Rusty Banks

Heterophony

2009-07-10T11:19:00.007-05:00

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.

Sexxxy Tuba

2009-03-13T17:45:00.004-05:00

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.

John McCain: Ignorant of Economics as Ever

2009-02-12T09:46:00.005-05:00

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

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

2009-02-12T08:18:00.000-05:00

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?

All the One-Eyed Boys in Town

2009-01-09T12:01:00.001-05:00

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.

Productivity in the arts

2009-01-03T17:16:00.002-05:00

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?

SNAKES (a)LIVE!

2008-08-13T12:12:00.006-05:00

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

Sonic Installations, Visual Temporality

2008-07-08T20:18:00.003-05:00

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.

Jesse Helms: How fitting...

2008-07-04T11:45:00.005-05:00

...that on Independence Day we are rid of Jesse Helms, an ardent opponent of freedom. Thank you, Senator, for all but destroying government support for the arts around the exact minute I entered college as a music major. I'm sure a very Maplethorp-ish experience awaits you in the afterlife.

Proper Documentation

2008-06-22T09:25:00.005-05:00

In my last post, I discussed collaborative works. These works tend to be 3-D in nature, with performers and visuals in one area and boomboxes throughout the space. This creates a sonically rich environment with which audiences (even traditional ones) seem to meaningfully connect. I love the fact that these works can�t be recreated in an mp3, but on the other hand, the further from convention a work is, the more a working composer needs adequate documentation.

Who out there has seen brilliant strategies in documenting multi-media (hate that word) works? I love the fluidity of YouTube, but I�m talking more high-quality. DVDs seem a good choice since they have surround sound and video. Who�s seen this done (well)?

Consider the documentation below (done in the typical post-grant-report fashion) of an installation Scott M. Conard (video artist) and I did in the vestibule of a St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster, PA before a new music concert. It�s based on a poem called World�s End. And Worlds Begin by Richard Miller. There are some nice visuals, and you can sorta tell what it sounded like, but trust me:

You just had to be there�

Collaboration

2008-06-13T14:05:00.008-05:00

Great art is not created in committee.
--Robert Hughes

Lately, the kind of work I�ve been seeking is collaborative in nature. I suppose any composition that involves performers other than the composer must be collaborative to some extent, but I�m speaking of creating works where music is not the primary focus, but isn�t necessarily secondary either.

Some of these works are fairly conventional and easily categorized, like my current commission for large choir, trombone quartet, and the American Repertory Ballet. The work, Worlds End. And Worlds Begin, is to be a semi-evening length work that is essentially a (modern) ballet work. More on this later�

Other works may fit into categories like �installation art� and �multimedia design� though I find the first term too apt to conjure images of works from the 60�s and the latter term is just too 90�s. I suppose the word �interdisciplinary� could be used, but even that term already smells of early-00s staleness. But then, terminology has always been a problem for composers.

Anyone who has collaborated a lot (or just once and never again!) can probably recall an instance where having to collaborate was tedious rather than synergistic. I�ve had these experiences, but lately collaborating seems easy and produces work far more interesting to a broader audience than any work I could have done on my own. Because of this new found ease, I suggested to Line Bruntse, a visual artist working on an installation in Milan for which I'm designing the sound, that perhaps I�d be a total tyrant were I to encounter something that didn�t meet my vision. She emailed back:

I could see you as a tyrant, only nobody would ever know they would simply think they were just having fun with you. I don't think they would realize they were bending to your will because they would just want to... Sneaky...

As nice as that thought is, I doubt I have that much Carnegie-like prowess. I think it would be more accurate to say I�ve just come to value collaboration. Artistically, I want to be influenced by my collaborator. Years ago, it would have been possible for me to have a vision so inflexible that it might break from trying to leave room for another�s idea. Now, not opening myself to the influence of a collaborator would make a collaborative work seem inauthentic.

Who�s collaborating? Why? Why not?

Word from China

2007-11-19T05:42:00.001-05:00

Ah. Such a nice email to receive. The Continental Trombone Quartet is quickly becoming a force in New Music. They�ve already commissioned 13 new works for the ensemble, with many more in the making. I wrote them a short flashy piece for their performance in Beijing. The work in called �Bone Jump� and is a post-minimal reworking of fragments of pop tunes that have the word �jump� in the title.

We are currently working on a work for trombone quartet, SATB choir, electronics, video, and dance. More on that later�

Rusty,

Back from China and happy to report a fine performance of your well received composition. I do not know if we will receive a recording or not, that was unclear. The guys loved working on your piece and plan to continue to perform it on a regular basis.

Thanks so much for the great composition. Please be in contact with Doug, copied here, about publishing under the CTQ Series with PebbleHill Publishers.

Talk soon.

Mark

Building a Better Music Appreciation Class 2

2007-08-28T09:26:00.000-05:00

I haven�t properly posted about last semester�s Music Appreciation class, so let me now.

I was happy with it.

I taught it in reverse-chronological order and focused primarily on music after Debussy. I think teaching it in reverse was neither here nor there, but focusing on new music seemed to engage the students much more. I posted some of the topics here, and got some of the best comments I ever have in this class. Overall, it was fairly successful for a Music Appreciation class.

Now let me tell you what I really want to do.

I often begin my classes by stating �We can�t learn things from classes and books. We can only learn from meaningful experience. Classes and books only prepare us to make the most of a meaningful experience when we find or create one.� I certainly believe that Music Appreciation texts and CDs will not equal a meaningful experience.

Many Music Appreciation classes have a live concert component where students attend three concerts and write reports. I teach section of 200-300 students and find this to be a daunting administrative task. More distressing however, is that I have no way to teach the class directly about the random concerts they might attend.

But what if you could have a live concert in the class, during the class.

Well, nice if your school wants to give you thousands of dollars for your class, but fat chance. Where can we get those kinds of resources?

A text and set of CDs generally costs close to $100. What if there was a concert series that sold subscriptions for $50. What if those concerts happened in the class, during the class. What if 220 students bought $50 ticket subscriptions as their textbook?

What kind of concert series would you book with an $11,000 budget?

What if your Music Business majors handled the booking and marketing of said series as part of their Classical Music Business Class, and students could have internships running the series?

It�s happening at Millersville University. Now.

Worlds end. And Worlds begin.

2007-08-12T14:10:00.000-05:00

Writing at the End of the World by Richard Miller

I�ve been reading Richard Miller's Book about the place of humanities in education and in life. It�s a thought-provoking read for anyone working in any purely creative field, though it is written from the prospective of someone who teaches writing.

The book searches for the purpose (point?) of things like poetry, prose, and music through the lens of a handful of tragedy�s that have become part of our collective conscience: Columbine, The Unabomber, Chernobyl, 9-11. What place does something like a poem have in a world like this? Further more, what are we to teach people in our fields?

Miller gives part of his answer, or at least a reason for pursuing an answer, at the end of the preface.

�Schools currently provide extensive training in the fact that worlds end; what is missing is training in how to bring better worlds into being.�

The book is not a new-agey feel-good testament to the healing power of the written word. It is a rigorous examination of assumptions about the limits of, place of, and usefulness of creative work. It is an exercise in critical optimism.

Educators, especially those in the arts and humanities, will find many of the questions they ask themselves tackled in this well-researched, probing book.

Spatial Someone

2007-05-27T11:32:00.000-05:00

Kennesaw State students assist with a soundcheck for HYDROLOGY.

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When I was booked to play an Earth Day concert in Birmingham for the ArtBurst concert series, I wanted to add another stop or two in the Southeast. I found Laurence Sherr on the American Composers Forum website and he sent Blue Ridge Frescos for solo guitar. Perfect. It fit my not-so-heavy-handed, eco-themed show for guitar and/or guitar with electronics. I put together a show I call RUSTY BANKS: SPATIAL SOMEONE. It featured works by composers who have some tie to the South.

Laurence agreed to bring me to Kennesaw State University (a bit north of Hot-lanta) to do some comp lessons, guitar lessons, a lecture, and a concert.

My favorite thing about Kennesaw was the cross-pollination going on between the performance and composition elements on campus. Often, the guitar students would have original pieces to show me. Mary Akerman (Instructor of Guitar) was very supportive of this, and seems to do much to foster students to be creative as well as athletic (her students are as technically sound as they are creative).

There was a time when separating music into composition and performance to the extent we do now could not have been imagined.

Old stuff...

2007-04-13T18:32:00.000-05:00

Note: All posters welcome, but this is aimed at a music appreciation class I teach. We'd love to hear from composers besides me, though. If this is the only topic you see posted, go to:

http://sequenza21.com/banks.html

Well, we are done with the post-debussy portion of our Music and Culture class, and learning the ways of Mozart, Beethoven, and sonata form. I've heard a variety of feelings expressed about this:

A. "I'm glad we're finally studying the stuff I like (Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert)."

B. "I'm sad we're done with the stuff I like (Reich, Cage, Andriessen)."

C. "I'm glad we started with new music, because I would have zoned out from the start if we started with this old stuff."

D. "I wish we would have gone in chronological order rather than reverse. To end with Baroque music is a downer."

E. "I wish we could have studied Bernstien more."

So what do you think? Reverse chronological order, or no? Sonata form or prepared piano? Programmatic music or samples of speech?

Of course, I'd never settle for an "or" where we can have an "and."

By Request: omni topic

2007-03-02T18:36:00.000-05:00

Note: All posters welcome, but this is aimed at a music appreciation class I teach. We'd love to hear from composers besides me, though. If this is the only topic you see posted, go to:

http://sequenza21.com/banks.html

Is the �Afro-American Symphony� an expression of the voice of Black America or just a happy face put on the extreme oppression they were experiencing.

Also: How about that Debussy? That Schoenberg? That Varese? So close (in time) yet so far away (in style). Who do you dig? Who don�t ya?

More important: Why?

Music and Culture Topic 3: Crumb, Cage, Lutoslawski...

2007-03-01T15:44:00.000-05:00

I had a leading question about Crumb, Cage and Lutoslawski, but I decided the discussion has been so good that I didn�t want to limit possible topics.

Soooo� What did you think of those guys?

Music and Culture Topic 2: Day of Elvis, day of wrath...

2007-02-28T12:47:00.000-05:00

Does Michael Daugherty�s �Dead Elvis� pay respect to Elvis, mock Elvis, or both? How?

Other Comments?

Music and Culture Topic 1:

2007-02-25T12:48:00.000-05:00

The first work we studied in Music and Culture was Louis Andriessen�s Racconto dall�Inferno. A remarkable performance, the concert was also notable in its quick distribution on iTunes. A majority of our guided listening focused on text painting. It is easy to note that Andriessen is adept at text painting, but that leaves the following questions:

1) Does the piece have merit as music, without consideration of the text?

2) Is an experience of the piece valid if you cannot understand the text (or do not have a translation)?

Also, any comments or questions about this work, or Steve Reich�s Check it out� from City Life are welcome.

Building a Better Music Appreciation Class

2006-12-12T11:19:00.000-05:00

I occasionally find myself hired to teach what is essentially a Music Appreciation class. This year I�m teaching a 200-seat version of the beast called �Music and Culture� at Millersville University in Millersville, PA.

I�m always trying to sharpen how effective the class is at increasing awareness of (so-called) art music as well as increasing the students� ability to listen with depth and concentration.

This year I�m approaching the class from something closer to my interests. The class will deal with music and its relation to other arts, and its relation with technology. The first work to be studied will be Louie Andriessen�s Racconto dall�Inferno. This provides an opportunity to discuss modernism, tradition, literature, iTunes, and politics. Wow. From there we will process in a roughly reverse-chronological fashion, taking a more topical, rather than historical, approach.

Some other novel things:

1. No text. Each student will have an iTunes account and will purchase about $50 worth of music. Quite a steal compared to a music appreciation text. I�m also thrilled that the L.A. Phil and other organizations will have a 100-200 hit spike in their digital sales. Just think if there were 10 class like this across the country!

2. Examples of visual art as parallels (a staple in such courses) will come from regional art museums like the Philadelphia Museum of Art rather than, say, the Louvre. For that handful of students who really want to experience the material more fully, the opportunity will exist.

3. The class will be blogged on S21. The class topics will get a brief summary in my blog-space here, and extra-credit will be given to thoughtful comments. In a 200-seat class, discussion is more likely to occur this way.

4. Emphasis will shift away from common practice period music. I�ve always found it odd that the two most stylized eras, Baroque and Classical, often receive more class meetings that 1900 � The Present. Since there is a greater scope of style in music after WWII, shouldn�t there be more time spent on it? Baroque, Classical, and Romantic music will receive a few classes each, at the most. Most of the class will deal with music after Debussy.

If anyone here has tried such things in a class as such, I�d love to hear about it. I�m also open to suggestions/reflections anyone has on this subject.

Hydrology

2006-07-02T21:57:00.000-05:00

The electric guitar is hardly exotic. So ubiquitous had it become, that acoustic music was a novelty by the 1980�s. Neglected in this pendulous swing between acoustic and electric was the humble gut-stringed beginnings of �The People�s Instrument.�

Berlioz called the guitar �an orchestra in miniature� but perhaps it is better described as an orchestra of nuance. But can we hear nuance these days?

Combining the classical guitar with electronics affords us beauty beyond what either could accomplish alone. Now the guitar can crescendo. It can appear behind the audience. It can change the size and shape of the space it occupies.

Classical guitar may be the �real� guitar, but classical guitar and electronics constitute the �surreal� guitar.

Music for iPod

2006-06-23T13:44:00.000-05:00

I have a new work that is the product of several wants:

1) I like for live versions of tunes to be different from the studio versions.

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones come to mind. Their albums feature digestible nuggets that are great for driving, cooking, and getting ready for their live shows. The live shows take these little gems and develop them into full-blown works of art. The live version of the work will use boomboxes spread through the room, and will be a small part of a larger, modular work.

2) I wanted to write something that would make sense on an iPod.

Not that I want every piece to be this, but I wanted to write one, or perhaps an �album� for this type of listening. Something with a bit of groove� something not driven by development as much as it is driven by pulse and timbre.

3) The pieces I listen to on CD or mp3 aren�t necessarily my favorite works.

I tend to listen to recordings of works that work as recordings. The pieces I like to hear live usually don�t transfer to recordings very well.

4) I wanted to create a work in a more layered fashion.

Typically, I fully compose a piece for instrument and electronics before I start to realize the parts in a studio. This time I tried an approach a bit more like producing a pop tune. I recorded the guitar part, then starting �over-producing� it. I first added some percussive elements, then added some noise, then copied some of the sounds and reversed them. I�ve found this layered approach to work well for me lately. Last year, I took a solo guitar work and reworked it into a piece for guitar, strings and alto flute. This was not merely an orchestration of the work, but a new work built on that material. It�s a great way to begin a work with some reflection already in place.

How do you create? How do you push yourself out of your intuition? Does one need to do that?

Color on a Gray Day in Philadelphia

2006-05-12T09:36:00.000-05:00

I just got back from Philadelphia, where I saw a rehearsal of Gerald Levinson�s �Toward the Light� for organ and orchestra. It�s a great piece being played by great orchestra featuring a great organist.

For the most part, I find organ and orchestra to be incompatible, but Levinson navigates this problem deftly. At times the work seemed like a piece for orchestra and electronics, or organ and electronics, with one monster being the ghost of the other. The use of color (Levinson�s specialty) was not only interesting but also meticulously crafted. Timbre changes were paced the way romantic composers might have paced harmonic rhythm, providing a sense of direction and destination to an otherwise atmospheric, yet intense, work.

Afterwards, I had coffee with the ever-passionate Eric Bruskin, and the extremely amicable Jim Jordon. We discussed acoustics, Taoism, music education, and professional dancers� abilities in fist-fighting. It was a good time.

Alienation, animosity and audience

2006-05-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

I love it when an audience responds well to a work of mine. That�s because there is a lot of �me� in the work and hearty applause (with positive and meaningful comments afterwards) is a sort vindication that my technical skills supported this transaction.

When I write music for commercials, I suspend my �voice� and provide what I think may strengthen the visual message. In this case, failure to reach the audience is indeed failure.

But for my concert music, I invite the audience to meet me half-way. I think it�s fine for composers to be critical of a close-minded audience. To be un-thinking is as dangerous as it is undesirable.

I say this, having gotten almost all positive reviews and comments and applause for presentations of my work. Whenever I am programmed on a concert the presenters love to point out that I�m �modern� yet listener-friendly!� which is far too apologetic for my tastes.

On Seq21, or any new music site for that matter, there is always talk of how our audience became alienated after WWII and whatnot. Personally, I'll be glad when animosity for the audience is hip again. Not that I really hate the audience, or write music that is not listener-friendly, I just don�t understand the pressure to bend towards the wants of overly-broad focus groups. What�s the point of making decisions based on likeability? Shouldn�t composers make choices based on clarity of idea?