I recently completed a challenging commission. Maestro Pat Miles asked me to write a fanfare for his student orchestra at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. The occasion is his upcoming retirement after umpty-ump years of teaching horn players and building the orchestral program into its current formidable state. (Pat plans to stay on as conductor of the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra.) It is hard for me to write music without having a picture in my head, and I had a tough time envisioning what a retirement looks like. But then I remembered the large photo of Maestro Miles that hangs in the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra concert hall along with portraits of some of the section leaders. He’s wearing a proper tuxedo with tails, carrying a baton, and perched on the ultra-light racing bicycle he rides as a serious racer. That image of Pat is all I needed. Like that photograph, music can be deeply serious and light-hearted at the same time. The two-minute piece is scheduled for premiere in May. You can download the score and an MP3 of the synth track here.
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In Praise of Non-Broadcast
Young composers often ask me how to break into writing for film and television. One kind of work I advise them to pursue is a type I still enjoy doing myself: “industrials,” or non-broadcast films for corporate or nonprofit clients. I recently scored a piece on ethics for the Educational Testing Service; an exhibit piece for the Roosevelt Institute in Hyde Park, New York; and a labor of love by the director Cressandra Thibodeaux about a pair of art patrons in Houston, Texas.
The quality of these films is often very high. The directors are often very good. And, surprisingly, the music budget is sometimes bigger than it is on broadcast TV shows, which means more leeway to hire musicians for recording sessions. The trick to writing a successful score for these films is staying out of the way of the words. The right score will generally not have a prominent melody. It will be all about texture and pace. Films like these are a great training ground for any composer.
Twelveness
A few months ago, a friend told me a curious fact: In 1936, George Gershwin had a standing tennis date in Los Angeles with Arnold Schoenberg. Can you imagine a more incongruous pair? The seemingly effortless crowd pleaser, Gershwin, up against the cerebral Teutonic composer who probably would have been horrified if, during a performance of one of his challenging atonal works, the crowd had accidentally been pleased. I couldn’t get these two out of my mind, so while I was on vacation recently, I wrote a play about them. It’s not even a musical, though there’s incidental music in the script. The play is called Twelveness, after Schoenberg’s 12-tone serial technique, natch. It hasn’t hit Broadway yet…or off-Broadway…or off-off-Broadway…but stay tuned.
This Exists
I just finished scoring an unusual documentary by director David Hanrahan. The film, called This Exists, is about a Brazilian spiritual leader and teacher named Prem Baba. It was a novel project for me—a biography combined with something of a feature-length meditation. The music is incredibly spare: a combination of solo piano, solo cello, and Tibetan singing bowls. The film also features tracks from Ashana, a new-age singer from Arizona. This score was an exercise in restraint for me. At every dramatic moment, I had to dial everything back to the emotional level of Prem Baba’s quiet message and let the tranquility of the scene resonate.
Listening to Paintings
I recently completed the score for a documentary about the dark and quixotic artist Miriam Beerman, who is 91 years old. The film, Miriam Beerman: Expressing the Chaos, is a passion project by the director Jonathan Gruber. It was an incredible challenge to match the intensity of this under-appreciated painter’s vivid canvases while finding a way to illuminate her calm personality. To get this feeling of serenity within chaos, I chose a palette of essentially four instruments; piano, cello, vibes, and percussion—including the high keening sound of bowed crotales.
Mid-Century Mambo Premiere
On October 18, the Capital City Symphony under the baton of Maestra Victoria Gau will premiere my three-movement work Mid-Century Mambo. It’s an orchestral piece inspired by 1950s dance rhythms, including a mambo, of course, and some string-y, Percy-Faith-style pop. Luckily, Gau’s group has a rock-solid battery that includes a groovy bongo player.
The concert will be held at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, DC. It’s an all-American evening and I’m in illustrious company: the other two composers on the bill are Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copeland. I’ll be at the performance, so if you come, please say hello!
Gin Fizz Fandango Is Finished!
We’ve been in and out of the studio for a couple of years on this one, but Gin Fizz Fandango, my jazz band’s new CD, is ready for release. The title track on the album is an instrumental—and the title also refers to a cocktail dreamt up by Chaise Lounge’s resident bassist/mixologist, Pete Ostle. Naturally the CD also includes vocal numbers like “Tick Tock” that take advantage of our singer’s unique way with a melody and a story.
The CD release party is on September 26 at AMP by Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland. I couldn’t be prouder of this album or this band (from left in the photo): Gary Gregg on reeds, Joe Jackson on trombone, Tommy Barrick on drums, yours truly on piano and guitar, Marilyn Older on vocals and piano, and Pete on bass. I’m also tickled with the album cover, shot by Sarah Guroff and designed by Adriana Cordero.
Me and Miss Jones
I recently scored a commercial for Verizon’s FiOS that features the delightful comic actress Rashida Jones. Though the spot was only 15 seconds long—and only eight seconds of that was music—it was a puzzle to put together. The lyrics the agency provided were hilariously absurd: “Fun Things to Do During Buffering.” I came up with a melody and orchestration, writing the parts idiomatically out of habit, even though I had to use synth instruments, since the time frame did not allow me to hire human beings for the gig. Except for the vocalist, of course. Those lyrics! The singer, a jazz performer named Isabel Hernandez-Cata, was terrifically over-qualified. She came with an arena-sized voice, and I needed her to sound the way June Cleaver looked: pretty and bell-like and generic. It took all of my musical vocabulary to explain to her where to put the sound to bring it down to kitchen size. Luckily she was a quick study and gave me a spot-on performance. It feels silly to be proud of such a tiny piece of work, but sometimes it feels great to simply ply your craft.
Something at Stake
My tomato plant is rocking it. Yes—I only have one. My farming goals are modest. I am an urban creature and largely dedicated to living indoors where my piano and my guitars are. I don’t think I have the patience for adult-scale gardening. And I certainly do not have the shoes for it. But I am determined to become a new man this year. I even paid my taxes on time. If I can do that, I can do almost anything. So, the tomatoes. I watch. I water. And I will harvest when the time comes. This is the year where I become the productive old hippie that I envisioned myself becoming when I was 20.
I am also starting to write a really big and ambitious four-movement orchestral piece, on the road to becoming the composer I thought I would be when I was 20. It is nice to have a job where you can tackle your most daunting projects whenever the time seems right. I hope this summer you are watering your tomatoes and facing down some big, exciting challenges of your own.
Gia and Charlie: Record Release Party
The record is finished: one of my favorite vocalists, Gia Mora, performs some of my favorite compositions on the aptly titled Gia Mora Sings Charlie Barnett. We’re having a record release party on July 10 in Los Angeles at Room 5.
Gia is a dear friend and a constant source of amazement and inspiration to me. Since she moved to the West Coast a couple of years ago, her acting career has really taken off. She appeared on Castle recently, and she’ll be on True Detective on June 21. She also has a recurring role on a very, very clever PopTV comedy series called Impress Me. With all of that going on, she still has time to record music, rehearse and perform live shows, model, and volunteer with school-aged children as the coolest tutor ever. And she has one of the purest, most expressive soprano voices around. I’m proud of this collaboration and this album.