Composer Roundtable No. 1

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THE COMPOSER ROUNDTABLE
No. 1 - March 2003
by Christopher M. Wright

I started the Composer Roundtable as a way of sharing new ideas with others engaged in the glorious adventure of writing music. On a Friday evening in March, my guests and I each presented a work on CD while the others followed along in the score.

My guests for the first Roundtable were:

Richard Christner
Member, Composers' Society of Montgomery County (CSMC) (Maryland).

Jonathan Matis
Director, Washington, D.C. Chapter
American Composers Forum (DC-ACF)

David Rubenstein
Visit his music website .

David is the winner of the 2003 Marmor Composition Award
sponsored by the Stanford University Department of Music
for the piece presented at the Roundtable - 'The Pripet Marshes'

To start things off, Rich Christner presented selections from his work 'Wheels of Progress', which was created on synthesizer. "I get a lot of benefit from hearing how others react to my music, to see what works and what does not," Rich said. "The feedback loop helps me refine how I write."

Rich is on to something important, the writing of music as a social process. George Gershwin used to try new things out on people at parties and made changes after hearing comments like, 'Gee, I don't know, George...'

Jon Matis brought his 1997 Saxophone Quartet, written in three movements for soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones. The second movement allows the players to improvise, so every performance is different. Improvisation was common in classical music in the 19th Century but no longer is so today.

Jon said that the third movement ('Fantasy on a Hymn Setting by Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav') was the easiest to write. The main theme starts off, then is imitated at different points in the other voices, setting up fugue-like counterpoint between the voices. Jon found he did not need much additional accompaniment. "The third movement practically wrote itself," he said. [View the score.]

Jewish roots also figure in the music of David Rubenstein. Close your eyes and you hear the humor and poignancy of Jewish klezmer music in David's award-winning work, 'The Pripet Marshes' for clarinet and strings. The melody line was of particular interest to me - starting off in four-beat measures each composed of four eighth notes followed by two sextuplets - a pattern that would never have occurred to me in a million years.

Finally, I presented my synthesizer work, 'Fantasia on a Poulenc Chorale' (listen to sound clip). People always surprise you with what they hear in your music. Jon commented on the short silences between the various sections, something I had included without much thought. But Jon said he appreciated the silences because it allowed the listener to rest and to follow the organization of the piece more easily. "Silence is sometimes as important as the music," he said.

Final Comments:

"I enjoyed hearing reactions and comments about my composition. I also liked hearing music by other composers with approaches and styles that are quite different from my own." - David

"It's a pleasure just to be able to hear newly created music and hear straight from the other composers what is really behind it. That's a dimension that you don't get in regular venues - concerts and such." - Rich

"I am always intensely interested in the how other composers execute the creative process, looking for hints to expand how I can compose as well."
- Rich

David, on winning the Marmor Award:
"I just received notification a week ago. I am sort of shell-shocked, to tell you the truth!"

Congratulations, David, and keep up the good work!

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THE COMPOSER ROUNDTABLE No. 1 - March 2003 by Christopher M. Wright

THE COMPOSER ROUNDTABLE
No. 1 - March 2003
by Christopher M. Wright