Hear No Music, Be a Subpar Composer

Sean Newhouse made his conducting debut leading the BSO in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 9.  Show above is a picture from a different performance, displayed at the conductor's website (http://www.seannewhouse.com).

That is why I was enrolled in some kind of music history course for seven out of my eight semesters at MIT, and why I am continuing to study music history in graduate school despite my major being composition.  (To be fair, some of the music history courses I have taken over the years have fulfilled requirements; but I would have taken them anyway.)  Studying the music that is already out there is a crucial part of being a composer not because all music is recycled, but rather because one has to be aware of the preceding tradition.  New composers need not follow any traditions they may observe or even see themselves as part of one, but they can’t be taken seriously without knowing about who and what have come before them.

Part of being a good composer-listener is attending concerts.  For even with the most advanced technology in sound engineering and the most expensive headphones and speakers, nothing can replace hearing music live at a concert (classical, or otherwise).  To elaborate briefly, I’ll share the opening paragraph from my first-ever concert report in my first-ever formal music class from October 2006:

My Next Project

When one door opens... (I know that’s not how the expression goes, but that’s how the story mentioned below goes...)
Photo by: dnchung (http://vhshouse.blogspot.com/2010/10/anthology-lady-or-tiger.html)

Finishing a composition is a lot like reading the end of the Torah on Simchat Torah: you don't want to linger on the fact that you've completed something.  In the case of reading the end of the Torah, you immediately go back and start reading from the beginning.  In the case of finishing a composition, you start working on something else (if you haven't already).

While I did take a day or two to make the score of my most recent piece (Nishmat) readable and to get in printed and bound with all the necessary accompanying materials (transliteration guide, program note, etc.), I am happy to say that I have started a new project.

[Drumroll, please…]

Some Non-Musical Notes

The logo I designed to use my scores.  Can you identify all of the musical elements in the image?  (answer below)

At some point last semester, in the midst of taking a class about using the music notation software called Finale, I decided to put together a logo for my music.  The result is the snazzy image you see above (if I do say so myself!).

Why “bmpark Music”?  Well the more obvious reason is that my first two initials are B and M, and my last name of course is Park.  More importantly, “bmpark” was my username while at MIT, where I really began to get into music (but I picked my username based on the first reason, namely that it was a form of my name, so if that’s what you were thinking you get partial credit).  “bmpark” is also the domain name of this website.  So it all fits together.

Back in the Swing of Things

I could say the delay has been because of all the snow, but that would just be an excuse... like using the previous part of this sentence as an excuse to post an awesome satellite image of a major snowstorm last month...  Photo by NOAA (www.noaa.gov)

So a whole semester has passed since my last blog entry.  Lots of things have happened since then (as I would hope to be the case for anyone in a five-month period); undoubtedly the most exciting event during that span has been getting engaged.  Let’s just say that If I had won the lottery (which would of course required getting a ticket in the first place), that would have easily ranked second.

Now that I have a semester under my belt (hard to believe that that represents a quarter of the degree program), I feel--as this post’s title suggests--back in the swing of things.  Not that I was sitting around doing nothing last semester, but now I’m more in line with my goal of composing on a regular basis.  To be honest it’s not yet entirely on a daily basis, but I do feel like it is more of a routine, as it should be for any aspiring composer.

As of yesterday, I have completed three new pieces: a piano trio (violin, cello, & piano), Daybreak; a saxophone duet, Birth of a Loaf: From Dough to Crust (more on that in a moment); and a choral work, Nishmat (more on that in two moments).