Intro:

[Talk a little about yourself.] I’m a percussionist, composer, and improvisor

based in the GTA. I grew up in the Durham region, went to Wilfrid Laurier
University in Waterloo for my undergrad, and the University of British
Columbia in Vancouver for my Masters. I moved back to Ontario in 2021, and
have been playing in local orchestras and in musical theatre shows recently.
I’ve always valued collaboration – some of the most fun I’ve had composing
and performing was in the KW-based music collective, The Yacht Club. We
were a group of friends: musicians, composers, visual artists, and actors,
who would work together and made shows up from scratch. From writing,
rehearsing, and performing to the music, skits, staging, lighting and
costuming it was a wholly collaborative effort. I’m excited to work together
with all of you on this collaboration to make something new from scratch!

What we’re covering today?

Today I want to go over some broad concepts that I think would be

helpful for you to know about me, my music, and what I’m interested in. The
first thing I want to talk about are compositional tools that I use and musical
philosophies that I have. Influences that I’ve had in the past, things that
inspire me now. We’re going to learn about a couple of contemporary music
genres.

Next, I want to discuss the ideas that I have as well as how I categorize
them. I then want to briefly touch on form, how I approach the architecture of
music.

Lastly, I want to hear about your ideas, what inspires you – things you
want to include in this piece that we’re going to write together.

We also need to come up with a bit of a gameplan for how we’re going
to do this! If there’s one thing I’ve learned in writing music, is that a deadline
is a surefire way to get things completed.

I also want to start by saying if at any point I use a word or musical

term you’re not familiar with or you have any questions please feel free let
me know. No need to raise your hand. Just tell me and I’d be happy to
explain. I want this to be a conversation! A chat.

And if there are any scores that I’ve shown – either mine or other
composer’s, I can definitely send pdfs to Mr. Barber to give to you.
Extra-musical Examples:

What is extra-musical? Can anybody take a stab? It’s kind of what it

sounds like. Literally anything that’s not music. Some composers have used
narrators, had musicians move and dance while playing, incorporate video or
a backing track, use unconventional objects as instruments. There many
examples that I’ve used in my music, and we’ll talk about them as we go
through. Often I use these extra-musical ideas to try and be funny, as I find
the messages most well received are routinely the ones that make us laugh.

I also want to give a quick explanation of another term I’ll use.

Extended techniques. They are any technique on an instrument which uses
an unconventional method of achieving the sound. For flutes, its that Jet
sound or whistle tones, many different instruments can pitch bend, key click,
make air noise. Heck I’ve even performed a piece with 4 ladders, or with just
a table. String instruments do kind of get the most fun, there a ton of
extended techniques for strings, and I’ll cover a few of them in a second.

In this first piece, Signal to Noise, my main focus was on our collective
over-reliance of cell-phones. This was written back 2017, our addiction has
only gotten worse in the meantime. To illustrate this, in the parts - I tried to
use extended techniques on the violins, bowing with overpressure behind the
bridge to get a static-y, spongey, unpleasant sound. The cello uses some
extended techniques like: Overtones, wolf tones, and seagull effects. The
main extra-musical element in this are the interruptions throughout the
piece, such as a player getting a call, or reading a note from their phone. It’s
played for laughs, but it does have real meaning when you think about it.
Hey this dude just up and left the stage mid-performance. [Play clip.]

The second excerpt I want to show you is from a piece I wrote for the
Laurier Wind Orchestra. The Nature of Things – a nod to Canadian
Environmentalism – has four sections each concerning a different way
humans have negatively impacted the environment.

Mvt 1: Sea levels rising due to ice melt, Mvt 2: concerns deforestation, Mvt 3:
focuses on air pollution and quality, and Mvt 4: our reliance on Landfills.

The portion I’m going to show you is the third movement, about Air
Pollution. I tried to make an eerie, thick soundscape. This incorporated all the
brass and woodwind players wearing masks to play through their instrument,
and intentional rhythmic coughing. Other musical elements to listen out for
are a repeating piano line, bowed vibraphones and cymbals, prepared harp –
where we threaded paper and aluminum foil through the strings. And it
includes one of my favourite sounds and extended techniques: Bassoon
Multiphonics. A multiphonic is when you play a specific fingering on your
instrument, overblow, and get two or more notes at once. I’m sure you’ll be
able to pick them out, its such a weird sound and its right at the beginning of
clip. [5:50]

Extra-musical Examples:
Here are some other examples of how I’ve used non-musical elements
in my writing. Construct is constructed of 5 movements – each one a
different part of the cube laid out separately on stage. As each movement
passes they play on a section and then bring it over to rest of the structure,
which they then attach it to. The final movement is the cube completed and
the soloist playing with every single instrument. The different sections are
metals, woods, plastics, stones and tiles. It was a commentary on what I saw
in the neighbourhoods I lived in in Waterloo and Vancouver: destroying older
houses to build ritzy mcmansions on the same land as the property was
more valuable than the old house. The best part is, the actor wears a tool-
belt with all of their mallets and tools, and a vest/helmet. You’ve got to look
the part!

Life-music is a clarinet trio, but there is a theatrical element to it.

Several actors gradually walk on stage, each one just doing their own thing –
one person is reading a book, another is playing a game of solitaire, a couple
is walking around and talking, another is eating a sandwich. I wanted to
express that contentment I feel in just living life: through these actors and
through the music itself, which we’re going to do something with later.

Other Composer’s Examples

Now that we’ve seen a few ideas that I’ve used, I want to show you
some of my favourite pieces from other composer’s – and how they managed
to incorporate some wild things into a cohesive piece of music. As we’re
listening to these, I want you to think about a few things: What makes this
musical? How is the extra-musical element employed and interact with the
player’s/music? How is it presented? Funny, serious, virtuosic? How is the
composer expanding on their original concept?

Akiho – Richochet: What rhythms are the ping-pong balls creating. How are
the ping-pong players notated, if at all? I’m going to play a good chunk of
this one. Going to move around to couple of places, but we’ll end up
watching about 6 minutes of this 25 minute piece. This is one of the smartest
written pieces of the new century. [First 2:00, 4:20-50, 8:50-9:20, 9:50-
10:40,12:45-13:15, 23:00-end]
- Uses repeated rhythmic phrases that are shared around the soloists
and the orchestra.
 - Very little recognizable melodic material.
- The players are physically interacting with the prop in a bunch of ways.
We first see them use a single ping-pong passed rhythmically, there
are other objects that they strike the ball with to introduce pitch – like a
wine glass, or tuned tamborim’s. But they’re also interacting with the
other soloists; think to when the ping pong was being hurled at the
bass drum that the percussionist is playing on.
- What I love about this piece is that we get the two instrumental
soloists playing virtuosically off the top, and then the ping pong players
come out. The comedic aspect is secondary to the musical value that
the idea can add.

Akiho – Stop Speaking: [1:08-2:20]

- The timbre of the snare and of the text-to-speech voice are very
similar, to the point that my ear hears the two streams weaving in and
out with each other
- Each section has specific rhythmic segments that are repeated
internally and give cohesion. Double taps when playing with fingers,
ribbed swizzle stick, etc.
- This extra-musical element is a backing track/tape, so while it is not
being interacted with physically, it acts as another complete
instrument or part that fills out the piece and adds dimension.
- Again we see this interplay between the serious, the funny, and the
virtuosic.
- The arc of the piece is essentially a narrative, from the perspective of
this software that wants to continue performing it’s task (i.e. “living”).
Here the composer expands on the concept by imbuing the piece with
emotional stakes as it progresses, and as well as incorporating other
digital elements, such as the mac volume toggle sound or representing
glitch by repeating letters before the word.

Lizee – Bondarsphere: [First 2 minutes]

- The use of voice as a pitch material.

- While some instrument families do share like-material there is greater
emphasis on each movement in the piece having a distinct character
and its own internal structure.
- Here the extra-musical part consists of another backing track with clips
of recorded speech, as well as an accompanying video which visually
emphasizes some of the musical ideas occurring throughout.
-
Can you guys come up with any examples of extra-musical ideas? One of my
favourite pieces in high school was Paper Cut by Alex Shapiro. It involves
ripping paper rhythmically throughout the piece.

Is this a composition?
Next I want to ask you… What do you guys think? Does this look like a
score to you? If you don’t think that this is score, what do you think is
needed for it to be considered one? It’s okay to tell me No. Your opinion is
valid. A lot of people would look at this and say “yeah your crazy these are
words, not music.”

Hopefully by the end of today I can convince you that it is one!

I want to widen your perception of what a piece of music - a score - is

and what it can look like. This is one of the compositions that I am most
proud of. Its creation was comprised of several elements that I am informed
by: The first is the social nature and discourse of the content – namely the
water advisories in Indigenous communities that continue to persist
throughout the country. The second is the execution of the piece. Here the
instructions– the act of boiling a kettle and reading these articles aloud – is
the musical element of the piece.

Yes!!
That boil advisory performance piece was directly influenced by Yoko
Ono’s Instruction works and Terry Riley’s early typewriter pieces, albeit with
a purposeful lack of humour - in order to respect the subject matter. These
scores don’t have the conventions we normally think of when we look at a
sheet of music. No notes, no key signatures, staves, etc. To me, though, they
are no different than a concert band score. They outline the parameters of
the piece, like: instrumentation, directions, sections/movements,
approximate duration. They elicit an emotional response - often humour from
the irony of the instructions, and they are meant to be performed. Just not
necessarily in the concert halls or stages that we’re used to. Lets read one or
two of these. They are a lot more pastoral than I tend to be. Each work
“earnestly” invites the reader or performer to engage with sound and nature.

Funny, right?

John Cage:
 Those pieces reflect an ethos that, I believe John Cage best describes
as “A purposeless play”. To Cage, everything is music: water running from a
faucet, the hum of a fan, cutlery clattering. This philosophy has informed my
approach to music and permeated my life. I hear almost anything as music:
the pedestrian traffic crossing signals, footsteps of myself and people I’m
walking near, a random bottle or jar that I hit. My brain hears and processes
it all as music.

Cage’s best example of this is, 4’33”. A performance which consists of

the player or ensemble sitting with their instruments at the ready, and
staying silent for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Often this piece will be done as
a joke or a parody, but his original intent is that all the surrounding sounds
outside of the “music” (coughing, shuffling, a quiet conversation) are
inherently musical as well. As he says: [Read Quote.]

This “affirmation of life” is a state of flow and contentment. It’s that

feeling you get when you’re in the middle of playing a piece surrounded by
others in the same state of concentration that you are in or when you
practice for an hour and finally get that one part.

Some of my Influences:

These are a few pieces that make me feel some type of way when I
listen to or perform them. They are composers, bands, and people that I
love, as well as their pieces or albums that I connect the most with. I
encourage you to take a screenshot and check some of these people and
works out. They are all fantastic in their own way.

How do I get my ideas?

Most of the time is just a thought that pops into my head. Usually if I
can’t let it go I’ll write it down. When I do write it down, I try to categorize
them, because I find that helps filter through ideas. These are the main
categories that I use to catalogue my ideas, but every composer is different
in how they approach this. Sometimes it’s an idea and a quick sound or
timbre that will catch my ear and spark a concept.

Puns!
I want to play a game here. If, as we’re going through some of these
examples you think: How can this possibly music? Bring it up, and I’ll try to
explain how it be framed as music! [Go through the examples. Mention the
time-based factor and graphic notation of the Construct example.]

These pun based on existing pieces also serve as a good spring board
to quickly touch on the pieces themselves, and how they exhibit elements of
the main genre that I consider myself a part of: post-minimalism as well as
good old original recipe Minimalism.
Adams and Andreissen:
I’m going to start with the John Adams piece first. [40 seconds…]: You guys
get the vibe. Now for the first couple seconds of the Andriessen piece, this
one is performed by ensemble SYNAESTHESIS. [Play clip.]

What are some things that you notice about these pieces?

The John Adams piece – performed here by the London Symphony Orchestra
at the BBC Proms – is an excellent example of post-minimalism in that he’s
constantly growing the original idea. Expanding and changing it. To give a bit
of context, in Minimalism it is frequently a single idea – a single process –
that unfolds unchanging over time. Steve Reich, one of my favourite
composer’s, did this frequently. For example, in Piano Phase one single line of
music is repeated slowly shifted over itself. This is called phasing!

Reich:
Let’s take a listen at the first minute. [Play clip.]

Workers Union:

To go back to the Andreissen piece; let’s take a look at Workers Union

for a second. This is an excerpt from the piece. What are you guys seeing
when you look at this one? Can you picture the music you heard being
represented by this?

One of the first things that I notice is that the score is comprised of
only one line that everyone plays in unison. Each players decides on a centre
pitch – the pitch that is on the centre line, and then they must base how far
away every other note is based on the register of their instrument. It’s also
an example of cell-based music – a compositional tool I return to frequently.
In this song, the conductor chooses how many times each individual
segment is repeated. In other works, especially in Steve Reich’s earlier stuff
he would employ varied numbers of repetition for each cell. Piano Phase
used this technique!
Aleatoric:

I keep using this word aleatoric, so it might be helpful to provide a

definition. [Reads…]

It also encompasses graphic notation, another compositional tool I use

often. Graphic notation can simply be inventing a new symbol to try and
elicit a new sound from an instrument, like you’ll see in the score on the next
slide. But it can also take the form of different pictures, or of the
arrangement of elements on the page, and is especially noticeable in time-
based pieces. I routinely structure my pieces this way. Both Two Roads
Diverge – the score from the very first slide, and Construct from a few slides
ago use this technique.

MAKE IT UP UNTIL THE FORM SECTION.

Part 3: Form

Alright now that we’ve talked about the why, let’s talk about the how. How
music can be sculpted. How the framework and the structure is just as
important as the content – something that took me a while to realize.
Types of Form:

Alright, can anybody name off some of the musical forms that they’ve heard
of or performed? In classical music or in pop music, even things like a waltz
on a piano! I’m curious to hear what you think?

There are countless types of form, all brushing up and bumping heads in
conversation with each other throughout the evolution of music: from
baroque to classical to romantic to modern and on to contemporary music.
These forms are the basic building blocks on which a majority of works both
then and now are based and iterated upon.

Types of Shape:

Let’s also touch on kinds of musical shape. Again, this is not a complete list,
these are just the first shapes that come to my mind. But I bet you can
picture some songs that have these shapes without even trying! Can you
guys think of any examples of shapes in music, maybe from pieces you
played in band last year or in the short clips of piece’s I’ve shown you today?

When I think of Linear shapes, that Piano Phase piece certainly comes to
mind. I think that John Adams’s piece Short Ride has a ton of cyclic action.
You could also consider it to be wedge shaped.
I want to point out that form and shape work in concert with each other. In
my Wind Orchestra piece The Nature of Things, the form (as a whole) is a
Symphonic, moved based work. But each individual movement has it’s own
shape to it. Take the first movement, about rising sea levels. Many
instruments use a Diagonal rising shape, to mirror the rising water. This
technique – word or tone painting - was derived by Romantic-Era composers
when they were writing Programmatic pieces - think of Beethoven’s 6 th
Symphony, or Berlioz’ Symphony Fantastique.

One of my favourite shapes is the curved or exponential route! A cool

example of this is Madrigale by Aldo Clementi, here performed by Continuum
Contemporary Music. [Play clip.]

Can you guys tell me what’s going on in this piece? What musical process is
happening here? It’s all the same musical material being repeated, but very
gradually slowing down.

Let’s Try Something:

I’m going to pull up the score to my piece life-music. It was the one
where I had regular activities going on while the clarinets played. I’m going
to play the piece, and I want you follow along. The form of the piece is
Ternary: A – B – A. See if you can pinpoint where those changes happen. And
a bonus question! Are y’all able to tell me what process I’m using or piece I
am referencing in the B section? The piece is about 5 minutes long. [Open up
score to life music.]

What do we want the piece to look like:

This isn’t a question we necessarily need to answer today, but it’s

definitely something that I want you guys to think about. This score, A Brief
Representation of Fear, was also composed for the Yacht Club collective, and
was written for Theremin and Glockenspiel, and is an example of a
completely graphic score that uses a conventional 5-line stave. It also has a
very visual depiction of it’s musical shape. I have the music for this, but will
only play it if you guys want to hear it. It’s giving horror, and ugliness. So, up
to you.
But back to the form of the piece we’re embarking on. Are there pieces of
music or forms that inspire you? It’s okay if you can’t think of anything, but
it’s something I want everyone to think about over the next few weeks.

Whatcha got?:
 I want you to be able to look at the piece or your part and go: Hey that
was my idea! Whether it’s a 4-note motif or a theme/concept in the piece – I
want you to get a personal satisfaction in contributing seeing your idea
alongside others.