Travis J. Weller

Where did all this music come from? My role as a composer has become an integral component of my philosophy and my daily walk as a music educator.  Since my time as an undergraduate student I have always held an interest in arranging and composition for instrumental ensembles, but after taking my first teaching position I found my duties did not allow me to devote the proper time to this art. I found myself often envious of colleagues who had directed or played in a group in the evenings or on weekends. They had a great outlet to feed and nourish the musicians inside. Read more…

Four very short weeks ago, the band program at Mercer took a big leap as we started our year with a unit on chamber music that culminated in our Fall Chamber Recital.  Over twenty different selections were presented in the recital ranging from Handel, Haydn, and Mozart to Sousa, and John Williams.  You can read a full copy of the program notes and performance order by clicking here (a pdf will open in a new window (student names for security reasons have been removed, but instrumentation is identified).  During the next week, all 150 students in the band program will be taking a survey (created by Google Docs) on their chamber music experience.  The statements which the students are asked to respond to were created by some of my colleagues at Grove City College, Thiel College, Westminster College, and Slippery Rock University.  The students will use a Likert scale to respond to 16 different statements related to their chamber music performance in addition to the usual demographic information (gender, grade, ensemble).

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As another year is about to start, I am taking a big leap with my ensembles at Mercer into a much smaller room. Our first public performance this year will involve all instrumental students in grades 7-12 performing in a chamber recital in late September.  In past years, I have only involved the Wind Ensemble students at Mercer in the preparation of this music for the chamber recital.  The more I have involved  these students in the study and performance of chamber music, the more improvement that takes place in their executive skills, and in their ability to analyze their work, critique their own and their peer’s performance, and begin to develop some comprehensive musicianship.  Educators are starting to look at their large ensembles differently, with an eye and ear (appropriately) towards how they can continue to make their elective ensemble a viable and interesting offering among the school curriculum.  I do think we should be examining the structure of the big three so that we can make it more relevant in the lives of our students who enroll (VanZandt, 2001).  Let’s be honest – how many instrumentalists have graduated from our programs and decided on a long weekend they were going to invite 37 good friends over just so they could play First Suite by Holst? How many of those same students could meet with 4 to 5 other students and play some chamber works for public performance or just the joy of playing much easier? If we are committed to helping students build a life-long relationship with music, then chamber music may offer a viable avenue to go down to keep students connected to the instrument they spend 8 years learning in our programs.

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Though living in the Northeast, the one thing I enjoy about January and February – besides Pitt basketball playing conference games in the Big East – is getting the chance to just teach.  Nothing pressing, no standardized tests on the immediate horizon, the students have returned refreshed from break, and there is plenty of fertile ground to plant some good musical seeds.  This week my Wind Ensemble began receiving music for our chamber recital in mid-March.  Now in addition to the music for our concert “A Night at the Opera” on March 4^th, they will be breaking out into some small group work at least twice each week.  The more I do chamber music with my students, the more good things I see happen in their performance skills, and in their ability to analyze their work, critique their own and their peer’s performance, and begin to develop some comprehensive musicianship. Read more…

So the artists work is now starting to roll in – between final rehearsals for our “Fright Night” Concert and (surprise!) getting a touch with the flu, we had a couple week hiatus from our composition work.  I sat down today with a number of the students to listen to their 2^nd assignment: an 8 measure duet with percussion accompaniment.

Similar to the first assignment, they were given very specific guidelines to govern the creative process.  As they are writing 2 parts for their instrument, there were a couple of minor changes that would hopefully assist them. For example, the assignment due during tomorrow’s rehearsal used the following guidelines:

1) B-flat concert and Common Time
2) 8 measures in length.
3) Assigned notes per measure (notes listed in concert pitch)

m.1                        m.2                        m.3                        m.4
(B^b, D, F)             (E^b, G, B^b)            (C, E^b, G)                  (F,A,C)

m.5                        m.6                        m.7                        m.8
(G,B^b,D)            (C, E^b, G)             (F,A,C)                   (B^b, D, F)

The one thing I discovered is that I had to remind them frequently that there note choices for the harmony line were the same as the melody line.  In a couple of instances, we had some definite tension in the sound between the lines, but nothing that Stravinsky would say “wouldn’t work”.  In addition to the notes listed above, they may choose to use one beat of non-assigned notes per measure (For example, in measure 1 they could utilize an E^b or G as long as it does not exceed one and a half beats within the measure).

4) The Winds may use any of the following note values so long as it equals four beats:

The percussion may use any of the following note values for the snare drum part as long as it equals four beats:

After the winds finished composing, they would sit down with a partner and perform the duet for a percussionist.  After hearing the composition a couple of time, the percussionist would begin constructing a percussion part consisting of two different instruments.  While most used snare and bass, a couple of students chose to use triangle, tambourine, and woodblock to accompany the winds to which they were assigned.

Again though it was optional, students were encouraged to begin including expressive elements within their melody including varying dynamic levels (piano through forte), accents, slurs, and also make use of crescendos and decrescendos.

My rule of “If you write it, you better be able to play it” definitely clicked with a couple of students.  After playing through their initial melody sketch two different students looked at me and said “That’s not what I wanted at all.”  A couple more didn’t realize the awkwardness of what they wrote until they tried performing it – one clarinet in particular has new appreciation for going over the break!

One of the big concerns is evaluating each composition.  My biggest concern is not to pass artistic judgment, but find a way to evaluate their music.  There are some objective items that can be assessed, but also a number of subject ideas that may not fit so neatly into the assessment process.  For that reason, I am using a rating scale to show the students where they are standing with the assignment.

Tuesday will be a mini-recital during band periods with the students.  I am in the process of developing a check list so they can do peer critique of the compositions they hear. Our next assignment on which we will embark will be asking the students to compose in 12 bar blues form.