Travis J. Weller

Some quick reflective thoughts as 2011 closes, and 2012 begins from my small corner of the podium: Read more…

Thank you friends and colleagues for your patience and support over the last four years. It has been a long process to be sure, but I am pleased to announce that Journey to the Prairie is now available from Manhattan Beach Music. It may be ordered direct from MBM or you can order from JW Pepper as well.

Journey to the Prairie was written in one night – I couldn’t turn off the sounds. As Quincy says transitional tasks can be very helpful to develop material, and my wife couldn’t be happier that evening as I continued mopping, sweeping, and cleaning the house. I finished the piece at 3 a.m. that December morning, printed parts and had the wind ensemble at my school perform the first and only draft. I was excited to see this piece come to life, but discouraged as it was passed over by 3 other publishers. With nothing to lose, I entered it in the 2nd Annual Ticheli Competition.

Now some 5 years later the piece is available. My thanks to Dr. Arnold at Grove City College who provided the recording for the contest (it is also posted on my compositions page). I hope this piece might be useful to your ensemble in the coming months.

The recent Holiday concert which the students at Mercer presented was really well done, and as their teacher I am especially proud of their efforts over the past two months. There were some very traditional settings like “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and “Winter Wonderland” (both older arrangements by Jerry Nowak), mixed in with some newer and interesting settings of familiar Christmas carols like “Hey Man Christmas Swings!” by Larry Clark, “Passacaglia on an English Carol” by Robert Longfield, and “Bell Carol ala Big Band” by Rob Romeyn. I have to give full credit to Michael Worthy at Ole Miss for the moment that took the audience’s breath away and brought tears to the eyes of many moms. During the Middle School Band’s performance of “Christmas Time Is Here” (from A Charlie Brown Christmas, arranged by Michael Sweeney), we played a pre-recorded audio clip of each senior band member in the wind ensemble and concert band wishing their parents Merry Christmas, sharing a Christmas wish, or thanking them for all their support through the years. Michael shared the idea at the Midwest clinic last year, and it worked really well. Read more…

Two new works are now up on my compositions page. Yankee Overture, recorded by the GCC Wind Ensemble, and Romance for Winds, recorded by the Westminster College Wind Ensemble are both under publication review. Yankee Overture is a rousing concert opener based upon the folk song “Yankee Doodle”. “Romance for Winds” is a bit of a departure from some of my other songs stylistically, but pretty true to my orchestration tendencies. It is dedicated to my wife Beth, who without her love, support, and care, I could never have arrived at this point in my life. My thanks also to Dr. Arnold at GCC and Dr. Greig at Westminster – I appreciate their willingness to read and record this music with their students and making the recordings available. Enjoy!

Since May of 2011 I have been preparing for the last week of my life, and I still did not feel ready. With all course work complete at Kent State University, the next major hurdle in front of me towards a doctoral degree in music education were candidacy exams. On Wednesday & Thursday (10/26 & 27) I wrote for a combined total of 12 hours answering questions related to music education, music and special education, music theory, and musicology related to American music. After completing on site writing at Kent, I completed two research papers at home: one a dissertation review, the other a review and critique of “educational” band literature (A surprising question to be offered for sure given my background, and that I have already written a little on the subject here and here). Read more…