Ian Dicke has secrets, but not the scandalous kind. In this episode of Composer Quest, we talk about his tricks of the trade when it comes to structuring his compositions and developing musical ideas. Ian also shares his approach to teaching post-1940s art music, which usually only gets about a week of attention in undergraduate music programs.
In order to be more productive, composer Justin Merritt once tried polyphasic sleeping, meaning he slept only a couple hours per day. After countless hours of busyness, he finally came to the revelation that he just needed to feel bored to become inspired. In this episode of Composer Quest, Justin and I talk about how Buddhist philosophies have influenced his life as a composer, and he shares some great composition advice he gives to his students at St. Olaf. Justin also explains how he invented a unique system of creating scales and modulating, which he used in his beautiful piece "Lachryme" for string orchestra.
Student jazz players have likely come across the name Dean Sorenson - his jazz curriculum books have been published by Kjos music and played in schools across the globe. In my Composer Quest interview with Dean, I ask him about how he makes music fun and playable for younger jazz players. We also talk about the differences between improvising and composing.
I hereby challenge you to the 4th Composer Quest quest! We will be writing songs for a new Christmas musical, to be performed by the first, second, and third graders at KMS Elementary (in the rural Minnesota town of Murdock, MN). I wrote music for their Christmas musical last year, and it was a blast hearing my songs performed by these kids, who were so excited about it. Maia Hamann, from episode 10, teaches music at KMS, and she'll direct the musical. Her mom, Zita Hamann, taught at KMS Elementary for many years, and she has just written a fun story called Elfluenza.
MusicWorks MN Director Tim Cheesebrow (from Episode 19) is the mastermind behind the new Young Composer's Contest here in Minnesota. Two talented White Bear Lake composers were chosen as the winners. It's pretty impressive what these students were able to do with their string quartet pieces. In this special Composer Quest episode, Taylor Isberner and James Farrell share their insights for other young composers thinking about trying out this contest next year.
Dr. Mary Beth Huttlin is not only a talented composer and clarinetist, but she's also gifted perceptually. She has perfect pitch and a constant stream of melodies in her head to draw from. Mary Beth also experiences auditory-visual synesthesia, meaning she perceives colors when she hears music. In episode 24 of Composer Quest, Mary Beth talks with me about how these gifts affect the way she listens to and makes music. We also discuss why Bach is possibly the coolest composer ever.
In episode 18 of Composer Quest, electroacoustic composer Ted Moore enlightens us about coding music to interact with human performers. He also shares his ideas on choosing a musical form for your piece, like sonata form (ABA) or binary form (AB). We also talk some philosophy when I bring up Ted's piece "Eyes May Be Impaired," which he based on Plato's allegory of the cave.
In this episode, I talk with my girlfriend, Maia Hamann, about how she teaches her young students to compose music. She explains her strategy of breaking music down into individual elements, something all composers could benefit from. Maia also shares tips on composing for bassoon. And we get to hear about her unique experience studying Somali music.
Have you ever wanted to learn the basics of music composition? Audio production?
In an effort to get the Composer Quest podcast heard, I'm offering a free music composition or production lesson to one random Facebook fan and one random Twitter follower.