divisive? I've been a polarizer in other music settings, always unintentionally, and I have to admit that it makes me smile. I remember showing the same piece to 4 composers at a series of master classes. Two liked it quite a bit, two thought it was absolute garbage. Another time, the deliberations for a contest (done after a concert of the competing works) went on unusually long. I found out later that my piece was the culprit. Some supported it strongly, others dismissed it. I ended up with nothing but knowing I had caused a small scandal.

It fits my personality, I think, to be in that position. I like doing what I do and I never intend to shock or cause controversy. Sometimes my stuff makes people react. That is all I want: honest reaction. Positive, negative, I have no control over that.

More gushing about performers

2008-03-05T08:12:00.002-05:00

Last night I was fortunate to have my first faculty recital. I programmed 6 pieces, about an hour of music, equal parts acoustic and electroacoustic. Things went off without a hitch and it had very little to do with me. What always impresses me is how many people are so giving of their time and talents in order to perform my music. The performers last night were great and they did my music a great service with their performances.

Keith Koons and Laurent Boukobza performed my clarinet sonatina from about 10 years ago.
Jeff Moore and Kirk Gay gave the premiere of Throb for marimba duo, breaking in their brand new Malletech marimba that was in a box yesterday morning.
John Almeida played my solo trumpet piece Pioneer X and was very detail oriented and specific in mute choices and the drama of the piece.

You probably don't know these performers, but you should. I am fortunate to have such generous colleagues.

The LSU percussion ensemble

2008-03-03T08:15:00.004-05:00

Friday I was fortunate to have my Concerto for Timpani performed at the College Music Society SuperRegional Conference at Louisiana State University. Brett Dietz conducted his percussion ensemble Hamiruge with guest soloist Shawn Galvin, principal timpanist with the Navy band in D.C. They gave an amazing performance and I want you all to know about it.

LSU is having a lot of renovations done to a building and it required the percussionists be housed across campus from the recital hall. I saw about 5 trucks make several trips to bring in the 5 timpani, 2 marimbas, vibes, chimes, and other stuff needed for my piece. Lots of schlepping for a 10 minute work. And, due to circumstance beyond everyone's control, a graduate student stepped up and learned the vibe part in about 90 minutes. My piece is, as you might have guessed, not something that comes together with 90 minutes of sight-reading time. Yet this performer was able to pull it together and give a convincing performance at, quite literally, the 11th hour.

Shawn's solo performance was amazing. He really commanded the stage, connecting with the ensemble when he should have and also ignoring the ensemble when necessary. Shawn dripped and exuded talent and musicality and I appreciated him traveling all that way to play my piece.

Anyhow, amazing performances, talented folks, a great conference overall. I had to share!

This is what I'm talking about

2008-02-29T08:43:00.002-05:00

No, I'm not pimping my Mancala Variations this time. It is over, it is posted, you all know where to find it if you want it.

I'm back on the cause of rejection letters. I got a great one today from Keys to the Future:

"Dear Dr. Batzner,

Thank you very much for sending your very interesting (and well-played) 'Toccata' and 'Deconstructionist Preludes' for review. There were many strong compositions (yours among them) submitted for consideration for only a few spaces in the Keys to the Future Festival, and although yours were not chosen for performance this time around, we very much appreciate your sending us your music, and would like to wish you continued good fortune in your creative life.

Sincerely,

Joseph Rubenstein
Executive and Artistic Director
Keys to the Future"

You see? This is a great email. It could be a mail merge. The tone of the email is so personal, though, that I don't believe it is a form letter. It also came in a timely manner (I sent the stuff on January 10). The letter leaves me with the feeling that they really looked at and seriously considered my music, even if my pieces just bounced off of them like so many peanut shells against the wall (sorry, I'm having analogy troubles this morning).

I wish they could all be like that. Except, you know, the not programming my music part.