Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

Vol. CLIV, Issue 6
Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

Whitman Composers’ Concert: young composers speak out

Credit: Cornelius
Credit: Cornelius

At the Whitman Composers’ Concert, student composers’ works “see the light for the first time,” said Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music John D. Earnest.

The concert, which took place on Thursday, Oct. 8, celebrated each student composer’s hard work and dedication to music by showcasing their various pieces of music to the Whitman community.

Students who take at least one semester of a composition class are usually asked to perform one or more of their final works at the Composers’ Concert.

“I feel like I’m a pretty creative person and so it made sense to have an outlet for music and creativity and get some direction towards a final piece,” said junior Emily Allen. “The Composers’ Concert is something that Professor Earnest really pushes us to be a part of at the end of the year.”

Many of the students take the composition class more than once, focusing on different styles each term. Students typically start by composing suites, which focus on a series of movements that share a common theme. Another form that composition students work with is a theme and variations style, which typically includes a passage of another composer’s piece, followed by transitions to a variety of original pieces that build on the style of the original.

“I think the class really forced me to write with a specific conception of style and flow of the music, rather than a random archaic piece,” said junior Jonathan Spatola-Knoll.

The concert featured works by each student composer, including Allen’s “Suite for Piano”, senior Harrison Fulop’s jazz piece: the only piece to include a singer: “Lonely Songs on Poems of Maya Angelou,” Knoll’s piano and violin duet “Variations on a Theme by Prokofeiv,” senior Marshall Baker’s piano piece “Variations on a Theme by Clara Baker” and senior Kevin McCoy’s piece for a saxophone quartet, entitled “Variations on a Theme by Coltrane, ‘Lonnie’s Lament.'”

For Allen, the class was an important experience as she worked to hone her piece as well as to develop the overall theme.

“I was struck by a particular melody that just sticks with you, which is the melody in the Waltz [the second movement],” said Allen. “[The class] helped me stretch beyond that simple melody to include to other movements that add a little different sound to the overall piece.”

For students such as Fulop, who have taken more than one semester of the course, the class helped to improve his composition and his musical analysis skills, which are especially important to him as a music performance major.

“Sometimes it’s really difficult to translate what you want to say to the audience into music and the class helped me experiment with how to do that,” said Fulop. “It also really helped me think harder about what the composer wants in his piece. It gave me a whole new perspective on how music is created and interpreted.”

The concert was followed by a question and answer session, where the audience asked the young composers about their works. Although in previous years, audience members “tend to be quiet,” according to Fulop, at this year’s concert, audience members were interested and actively participated in the discussion, eager to give feedback about each student’s pieces.

“People weren’t shy at all,” said Fulop. “They asked critical questions about the piece, which made me re-evaluate what I had written. I hate doing it, but it’s probably good for me.”

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All Whitman Wire Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *