By Kristen Ow
Staff Writer
While some students watch movies and listen to soundtracks in their free time, other students are writing them.
Monday night Jim Edmunds, Austin Trujillo, Holly Conlan and John Brockman all had their original pieces performed at the Pepperdine New Music Ensemble in Raitt Recital Hall. They are all students of music professor and composer Dr. Lincoln Hanks, who also directs the Collegium Musicum Choir.
“Usually a contemporary music program is the last element to develop,” Hanks said.
This New Music program completes the music program at Pepperdine. Right now, all students have been meeting on their own time to rehearse and prepare. Ideally, the New Music Ensemble will be offered as a class.
Hanks said he believes the composers should be able to not only write music, but also perform on stage. He thinks a composer should participate in performances of new music in order to demonstrate musical support. The instrumentalists have played an important role in supporting the new music created by these four composers.
In many contemporary music ensembles, the most skilled and advanced musicians can be found in the modern music programs.
“The Pepperdine New Music Ensemble is responsible for an increase in musicianship,” Hanks said. “The musicians are challenged with new music because the ideas are innovative and fresh. There is not a norm for the musicians to compare. They are not imitating an established sound. There is no precedence.”
Hanks credits Edmunds, a junior composition major, for being a great supporter and key participant in the New Music Ensemble.
“Jim is the one that really got the ball rolling,” Hanks said.
Edmunds sang bass and conducted his number “The Words Lying Idle.” Three vocalists, Jennifer Bergeron, soprano; Trey Davis, tenor and two percussionists, Steve Sudeth and Patrick McKenna performed along with Edmunds. The composition is based on a poem by William Carlos Williams. “The music is based on two octanoic scales, a scale that is not standard,” Edmunds said. “The scale is manipulated so that at parts of the poem that inspire hope there is musical harmony.”
Edmunds also explores another interesting concept — electronic sounds. Many times electronic devices work to mimic natural sounds. Edmunds reverses this idea and invents new ways for traditional instruments to imitate electronic sounds.
The poem itself is related to death in a desert landscape. Edmunds said he wanted to create dry sounds and white noises. “I try to think of a sound then make it,” Edmunds said.
For his piece Edmunds combined a cello bow, cymbal and tympani as one instrument to create an entirely new sound.
Bergeron, Davis, Sudeth and Patrick McKenna on percussion performed the piece while Edmunds conducted and also played bass.
John Brockman is a junior theory and composition major. His piece is entitled “March At Midnight” for solo violin.
“While I was writing this piece, the scene I envisioned could have been straight out of Tolkien’s ‘Lord Of The Rings,’ ” Brockman said. “The climax is a death march, and I imagined an enormous horde of Ring Wraiths marching all to the sound of a drumbeat through the middle of a small village. I just thought it was an interesting scenario, and tried to incorporate some of those dramatic ideas into the piece.”
This was the first original piece that Brockman had ever performed.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Brockman said before the performance. “Hopefully the performance will become a continual thing. I really thank my good friend Jim Edmunds for backing this whole deal.”
Cosima Luther, a freshman violinist, performed Brockman’s piece with confidence and style.
The ingenuity of Edmunds and creativity of Brockman are only one aspect Hanks said he would like to develop in his students, while teaching them the main responsibilities of a composer.
Austin Trujillo, a senior, both wrote and performed his piece, “Corazon del Diablo: Cancion y Bailai.” His song is written for a solo violin and it incorporates many gypsy folk sounds.
“The piece starts out with a slow and expressive melody in the key of G minor, which I call the ‘Cancion’ (song),” Trujillo said. “After the introduction of the ‘Cancion,’ the tempo quickens and a new section begins in A minor called the ‘Bailia (dance)’ which makes up the middle portion of the piece.”
Senior Holly Conlan used a traditional Latin American form, tango, to create a sound that was both free and structured.
“ ‘Bailarin’ begins in the key of E-flat minor, developing themes while building in intensity to the next section,” Conlan said.
Abe Curammeng performed her piece on the piano.
In the ensemble the students study composers and works from the 20th century to the present from an academic perspective. The students are able to apply the ideas to their own projects.
Hanks said he strives to instill a strong work ethic and discipline in his students.
“The students are their own advocates at this stage,” Hanks said.
The writing and rehearsing are only half of the product. They are tests of the student’s musicianship and administrative skills. The performance is the final.
Hanks said he finds the important balance of restriction and freedom necessary in the composition process.
“It is important that the students find their own voice,” he said.
Students can develop his or her own style after they have developed a strong foundation of academic achievement and a strong work ethic. He allows his students to explore different forms, tones and ideas while also setting up parameters to give the works structure.
Hanks said rhetoric is often associated with public speaking, but it is an important component to musical composition as well. Just as public speakers prepare a message and delivery to communicate an idea, the students focus on notation and rehearsing so that their ideas can be communicated to an audience effectively.
According to Hanks, modern music is often viewed as random yet organized.
“Music theorists have said that contemporary music is more organized than earlier music,” Hanks said.
Breakthroughs in mathematics, numbers, patterns and computer technology have all put a great emphasis on structure and control in recent contemporary music.
“Right now is a good time for composers,” Hanks said. “The music is becoming less focused on the rigid control and more focused on the human aspect.”
March 20, 2003
